The Odessa Jackalopes, following a split weekend with the Colorado Grit, took on the Shreveport MudBugs on the road Friday Evening.
The first period saw a dominant display from the MudBugs in terms of offense as they outshot the Jacks 13-7. However it was the Jacks on the power play that struck first. At the 14:44 mark of the 1st period, Teddy Manlove’s stick was slashed out of his hands by MudBugs forward Carter McKay, sending him to the box for 2 minutes. Toward the 2nd half of the power play a puck came in from the point, deflected onto the stick of Manlove and he buried the backhand shot into the back of the net. This gave the Jacks an important 1-0 lead, which they would take into the intermission.
The 2nd period, the MudBugs continued their pressure in the offensive zone. They, once again, outshot the Jacks 16-10 in that period, pinning Odessa in their own zone for minutes at a time. Toward the end of the 2nd period John Wojciechoski would sit in the box after tripping a MudBug in front of the net. Following the trend from last week however, the special teams remained strong and kept the puck out of the back of the net. Going into the 3rd period, the score still remained 1-0 in favor of the Jacks.
The 3rd period was where the Jacks seemed to find their stride as the shots on goal were pretty even, 8-7 in favor of the Jacks. Down to under five minutes to play in the 3rd period, the MudBugs turned the puck over on an errant pass leaving Kowin Belsterling alone in between the hash marks, and he fired it off the pad of MudBugs goaltender Eliot Seguin-Lescarbeau, right on the doorstep was Tommy Wright who fired one home, giving the Jacks the all important insurance goal. However, it isn’t a 3rd period without some drama. With 2:13 remaining in the 3rd period the Jacks would commit another penalty. With the goalie pulled this gave the MudBugs a 6 on 4 advantage. A combination of great shot blocking, good goaltending, and quick clears, gave the Jacks the strength to kill it off and Quentin Sigurdson notched his 2nd shutout of the season with a 2-0 victory.
Following the contest, Jacks Head Coach Scott Deur commented on Sigurdson’s rockstar performance, “Yeah, he kept us around in the 1st and 2nd periods, gave us a chance to win, and then I thought in the 3rd period, we got back to our what our M.O. is and that’s keeping the game simple. I thought we controlled pretty much the whole 3rd period, about 80-85% of the time we were in control. Without the backing of Q and his performance in the first two periods, for sure, that game could’ve been completely different”
The Jacks improve to 8-9-2 (18pts) on the season, while the MudBugs fall to 11-7-1 (23pts). The next Jacks game is tomorrow, Saturday, November 18th at 7:11 P.M. CDT. You can catch all Jacks games on NAHLTV and a free audio only broadcast on YouTube.
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!