The Odessa Jackalopes looked to bounce back following a disheartening 4-2 loss the night before against the Lone Star Brahmas.
The 1st period was a tight battle between both teams as they each exhibited their speed, physicality, and willingness to win. The Jacks, unlike last night, got out to a very fast start, generating multiple opportunities and matching the pace of the Brahmas. Neither team would find the back of the net in the 1st period, but the Jacks led the shots on goal category 8-6 and had two opportunities on the power play.
The 2nd period was more of the same, this time Lone Star had a majority of the opportunities as they doubled the Jacks shots on goal total in the 2nd period. However, superb goaltending from Quentin Sigurdson and the resilience from this Jacks team kept Lone Star off of the score sheet. Both teams would receive a power play in the 2nd period, yet be unsuccessful. The game would remain scoreless going into the 3rd period of play.
The 3rd period is where things really began to pick up. Just over two minutes in, Brahmas defenseman Zach Rizzo and Jacks forward Hunter Whisenand would be tied up in the Brahmas zone. Rizzo dropped the gloves and Whisenand followed suit. Before you knew it the fight was over, as Whisenand landed two hard right hooks to Rizzo and knocked him down to the ice. That riled up the 2,340 people in the stands. Just a couple of minutes later, the Jacks would have to dig deep and kill off an extended 5 on 3. Sigurdson would come up with some key saves and the Jackalopes would come up with some key blocked shots, as the Jacks faithful got behind them, and they were able to kill it off. Toward the midway point of the 3rd period was where the deadlock was broken. Nick Metelkin located a loose puck behind the net, got inside position, and wrapped the puck around the pad of Brahmas goaltender Jack Wieneke. This made it a 1-0 lead in favor of the Jacks with 9:28 to go in the game. Toward the last four minutes is where the Brahmas really turned the pressure on. They kept the pressure on the Jackalopes and a shot came in from Bryce Ingles and deflecting the puck toward the net was Justin Kerr as it found its way in the back of the net. This tied the game at 1 with 2:17 to go in the 3rd period. Neither team would find the back of the net, resulting in an overtime period.
The Brahmas won the opening faceoff in overtime and took that to their advantage. David Skuhrovec skated into the offensive zone with fellow forward Ivan Zadvernyuk, they switched places after crossing the blue line, Skuhrovec hit Zadvernyuk with a tape-to-tape backdoor pass for the tap in, just 28 seconds into overtime. This gave the Brahmas the win, and the extra point.
The Jacks fall to 16-20-6 on the season with their next game being Thursday, February 8th, vs. New Mexico @ 7:15 P.M. You can listen to the voice of the Jacks, Brandon Luisi, on NAHLTV and YouTube.