Game No. 38 - Bucks at RiverKings

Well, so much for that.

The Bucks really seemed confident that what they had done in their win over the Texas Brahmas on Wednesday would propel them to some wins this weekend, but it appears that they forgot showing up for tonight's game was part of the equation.

As the headline for Bryan Benway's press release states, a poor start doomed the team, as did some penalties that I can't guarantee were the Bucks' own fault considering Tom Steinel was officiating.

I was actually quite surprised when I checked the score to find it was 5-1 during the second intermission. I thought the win the other night had taught these guys something, but apparently they took it to mean starting off the wrong way can be fixed. Obviously, their attempts tonight were too little, too late.

With the loss, the Bucks dropped to 22-12-4 (48 points). That, coupled with the Brahmas' 4-3 win over the Amarillo Gorillas brought the Bucks to a season-high eight points out of first place in the Southeast Division. On top of that, the Brahmas play again tomorrow when they host the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees, which gives them another opportunity to add to their lead.

As it stands, the Brahmas are 26-10-4 (56 pts.) but have played two more games than the Bucks and will make it three tomorrow.

The Killer Bees completed an impressive feat of their own tonight, beating the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs 4-1 and shutting them out other than Brett Smith's penalty shot goal.

With that win, the Killer Bees improved to 19-16-4 (42 pts.), thus keeping their lead for third place in the division intact at four points.

They weren't able to add to it, as the Corpus Christi IceRays also won, 4-2 against the New Mexico Scorpions. The IceRays are now 17-18-4 (38 pts.).

As you may have noticed, that means the Killer Bees are only six points behind the Bucks right now, so tomorrow's game between the Brahmas and Killer Bees is kind of a lose-lose situation for the Bucks.

If the Brahmas win, they move to 10 points ahead of the Bucks in the standings. But, if the Killer Bees win, they'll be only four points behind the Bucks with a game between the two teams at Dodge Arena looming. And, of course, the Bucks have yet to win at Dodge Arena this season.

Additionally, the Bucks will be playing the Mudbugs on the road in their only game between now and then, and they have never won at the CenturyTel Center during the regular season in franchise history.

Funny how that works, isn't it? They won their second President's Cup title on the Mudbugs' ice but have never been able to win there when the pressure isn't quite as intense. We'll see if they can step it up in the fairly dire situation they're in right now.

Of course, the Bucks are 1-6-3 in their last 10 road games, so expecting them to snap that slump against a team like the Mudbugs is slightly unrealistic. But we'll see what happens.

I'm leaving in a few hours to fly to Phoenix, but as you may have noticed, I'm a bit of a workaholic, so I will be updating while I'm away. Don't expect much before 10 p.m. or so on any given day, though, unless anything exceptionally exciting happens. Well, I'll probably post the score from that Brahmas-Killer Bees game when it ends, but other than that...

Tonight's CHL Scores: Brahmas 4, Gorillas 3; Killer Bees 4, Mudbugs 1; RiverKings 5, Bucks 3; Jackalopes 6, Oilers 1; Thunder 5, Blazers 2; Eagles 6, Sundogs 1; Rage 4, Rush 0; IceRays 4, Scorpions 2.

Oh, and in case any of you care about all the NHL All-Star SuperSkills jazz, you can read all about it at NHL.com or watch the events here. I'd love to see a puck going 105.4 miles per hour in person, haha. Chara is a beast. Congrats to Geno for that accuracy win. Sucks that Sid couldn't compete in the Breakaway Challenge, though; he can do some really neat tricks (watch them all if you're bored; seriously awesome stuff).