Semifinal Game No. 1

First Period: As expected, Sebastien Centomo and Alexandre Vincent are tonight's starting goaltenders. ... Bobby Russell went off for holding at 3:39 to give the Jackalopes the game's first power play. ... In spite of the Jackalopes having the only power play so far, the Bucks are outshooting them 4-3 as of eight minutes into the game. ... Shawn Snider is headed off for high sticking at 10:05 to give the Jackalopes' prolific power play its second chance of the night. ... Still knotted at zero at the end of that one, with shots now even at five. ... After saying they needed to stay disciplined to keep the Jackalopes off the power play, the Bucks seem to be doing the exact opposite, and Adam Rivet is going to the box for hooking now at 15:31. ... Luckily for the Bucks, the penalty kill has been up to the challenge, as that advantage has left the Jackalopes 0-for-3. ... The Bucks will finally get their first advantage with 33 seconds left in the period, as Dominic Leveille has been called for hooking. ... Just as I was planning to type that the period had ended, I refreshed the page to find that Darryl Smith has given the Bucks a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal with eight seconds to go in the opening stanza. Serge Dube and Brent Cullaton had the assists. ... And 1-0 is how the period will end. Jackalopes lead 8-7 on shots, but the Bucks lead where it counts and are 1-for-1 on the power play while holding the Jackalopes 0-for-3. On paper, looks like a fairly well-played 20 minutes. ... Okay, shots are actually even at nine.

Second Period: Sixteen seconds into this one, Igor Agarunov is going off for high sticking. Power play No. 4 for the Jackalopes. ... Make that a 5-on-3 for 18 seconds, as Vincent Zaore-Vanie has been called for hooking at 1:58. ... Impressively enough, the Bucks killed off that nearly four-minute advantage to keep their 1-0 lead. ... Kory Karlander's headed to the box for holding at 5:21 to give the Bucks their second power-play chance. ... Nothing doing on that one, at least goal-wise. ... Bucks are being outshot like crazy this period, but Centomo is keeping their lead intact as of the halfway point. ... Colin Circelli is getting some time in the sin bin for hooking at 12:28 for hooking to give the Bucks their second power play of the period and third of the night. ... And they have taken advantage of it 20 seconds in with Russell scoring on assists from Rick Kozak and Ryan Salvis. Bucks lead 2-0. ... And now the Bucks get another chance as Russ Moyer has been called for hooking at 15:56. ... The Jackalopes will get another of their own soon with Alex Goupil going off for slashing at 17:03 to make it 4-on-4 for a bit, then a Jackalopes' power play for 1:07. ... The period will end with the Bucks leading 2-0. Jackalopes up 20-14 on shots. ... I was wondering where all the rough stuff had gone in this one, but James Hiebert and Phillippe Plant each took roughing penalties at the end of that one, so it'll be 4-on-4 to start the third.

Third Period: I got distracted by softball phone calls for a while, then refreshed the page to find the game tied 2-2. The Jackalopes scored two even-strength goals within a matter of minutes. Colin Circelli went first just 41 seconds into the period on assists from CHL MVP Sebastien Thinel and Russ Moyer, then Dave Van Drunen scored at 3:54 on assists from Kenny Bernard and Leveille. Bernard had taken an interference call at 1:33 but apparently got out of the box just in time to set up the second goal. ... Dube has been called for hooking at 9:51 to give the Jackalopes a power-play chance. ... The Bucks are getting outshot by quite a bit again in this one, but those two goals are all the Jackalopes have been able to get so far. ... Looks like this one is headed to OT, for which I blame Bryan Benway, who asked me this week how late we'd wait for his story before sending the paper without it if the game went late. Dangit, Bryan!

Overtime: Not much going on that I can tell from Pointstreak, and it's starting to reach panic time in the office, so I'm sorry if I miss the game-winner or something along those lines. ... I take that back, because it came as I was still staring at my computer screen. Smith made his professional playoffs debut with a splash, just as he did with the regular season, scoring one regulation goal and the OT game-winner. Hiebert and Agarunov assisted on the goal, which came at 8:14 in the OT period.

Game Over: Bucks win 3-2 in overtime, take a 1-0 series lead into Game 2 at the Ector County Coliseum tomorrow. Big win, obviously. Check out Bryan's press release for some more detailed info.

Tonight's NHL Scores: Washington 5, Tampa Bay 3; Buffalo 5, Toronto 3; N.Y. Islanders 2, Detroit 0; Chicago 3, New Jersey 2 (OT); Vancouver 4, Colorado 1; Edmonton 5, Anaheim 3.