INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – With nine games left in the regular season, Scott Hillman’s enthusiasm for his team’s opportunity to make the post-season can’t be measured. Coming off a weekend that ended with a 4-2 win over the defending President’s Cup champion Texas Brahmas, Hillman’s Missouri Mavericks are in solid control their post-season destiny.
Scott Hillman
The Mavericks have won four straight and eight of their last 10 games to make the case that they deserve a chance to compete for a championship in their inaugural season.
They opened the month of February with a 5-4 home win over the Colorado Eagles, followed by three straight losses. Then an opportunity arose. Hillman acquired goaltender Charlie Effinger from the Allen Americans to fulfil a December trade that sent defenseman Sean Perkins to the Americans. Paired with Gerry Festa, who joined the team on January 12th, the Mavericks went on to win eight of their next nine games.
“ We really struggled between the pipes all year long until Gerry (Festa) got here and then getting Charlie at the trade deadline; all of a sudden, we feel like, every night we’ve got two great choices,” Hillman said. “They’ve both been playing extremely well and it couldn’t be timelier, because we couldn’t afford to lose any more games. The guys (now) have confidence that any night we have the chance to win the game no matter who we’re playing against.”
Charlie Effinger
In addition to changes made in net, the Mavericks have also made a couple of changes on the blue line, claiming Todd Paul off of waivers on February 1st and acquiring Mike Harr in a trade with Rio Grande Valley that sent Andrew Davis South. Paul has scored six points (2 G, 4 A, +1), including three assists against the Brahmas (his former team) in 12 games played.
Hillman also signed Toby Lafrance on February 5th, which has proven to be a good move as the second year forward has already tallied 14 points (4 G, 10 A, +3) in 12 games.
“It took a lot of changes to get guys that are all bought in to what we’re trying to accomplish as a first year team – that’s on the ice and off the ice,” Hillman said.
This brings us back to Hillman’s satisfaction with how things are starting to gel at this crucial time of the season.
Toby Lafrance
The Mavericks host the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees tonight at the Independence Events Center, where the team has enjoyed tremendous support from their fans in the greater Kansas City area. In fact, the Mavericks have the fourth highest attendance in the league, averaging 4,814 seats sold per game.
“We played three home games this last week and you couldn’t get a ticket on Saturday night,” Hillman said. “They had to release some extra tickets the day of the game; two days before the game it was already sold out. That’s after having a sold out building on Friday night and over 4,000 on Tuesday night.”
“We’re overwhelmed with the support,” Hillman said. “We’ve made some pretty good comebacks in the third period in our building and our fans have been a huge part of that. They give us energy when we don’t have it and we all feel like we’re in the luckiest place to play in minor league hockey.”
Contact the author/photographer at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com
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