The Odessa Jackalopes faced off against the El Paso Rhinos at the Ector County Coliseum, Friday night, in front of a nearly 1,700 person home crowd.
The 1st period went very well for the Jacks, thanks in large part to an aggressive forecheck in the El Paso zone. In doing this the Jacks were able to force numerous turnovers and turn them into scoring opportunities. One of those opportunities came when Tommy Wright was along the far half wall, he then spun away from pressure, skated into the faceoff circle and ripped one home glove side on El Paso goaltender Kael DePape. That would be the only goal of the 1st period and the Jacks would take the 1-0 lead into the 1st intermission. That period the Rhinos outshot the Jacks 9-7 and both teams were unsuccessful on the man advantage as they both had one power play.
The 2nd period was much of the same for the Jacks as the forecheck was still relentless. At the 6:34 mark of the 2nd period, John Wojciechowski held the puck in at the line off of a Rhino clearing attempt, threw one toward the net, and Matvey Ivanov was cutting through the slot and he deflected it over the glove of DePape, extending the Jacks lead to 2-0. Odessa would once again have a man advantage in the 2nd period, however, they did not score, making them 0-2 on the night. El Paso would outshoot the Jacks 12-9 in that period, however, they didn’t find the scoresheet as the Jacks took the two-goal lead into the locker room.
The 3rd period was a tight, defensive battle. El Paso would get a golden opportunity as they received an early power play in the 3rd period, but the Jacks penalty kill, after a rough weekend, came back strong and held the Rhinos power play off the board. The Rhinos would not go quietly into the night, as in the final five minutes, Eddie Shepler, shook free from the defender, walked parallel to the goal line and fired one home past Quentin Sigurdson, making it a one goal contest. The Rhinos pulled their goalie late, following a timeout with 1:30 to go. It was to no avail, as the Jackalopes defense sacrificed everything on the line to get in the shooting lanes and block shots in front of the net. The final buzzer sounded and the Jacks skated away with the two points.
Jacks Head Coach Scott Deur commented in the postgame about getting a full sixty-minute effort from his squad this evening, “I thought we put together a pretty good sixty minutes. I thought all four lines were really going, our defense was keeping it pretty simple. Just coming out with the result 2-1, now we gotta back it up and see if we can’t win a couple in a row here.”
The Jacks improve to 10-10-4 (24 pts) while the Rhinos fall to 14-9-2 (30 pts) on the season. The next contest is tomorrow, Saturday, December 2nd @ 7:15 P.M. You can catch all Jacks games on NAHLTV and a free audio only version on the Odessa Jackalopes YouTube page.
Reminder Jacks fans single game tickets are on sale and season ticket packages are still available. You can find them online or call 432-552-7825 and Tania can help you out. Come be a part of the Jacks family as we celebrate 27 continuous years of hockey in Odessa!