Semifinal Game Day No. 5

Okay, that took much longer than expected.

You can check out Bryan Benway's preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes for more on tonight's game, which is about as crucial as crucial can get.

Home ice obviously hasn't meant much so far this series, with the road team winning all four games, so the Bucks will be looking to keep that trend going tonight.

The Bucks are 9-0 all-time after winning the first two games of a playoff series, and the team has never had its season end before the conference finals in team history, so this current group has a lot of pressure on it, especially with Darryl Smith possibly out of commission.

Tonight's game should begin in about 15 minutes.

The only other CHL game tonight has the Oklahoma City Blazers at the Mississippi RiverKings for the fifth, and possibly final, game of their Northern Conference Semifinal series.

As far as the series that ended last night, Brian Sandalow has a story with some thoughts from the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees, who seem to have been very gracious losers.

Some excerpts:

"That's something we went over before the game. We kind of said that what's going to happen is going to happen," Bees goalie Wylie Rogers said. "We just need to go out and play our absolute best as a group, the way we know how to play. I think we did that.
"For the most part we went out with a bang and played really well. The cards didn't fall the way we wanted them to, and that's sports for you."

"I was extremely pleased with the effort the guys put forth tonight," Bees coach Chris Brooks said. "Had a lot of chances to score, stuck with one of the premier teams in the league. I told the guys they have a lot to be proud of."

Brooks also sounds quite optimistic about the team's future:

"This team will win a championship. This organization will win a championship," Brooks said. "It's a tough pill to swallow but I've always believed things happen in life for a reason. Like I told the guys after the game, everybody's going to play a part when this team wins a championship. Everybody on this team's going to play a part of it as long as you learn from the past and learn from your experiences."

Brian also has his thoughts on the series and the Killer Bees' season as a whole.

Robert Keith has the other side of the story and a post-series Q&A with Dan Wildfong for his Texas Brahmas Insider Blog.