Yes, they only scored one goal; yes, they beat a team whose coach was "embarrassed" by his players' performance; and yes, there were still defensive lapses.
But, when it came down to it, the Bucks were able to win at Dodge Arena for the first time this season, holding the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees scoreless for their first shutout of the season and proving that Coach Ruskowski had finally gotten through to them.
Apparently this was the most boring game ever in the history of the universe, but I have a hard time finding hockey boring, and I was intrigued by the way a couple of things played out.
The Bucks were actually driving to the net and blocking shots and battling in the corners, all those little things that they have failed to do in losses this season.
And, of course, the goaltending was a huge part of the equation, as it usually has in wins this season. Sebastien Centomo was tested a lot more than Killer Bees goalie Christian Boucher and stood up to all of those tests to earn his first shutout with the Bucks, which has been a long time coming.
My story was obviously a little more focused on the importance of the win and what led the Bucks to that point than Centomo's performance, so my apologies to him for not playing up that shutout a little more. Especially in the situation that he's in without a backup (No offense to Matt Brayfield!), stepping up like that was key.
The Bucks didn't really get a heck of a lot of chances, but this time, they tried to take advantage of every one they got. Bobby Russell's goal was a solid shot on net, but it could easily have been stopped. In fact, I was quite surprised that it wasn't, and I think he was, too.
After the game, he and Ruskowski both mentioned that one of the team's main focal points this weekend is just going to be shooting the puck as much as possible because with Jeff Bes out of the lineup, they need to try to score at any chance they get, whether it's a particularly good one or not.
Russell was very honest about the way the individual meetings played out on Wednesday, noting that Ruskowski put all the cards on the table and told everyone exactly what they need to do this weekend to stick around.
Ruskowski said he did see the guys stepping up in the areas which he had addressed, but of course, last night only means so much. Tonight is a whole new story, and everyone is going to have to play the way he expects.
The Bucks are 5-0-0 against the Killer Bees at the LEC this season, but after last night's loss, the Killer Bees are probably going to come into this one a little bitter and intense. If not, then heads will be rolling in that dressing room by the end of the night.
Since I am actually at my desk for a couple of hours for the first time in a while, I guess now's as good a time as any to share some leftover quotes! These are kind of all over the place but will hopefully give you a feel for what Ruskowski has been thinking lately. Up until the stuff about last night's game, everything is from the pregame chat I had with him yesterday.
Ruskowski on last Saturday's 5-3 loss to the Mississippi RiverKings:
"In my honest opinion, the first two goals were very soft goals, and we could not recuperate from that. It just seemed like everything just got bigger and bigger and we had problems all over the place after that. We're a team that when things go well, we play well, but when things start to go not the way we planned it, we have a tendency not to adapt to what we should be doing. We're getting better at it, but we're still not there yet, so that was a huge factor in us not playing well."
On Monday's 4-3 loss to the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs:
"We played very well. In the first period, we played very well, went up 1-0, 2-0...but then we scored three goals for them. Puck off the stick, off the pad and in, then off one of our guys and right in the net, and then, of course, the infamous open netter on the power play. But we played well. I was looking at the tape, and I thought we made our mistakes - we're not perfect - but I thought we played pretty well. Even though I hate losing, and I kind of snapped on the bus, I looked at the tape and I thought the guys played hard, and that's all we can ask for. Hopefully things will turn around and those kind of breaks will go for us instead of against us in the near future."
On the team's recent road struggles:
"It's very disturbing. We've not gone through this in six years, seven years, and now we're going through it, and it's disturbing because we have to get back on board. We have to get into a situation where we start putting some wins together. No ifs ands or buts, it's a must. We have to get the wins back together again, and we have to play hockey the way the Bucks can play hockey. Hopefully with a couple breaks here and there and the Lord blessing us, we'll get back on track."
On what he wants to see this weekend:
"I'm looking for intensity, I'm looking for hard work, I'm looking for heart, I'm looking for productivity and people that want to win, who sacrifice and do what they have to do to be successful."
On needing to finally win at the Dodge last night:
"It's time to change things up. It's time for us to win, and it's time for us to play consistent hockey on the road and at home. The time is now. We can't wait any longer."
On Ryan Gibb:
"I thought he played great. He was a quiet kid, did his job, never a problem. I thought he played tremendous for me. But, again, you have to give up something to get something back. I knew the kid had a bright future ahead of him. He's going to be a starter in New Mexico, which is what he wanted to be anyway. Centomo's here, and Centomo's going to be our starter, so it gives him the opportunity to be in games more, and it gives us an opportunity to get a quality forward in here to do the job for us.
On Mitch Stephens:
With Bes going down, we needed somebody to come in here and give us a shot in the arm and rejuvenate us. I didn't see him as much as I wanted to; only saw him once this year, and we had a pretty good game against that team. He's got great hands, he skates well, and he has good vision of the ice - that's my assessment of him, and that's what we need. He's a great passer, and that's something we desperately need, so hopefully it's infectious and everybody catches that."
On Vincent Zaore-Vanie's first two games back:
"I was pretty impressed just for being off as long as he was, almost two months, and he got right in there and fought a guy. He's got to play physical and make the game simple; when he plays physical and makes the game simple, then he's effective, and that's what I want to see from him."
On the goalie situation:
"I'm hoping it'll happen the next couple days. It's got to happen the next couple days. We're going to see how Centomo feels and read it from there."
On last night's win:
"It was huge. If we lose tonight, we're only four points ahead of them, and all of a sudden the pressure's back on us. It was a huge win, no question about it. To come up with a 1-0...they had some good chances to score, and we had some blocks or would get a stick on it or Centomo would make the save. He played very, very well tonight. It was that one goal that made the difference. We talked about; we said that if we have to win 1-0 or 2-1, we're going to have to do that without Jeff in there scoring for us. This hopefully was a game that we can build on. We still didn't play as well as we should, but it was a situation where hopefully it's a stepping stone to what we have to do."
On the overall performance:
"I thought it wasn't bad. I still think defensively we've got to get a little bit stronger and a little bit better and give them no chances. I'd still like for us to move the puck a little better than what we did. There are times we move the puck really well, and when we move the puck really well, we seem like what I want. But we have to do that not on a one-time basis or a couple-time basis; we have to do that on a full-time basis."
On the effects of the individual meetings:
"I saw some guys playing a different type of game, which I like to see. I'm hoping that it was the start of something that they'll do the things that I want them to do and do them to the best of their ability, success will follow us. We'll find out tomorrow and Saturday whether that's going to be true or not."
On Russell's goal:
"I keep on telling him that he's got a really good shot. He likes to play right wing, but we don't have that spot for him, so he's had to play center or left side. Now he's played left side, right side, center ice, so we just tell him to shoot. He's got a really good shot, and we tell the guys if they have a chance, shoot. If you have a free shot, shoot, shoot, get it to the net, get it to the net. Thank God, I think he blessed us today, for that goal. It was right under the crossbar; it was a tremendous shot, and we'll take it."
On tonight's game:
"Again, it's a must game for us. We have to win as many games as we can to get the snowball rolling. It will be a test, just like today. These guys play as well on the road as they do at home, so we can't take anything for granted."
On Stephens' first game as a Buck:
"I have to take my hat off to him. I thought he played pretty well under the circumstances. He drove for a day and a half, he didn't have any pregame sleep at all, I don't think he even had a good meal. He jumped straight on the bus and slept for maybe an hour then played in the game. It's very tough to do that, drive for 16 hours then not get a chance to practice with your teammates, but I see the potential. He won some pretty good draws for us, so that's a sore spot we've been having and with that, he's a huge asset for us."
Russell on the difference between last night and the losses at the Dodge:
"I don't know. We've had some games where we've played well and just didn't get the chances or give up a goal late in the game. Luckily tonight Sebastien played really well, and we were lucky enough to get a goal halfway through the period and put it away."
On his goal:
"I think Dixie (Jason Dixon) made a nice play to get it to me, and I just put it on net. Terry said to shoot the puck lots tonight, so I threw it on net, and we were lucky enough to get a goal out of it."
On driving to the net:
"That was definitely something that we wanted to do. What little practice we had this week, that was definitely something we worked on, having that middle guy drive to the net. Good things happen when drive to the net and shoot the puck, so that's definitely something we wanted to do tonight."
On getting the win:
"It was huge, not just to put distance between us and them, but from here on out, there's no little game. Every game is huge for us right now. We've got to chase down Texas, and we've also got to put distance between us and Rio."
On tonight and tomorrow's games:
"This is a huge weekend for us. It's our turnaround weekend. It's the point in the season where we've got a lot of division rivals coming up, and we've got to buckle down and we've got to get the points now. We've seemed to squander a lot of points in the past 10 or 12 games, and we had some meetings this week, and we're all trying to get on the same page and get some wins. It's do or die for us right now or else there's going to be changes.
On the meetings:
"For the meetings we had, he didn't lie to anybody. He told them exactly what he wants, exactly what they're not doing and exactly what they're doing. He did the same with me, and it wasn't pleasant, but you know what, he's right. He was right in every one of the meetings, and it was a wakeup call for everybody. We kind of got complacent there, and with Besser out, we've got to buckle down. That's when good teams come together, when they have their better players out. Besser's out tonight, and we came away with a 1-0 win."
Some of those were actually in my story, but I was typing away and didn't feel like cutting stuff.
Apparently the Killer Bees' bus, which caught on fire last week, has had some issues on the way up here, but hopefully the game will be able to start on time.
Tonight's other games involving Southeast Division teams have the first-place Texas Brahmas hosting the Mississippi RiverKings and the last-place Corpus Christi IceRays at the Odessa Jackalopes.
Heading into tonight, the Brahmas (28-10-4, 60 points) lead the Bucks (23-13-4, 50 pts.) by 10 points, while the Bucks lead the Killer Bees (19-18-4, 42 pts.) by eight and the Killer Bees lead the IceRays (17-20-4, 38 pts.) by four.
The IceRays are one point behind the Arizona Sundogs (18-21-3, 39 pts.) for the Southern Conference's final playoff spot but have one game in hand, as the Bucks have two on the Brahmas.
Brian Sandalow stuck with the status quo (and the standings) for his Southeast Division rankings this week and appears to have just posted a bit more on Chris Brooks' reaction to last night's game. From a distance, I thought he was wearing jeans, but if Brian says black slacks, I'll believe him.
But anyway, another game of note tonight would be the New Mexico Scorpions at the Colorado Eagles, as Gibb will be making his first start for the Scorps. Oh, and the Penguins are playing at the Devils with some of my high school friends in attendance, lucky bums. Don't worry; I know that's only notable for me.
The goalies at the LEC will be Centomo and Boucher just like last night at the Dodge, and Erick Lizon will be a scratch once again, as will the Killer Bees' Trevor Weisgerber. We'll see whether or not newbie/new Bee and fellow BU alum Dan McGoff hits the ice for them tonight yet or not.
I just remembered that I had promised to blog about prior games previously, but now I can't even remember which ones other than the Coyotes-Ducks game I went to in Phoenix on Tuesday night, which was neat. The arena feels oddly massive, even for an NHL team, but it's niceand somehow in the middle of a little shopping complex and right next to the University of Phoenix Stadium. Plus, just being in the same building as Wayne Gretzky is cool in my book.
Now that I have provided enough text to make you dizzy and Bryan Benway even more jealous about the incredibly massive amounts of free time I have to blog (ha), I guess I'll head over to the LEC.
But, before I go, here are Benway's preview for tonight and the Pointstreak pre-game notes.
UPDATE: Tonight's game has been delayed due to the aforementioned Killer Bee bus troubles; I'm not sure how much of a delay we're talking, but that is definitely no good considering 7:30 games are usually cutting it close to deadline even without delays.
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