Game No. 5 - Bucks vs. Gorillas

Starters: Bucks - Jeff Bes (F), Jean-Philippe Levasseur (G), Jarred Mohr (D), Lance Monych (F), Adam Rivet (D), Darryl Smith (F); Gorillas - Rod Aldoff (D), Anthony Battaglia (F), Gordon Bell (F), Mike Brown (G), Joe Guenther (F), Andrew Smale (D).

First Period: Jeremy Swanson played his first shift for the Bucks on the second shift of the game and looked pretty good. Had a couple checks and batted a puck out of the air to avoid it giving his goalie some trouble. Both teams look like they have very little jump right now, though. ... Holy crap. It is rare that I drop my jaw at a CHL play, but Smith just made that happen once again. I was remarking to myself that he was doing some great backchecking to get the puck away from the Gorillas behind Levasseur, then he sent the puck up to Mohr, who tipped it to Bes, who gave it back to Smith, who danced right around the defense and slipped the puck around Brown. That was an incredible effort by Smith. Bucks lead 1-0 just 2:27 into the game. ... The Gorillas almost got that one back right away, as some flying bodies around the net nearly allowed the Gorillas to sneak the puck past Levasseur. He was able to keep it out, though. Just noticed that Smith's goal was scored on the Bucks' first and only shot of the game so far. Levasseur has two saves. ... Bell just skated in on Levasseur all alone but couldn't get control of the puck to take a good shot and basically shoved it right into the goalie's pads. ... Monych and Smith just had a 2-on-3 they made look like a 2-on-1 and just missed a perfect scoring chance when Monych's pass missed Smith's stick wide. ... Brown just stopped Smith twice to keep the score 1-0. Not particularly incredible shots, but they came one right after the other, so kudos to Smith on reacting quickly to that. ... One of the Gorillas just clearly tripped Smith, but I guess Kevin Graber doesn't feel like calling anything yet. ... Is it just me, or has Smith been out there for the whole game so far? He's taking some very long shifts already. ... That third line just had a pretty strong shift; they're working very hard and likely would have scored had it not been for one minor miscue. However, Peter-James Corsi was called for a hold at the end of that shift, so the Gorillas are going on the game's first power play at 10:52. Starting five, minus Bes, out to kill it. ... Those penalty killers were out there for over a minute but managed to clear it for Igor Agarunov, Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel, Tomas Sample and Evan Schwabe to take over the next shift. ... Agarunov and Schwabe got a pretty good chance in the Gorillas' zone and kept it over there for a while, then Levasseur made a good stick save on the first shot he faced when play came back to his end. ... Levasseur just stopped Bell coming in on home alone again, deflecting the puck out with his leg pad. ... A slashing penalty against Mohr at 13:54 has put the Gorillas back on the power play, this time with the Bucks missing one of their top PK guys. ... Agarunov's versatility really does come in handy on the penalty kill; he made a great play to clear the puck toward the end of that one. ... And then Mohr came out of the box at just the right time to grab the puck, go 1-on-1 with Brown and win. Bucks lead 2-0 at 16:03. That's Mohr's first goal of the season and second point of the night. Pretty nice deking for a slapshot-minded defenseman. Corsi gets the primary assist, his first point of the regular season, and Dieude Fauvel had the secondary, his first assist. ... Just 34 seconds later, on a delayed call against Austin Sutter, the Bucks have made it 3-0. I believe that is their second extra-attacker goal of the season. Dieude-Fauvel scored it on assists from Corsi and Maxime Lincourt. Shots are even at 10. ... Wow, Levasseur just got lucky. Don't get me wrong; he's doing a great job. But a Gorillas skater just grabbed his own rebound from just inches away from Levasseur and somehow shot it nowhere near the net. ... Bucks almost scored again with the third line out there but hit the post. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 3-0. For their sake, it's a good thing they didn't have a collapse at the end of the first period like they did against the Allen Americans last Saturday. ... Forget to mention; final shot tally for that period was 12-11 in favor of the Gorillas.

Second Period: Brown got a great start to the second as Trimm sent the puck near him only to have it pushed back to Agarunov, who had a shot stopped, then Schwabe went to knock it in with Brown mostly out of the net and he somehow managed to get back and glove it. ... Smith is headed to the box for an obvious reactionary slash behind the Bucks' net just 1:42 into the period to give the Gorillas another power play. ... Good PK work and some slick saves by Levasseur leave this thing 3-0 in the Bucks' favor as the penalty expires. ... Not sure if Brown felt Justin Styffe was interfering with him or what, but he was shoving him around quite a bit just now. Kudos to Styffe for not reacting because he would have taken a penalty if he had for sure. ... Lincourt is headed to the box at 6:34 for interference, and he did not seem to agree with that call at all. ... Nothing going for the Gorillas on that power play, but I have to note that everyone is falling all over the place tonight. Not sure if you can blame that on the quick turnover from the concert last night or if everyone's just being clumsy. ... Bucks are getting their first power play of the game as Jason Chafe is headed to the box for hooking at 11:54. ... And they are now 1-for-1 on the advantage, as Bes deflected one in at 12:43. Smith was up on the point for that one, sent the puck to Rivet at the other point, and Rivet took a shot that was subsequently knocked in by Bes. Bucks lead 4-0. ... Bucks going back on the power play at 13:31 on a tripping call against Taylor Guay. ... No go on that one, but the Bucks are not relenting at all out there. A lot of their shots are getting blocked; the score would probably be even more lopsided otherwise. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 4-0, up 23-22 on shots.

Third Period: Levasseur just made a pretty stunning glove save about two minutes into the third period, and you can tell by the way he reacted that he's feeling pretty confident right now. ... Well, he just lost his shutout, but I'm going to let myself think I didn't jinx him because that was just a strange play. Guenther scored the Gorillas' first goal at 4:22, but he flew into the net with the puck and knocked it right off its moorings. Bucks lead 4-1. ... Errr, make that 4-2, as the Gorillas just destroyed the Bucks' top defensive pairing to work a tic-tac-toe play and get Guenther his second goal at 4:57. Still 15 minutes left in this one; the Bucks better settle down. ... What a time for Robin Richards to take a slashing penalty. Gorillas on the power play at 5:41. ... Sorry for the break between updates, but it's still 4-2 with about five minutes to play in regulation. Play has been in the Bucks' zone a lot more this period than in the first two. ... Bit of drama now as Corsi seemingly accidentally knocked down Stuart MacRae, who stayed on the ice for a while, prompting teammate Jake Obermeyer to go after Corsi and promptly be challenged by Styffe. The refs didn't let them fight, and the captains are on the ice now trying to help the refs decide the punishment. ... James Jernberg has ended up in the box for the Gorillas, making me wonder if I read someone's number wrong earlier, and Corsi is in for the Bucks to set up some 4-on-4. Penalties were for roughing and kneeing, respectively, at 15:37 in the period. Guess Corsi's hit was a bit more vicious than it looked from up here. ... Agarunov and Schwabe just missed on a 2-on-1 as Agarunov's shot hit the right post. Earlier in the period, Agarunov and Smith went 2-on-1 and Agarunov chose to pass instead of taking a pretty open shot, but his pass went wide. ... Bucks are on a 4-on-3 power play now with a hooking call against Aldoff at 16:43. ... Smith has his second of the game, and another beauty, at 17:23. I really still can't get over the fact that this kid got sent back to the CHL after scoring goals in NHL prospect games and AHL exhibitions. He's clearly too talented for this league. Smith took a pass from Swanson at the half wall and skated in to take a precision shot that went right between the left post and Brown's right shoulder. Levasseur gets the other assist. Bucks lead 5-2 with 2:37 to play.

Game Over: Bucks win 5-2, improve to 3-1-1 (seven points). Gorillas fall to 5-0-2 (10 points) and fall behind the Odessa Jackalopes in the standings. Sorry for the delay in posting that, but I went downstairs to get quotes as soon as time expired. For quotes about the game, you can check out tomorrow's LMT, but I'm sure you can guess that Coach Ruskowski was mostly pleased but very unhappy about the two quick goals the Gorillas scored in the third. I also got to ask him about bringing in Swanson, and here's what he had to say: "He's a veteran guy, he moves the puck, he's not flashy but he's very effective. That's what I want from my defense. Let's get the puck, stop them 1-on-1, play a strong defensive game and then when you have the opportunity to move the puck up, move it up. I still think it'll take a while for him to know our system, but I thought for a first game he played very well."

Game Day No. 5

The Bucks will host the Amarillo Gorillas tonight in their fifth game and second home game of the 2009-10 season.

The Gorillas (5-1-0, 10 points) lead the league standings, at least points-wise, partially due to the fact that they've played more games than everyone but the Mississippi RiverKings and Odessa Jackalopes.

The Bucks (2-1-1, five points) are winless in their last two games and hoping to get back to where they were in their opening weekend victories.

Jean-Philippe Levasseur (1-0-1) will get the start in goal tonight for the Bucks after struggling by his own standards in last Saturday's 5-4 overtime loss to the Allen Americans.

Levasseur said that not being able to practice with the team last week due to moving here from California made it a bit more difficult for him to focus, and he thinks he can do a much better job tonight.

With Peter-James Corsi off the IR, lines tonight will be:

Jeff Bes - Darryl Smith - Lance Monych
Igor Agarunov - Evan Schwabe - Neil Trimm
Maxime Lincourt - Corsi - Justin Styffe

I would link to my advance for the game, but apparently our MIS guy decided not to put it online, so you check out Bryan Benway's preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes for more.

As usual, you can follow the game here or on Pointstreak or listen on IMAGEN 94.1 FM.

UPDATE: Now that I am at the LEC, I can tell you Jeremy Swanson is wearing No. 7 for the Bucks, assumably because they had that jersey around anyway.

Some More Notes

Apparently I won't be able to leave the office as early as hoped, so I'll post a bit more before I go.

First of all, the league transactions page has been pretty busy today, and not just with the Bucks' activity.

The Texas Brahmas finally confirmed what we've known all week, that they have signed feisty winger and long-time Buck James Hiebert.

As far as releasing Nick Klaren yesterday, here's what Coach Ruskowski had to say:

“It wasn’t an easy decision for me. I liked Nick a lot. He could play forward and defense, he was very reliable, and he had good speed. I just think he needs one or two years of pro experience to get stronger before he can play for my team.”

Ruskowski also mentioned he was anxious to get Peter-James Corsi back on the ice so he could have another natural centerman instead of forcing natural winger Neil Trimm to center a line.

I guess that'll about do it for this post; I'll do a Game Day blog for tonight's matchup with the Amarillo Gorillas in a bit.

Bucks Sign Swanson

The Bucks just announced that they have signed defenseman Jeremy Swanson and placed d-man Cody Hamilton on the injured reserve.

Swanson, a sixth-round pick in the 2002 NHL Draft, has been playing the American and East Coast Hockey Leagues since the 2004-05 season.

You can blame Paulina Rubio for me not knowing about this sooner, as her concert last night prevented the Bucks from holding practice yesterday, and Swanson was not around earlier this week.

I won't be able to talk to Ruskowski about this until at least after the game tonight, but I'll post more about everything else once I get to the arena.

Klaren Waived

The Bucks have waived defenseman Nick Klaren to make room for forward Peter-James Corsi on the active roster.

I had mentioned a few times that someone was likely to be sent home to keep the roster at 18, and though Coach Ruskowski said yesterday he wasn't sure whether he'd do that or who he'd send home if he did, Klaren seemed like the obvious choice.

Klaren was the odd man out, a natural defenseman who got stuck playing at forward because there were six other d-men Ruskowski thought were better suited to play at his blue line, and he had two secondary assists in the first four games while posting a negative plus/minus rating in all but one.

Maybe if he could have gotten a spot on the defense, things would have worked out differently, but Klaren is no longer a Buck.

I'll post more about this decision and plenty of other stuff later (Okay, tomorrow).

Corsi to Come Off IR

As I hinted to last night, forward Peter-James Corsi will be coming off the injured reserve this weekend to play his first regular season games for the Bucks.

Coach Ruskowski placed Corsi on the IR after he suffered an injury during training camp, saying he didn't want the forward to have any excuses to not play his best game.

Now that he seems to be healed up and his 14-day IR stint can end on Friday, he'll get a chance to show Ruskowski what he's got.

“I have to see what he can do,” Ruskowski said. “I think his injury is better now and that he’s ready to play. He’s worked hard the past couple days, and he’s going to continue to work hard. He’ll have a chance to play, and we’ll see what we can do.”

As I mentioned on Monday, Corsi has been skating with a solid line this week in practice, and he has been working out with the team on the ice, though sometimes in a minimal capacity, during his IR stay.

With Corsi off the IR, the team's active roster will be back up to 19 players, which is something Ruskowski says he doesn't think he can afford with the salary cap. He did also say, "We'll see what happens," but this could mean that someone else is going home unless another injury pops up by Friday.

Tuesday Notes

Sorry for the lack of updates today; it's been a busy one.

I went to practice this morning and spoke to Coach Ruskowski, team captain Adam Rivet, forward Maxime Lincourt and goaltender Jean-Philippe Levasseur (finally), but I was only able to fit so much into my notebook that is running in tomorrow's Times. In fact, I didn't get in any quotes from Levasseur or Lincourt, so I'll post some of those leftovers on here tomorrow.

Levasseur is a very honest guy and was clearly not impressed with his own performance in Saturday's OT loss, which Ruskowski said was an admirable trait for his No. 1 goalie to display.

The team will practice again tomorrow before the ice gets covered for yet another concert at the LEC, so I'll be checking in again to see how things are progressing for this weekend's games against the Amarillo Gorillas and Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees.

There is one change to the roster about to be made, but as far as I know, it'll be made public for the first time in our print edition tomorrow, which is something I like to see happen every once in a while. Nothing huge, but the lineup will change a bit for this weekend. I'll post a little blurb on that tomorrow morning.

Oh, and as the Texas Brahmas seem to be holding off on announcing anything about James Hiebert, here is some more detailed info on the situation courtesy of Bryan Benway's blog:

The only other bit of news that i'll pass along today is about James Hiebert signing with....hold your breath.....the Texas Brahmas. Those of us who are close to the team heard rumblings about this last Thursday, but heard nothing concrete until this morning. As of this writing the Brahmas have not announced the signing, but I spoke to some people that told me it's close to being official. Just imagine the scene on November 21st when Hiebert and the Brahmas travel to the LEC to play the Bucks. How will he be received? Cheered? Booed? Only time will tell.

Monday Practice Notes

This morning's practice was a bit less rough than I would have expected, and Coach Ruskowski actually didn't seem to be in too bad of a mood.

The guys worked a lot on traps and breakouts this morning, and Ruskowski said they will continue to do the same for the rest of the week, with a lot of focus on passing and special teams, as well.

When I asked him what he thought the major differences were between the first weekend and this past one, Ruskowski said that the guys were too tentative against Corpus and Allen, whereas they were more consistently aggressive for their first two games.

He's obviously still keeping a close eye on a few of the guys, and Peter-James Corsi was skating with Maxime Lincourt and Justin Styffe today instead of subbing into lines, which could mean he'll come off the IR as soon as his 14 days are up on Friday... which could mean someone else will be going home.

Speaking of Lincourt, he was obviously a standout in Saturday's OT loss, with three assists and the goal that sent the game into overtime. Ruskowski was impressed with his effort and said he was one player who seemed to play a lot better at home than on the road.

All in all, Ruskowski was far more displeased with the loss in Corpus than he was with the loss to the undefeated Americans, who are definitely a big storyline in the league right now.

As far as the observant anonymous commenter who thought Ian Clarke was still wandering around the LEC this weekend, you are correct. Clarke was hurt during the preseason, so the team is obligated to take care of him during his rehab. However, that does not mean he will be playing for the Bucks this season.

Hiebert Signs with Brahmas

Before I post some notes from practice this morning, just wanted to let you guys know I have it on good authority that James Hiebert has signed with the Texas Brahmas.

The signing has obviously not been made official yet, but Coach Ruskowski did say that Hiebert was released from any obligations he had to stay with the Bucks, and two people have confirmed that he will be suiting up with the Brahmas this season.

This news came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I thought he really was focusing on his solar system business this time, but I guess he decided he still wanted to play.

When I spoke to Hiebert at the end of last season, he said he would want to come back to the Bucks if Ruskowski would have him, but I figured he was just saying that for the sake of the fans. Apparently, that might not have been the case.

Obviously, this will create an interesting situation when the Bucks face the Brahmas this season, especially considering the type of player Hiebert is. The teams meet seven times in the regular season, including four at the LEC. Their first game is Saturday, Nov. 21, in Laredo.

What are your thoughts on this news? Had you hoped to see Hiebert play with the Bucks again, or do you think his time here had run its course? Are you curious to see him play against his former team this season?

Game No. 4 - Bucks vs. Americans

Starters: Americans - Erik Adams (D), Jordie Benn (D), Justin Bowers (F), Jarret Lukin (F), Nathan O'Nabigon (F), Chris Whitley (G); Bucks - Jeff Bes (F), Jean-Philippe Levasseur (G), Mike Looby (D), Lance Monych (F), Adam Rivet (D), Darryl Smith (F). Ruskowski is clearly trying to make a good first impression, starting the top line and top defensive pairing. This is basically a power-play unit out there, and actually means all three of the Bucks' letter guys will be on the ice to start. ... Well, that whole intro dealio was rather interesting. The video focused almost entirely on players who are no longer here, I'm pretty sure only about five names were pronounced correctly during player introductions, and the inflatable thing the players skate through almost ate Rivet en route to collapsing.

First Period: Bes and Monych stayed on the ice a good 15 seconds longer than the other starters trying to create a rush that was thwarted by a pass from Bes that missed Monych's stick. ... Two icing calls against the Americans already just a couple minutes in, and Ruskowski has already had a conversation with the officials. Not sure what he was questioning. ... Bucks have taken all the shots so far with three in the first 3:25. Only the last one was a really good chance, but Whitley covered it up in the crease. ... Two big men just went at, as Britt Daugherty and Robin Richards dropped the gloves off a faceoff at 3:54 in the period. Daugherty certainly has an interesting style, as he skated circles (literally) around Richards hunched over then started rumbling his fists around his own face. I call that a draw, slightly in Daugherty's favor. ... Off the next faceoff, the 5-foot-10 Justin Styffe took on the 6-foot-4 Brandon Straub and did a much better job than either of the first two fighters, taking his opponent down and continuing to throw punches after the fact. Straub landed some hits, too, but that one definitely went to Styffe. That guy can seriously throw his punches. ... First non-fighting penalty has occurred, as Bowers has been called for slashing at 4:31. ... Somehow, the Bucks' power play turned into the best scoring chances for the Americans in the game, but the Bucks have the puck back in their offensive zone now. ... Looby just got a great chance one-on-one with Whitley but shot the puck straight into the goalie's chest. ... The one thing Ruskowski has told me most since I started covering this team is, "When we pass well, we play well," and right now, the Bucks aren't passing all too well. ... We're getting a few straight minutes of whistle-free play for the first time tonight, and the Americans got some good chances. The Bucks got lucky when one shot jumped wide, then Jarred Mohr blocked one that would have been a sure challenge for his goalie. ... Some forwards finally got their passes right for a beautiful tic-tac-toe play that resulted in Monych scoring his fourth goal of the season on assists from Evan Schwabe and Maxime Lincourt. Bucks lead 1-0 with 8:01 to play in the first. ... Bruce Graham got sent to the box for high sticking at 14:13 to put the Bucks on their second power play, and just as they did with their first, the Bucks immediately lose the puck into their own defensive zone. ... Well, they got it back into offensive territory pretty quickly and Agarunov knocked home a rebound to make it 2-o in favor of the Bucks with 4:39 to play in the period. Looby and Lincourt currently have the assists, but I could've sworn Schwabe should had something to do with that play. ... A good individual effort by Styffe, who is a pretty strong and speedy skater for someone known pretty much only for his fighting, got the Bucks another chance, but he had no one trailing to get a stick on the puck he sent toward Whitley. ... The Bucks have really been on fire with the centering passes the past few minutes, but there just hasn't been anyone around to knock them home. ... Bes has gone to the box for hooking at 18:08 to give the Americans their first power play of the game. ... They wasted no time taking advantage of that, cutting the Bucks' lead to 2-1 at 18:23. Bill Loupee fired a rebound over Levasseur's shoulder with enough precision that it missed the crossbar by centimeters. Bowers and Benn get the assists. ... The Americans are sucking the enthusiasm out of the building and the momentum away from the Bucks, as they just scored another one at 18:48. Graham got that one on assists from Jason Seerey and Chris Kaufman. Bucks have 1:12 to try to turn things around, or they risk giving the Americans a mental advantage when they come out for the second. Those goals were scored on the Americans' 11th and 12th shots of the game. ... End of the period, game tied 2-2 with shots tied at 14. What an awful way to end the period for the Bucks. ... Oh man, Benway is doing an intermission interview with Monych, and Ruskowski is being forced to answer questions on the ice. That's just harsh. I'm sure Ruskowski is none too pleased.

Second Period: Oh man, sucks to be Whitley right now. He just absolutely stoned Lincourt on a great breakaway chance only to have Bes skate in and knock the puck into the net. Bucks lead 3-2 at 3:47 in the period. Smith gets the second assist. That goal could be bigger than scoring first in the game. ... Lincourt just stole the puck to get another good chance, but this time the pack was close enough behind to prevent his rebound from getting sent past Whitley. ... Bucks get the first power play of the period now as Seerey is headed to the box at 5:44 for hooking. ... Looby managed to hit the pipes on a soft shot from the blue line, but nothing got closer than that for the Bucks on that advantage. ... Bucks are going back on the power play at 10:13 but Schwabe almost prevented that as he nearly scored during during the delayed call. Whitley didn't have the puck fully in his glove and fumbled it around within the net but eventually got control and the penalty whistle. Bowers was the guilty party with a hook. ... Bucks couldn't get anything really going on the power play, but the Americans did not long after it ended. The game is tied once again on Graham's second goal of the game at 12:27 in the period. Nino Musitelli and Christian Gaudet got the assists. ... On the ensuing faceoff, Nick Klaren was called for high sticking to put the Americans on a power play. ... Nothing doing on that, but Klaren is back in the box at 15: to serve a too-many-men minor for the Bucks. ... Americans are back on top, 4-3, on a nice goal scored by O'Nabigon during the power play. Adding insult to injury, he unwittingly knocked Rivet to the ice during his goal celebration. Adams and Loupee had the assists. Still some time to get that one back with 3:18 left in the period. ... The Bucks just had six men on the ice again for a good 10 seconds but got away with it because Bes noticed before the officials did and got to the bench. ... End of the period, Americans lead 4-3. Shots even at 21.

Third Period: Just to warn those of you who read the paper, tomorrow's story on this game will not have quotes unless this period goes by at the speed of light. With the new system we use, sending stories after even 10:30 is not an option. ... Bucks start off the period on a power play as O'Nabigon was apparently called for delay of game at the end of the second. ... Game is tied for the third time tonight on Lincourt's first goal and fourth point of the evening. He sent one past Whitley from the right point at 18:08, making it a power-play goal. Looby and Schwabe had the assists, giving each of them two points on the night. ... Officials are really off their game tonight. Graham just shoved Tomas Sample into the boards then started punching the back of his head, then grabbed his stick and started shoving him when he stood up. Good thing Sample is cool-headed enough to not retaliate and take the penalty Graham should have gotten. ... Ten minutes left, game still tied 4-4. Shots even at 25. ... Styffe just got crushed into the boards in front of the Americans' bench and took some time getting up. Seems like he is okay, though. ... Mohr just played almost an entire shift without his helmet on, and from the way he was acting, it seemed he didn't even notice the difference. ... The Bucks just came thisclose to taking the lead again with just under three minutes to play, but Whitley somehow managed to stop a couple consecutive shots and cover up the puck before the Bucks could finally knock one in. ... Bucks just got a bit of a break as Liam Huculak took a penalty for tripping with 2:17 to play in the game. The power play will last until seconds before the game ends, so it's the best chance they're likely to get. ... Make that a double break, as the Bucks will have a 5-on-3 for the next 1:11 and finish the game on the power play should nothing happen before then. Very bad time for Benn to take that interference penalty. At least from his team's standpoint. ... About seven guys just stuffed themselves into the Americans' net in a scuffle following Smith's attempt to knock in a loose puck. Okay, they weren't really entirely in it, but that was weird. Still tied with 30.4 seconds to go. ... And we are headed to overtime. Absolutely positively definitely no quotes tonight.

Overtime: Five seconds in, Schwabe is headed to the box for interference to give the Americans a 4-on-3 power play. ... Wow, I completely forgot that power plays during CHL overtimes only last a minute until Schwabe came back on the ice so quickly. ... Chris Kaufman just ended it on a simple shot that cleared Levasseur into the net. Ryan Fairbarn and Tobias Whelan had the assists. ... Rivet is spiritedly speaking to the officials as he leaves the ice. This was not the weekend he wanted to see.

Game Over: Bucks lose 5-4 in overtime. Americans remain the only undefeated team in the Southern Conference, improving to 4-0-0 (eight points), while the Bucks fall to 2-1-1 (five points).

Game Day No. 4

As we know, the Bucks suffered their first loss of the 2009-10 season last night at the hands of the Corpus Christi IceRays.

The IceRays' 4-2 win and the Odessa Jackalopes' 9-6 win over the Amarillo Gorillas left the Allen Americans, the Bucks' opponent tonight, the only undefeated team in the Southern Conference. The Americans defeated the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs 2-1 last night.

For more on the Bucks' first loss, you can read Bryan Benway's recap, Greg Rajan's story and Rajan's postgame blog. Here's one interesting excerpt from that blog:

Over the years, I've seen Laredo skate onto Corpus ice and apply many beatings, both physically and on the scoreboard. But I've never seen a Bucks squad that got worked over like they did during the second period tonight. That was basically total domination by the IceRays during that frame, physically and territorially. The Bucks didn't have a shot until the 12:41 mark of that middle stanza.

Rajan also got some notable quotes from Coach Ruskowski:

"We didn't have guys who showed up. That's disappointing because I thought things were going in the right direction. Sometimes it takes three or four games to find out what you have and what you have to improve on. Obviously, there are some positions I have to improve on and I will as the week goes on here.

"I think (during the second period), they were more physical than us and we sat back and let them do it. We've got to stand up and be physical back. That shows who can do, who can't do, who's willing to do it and who's not willing to do it.

"Everything was going right the first two games. Everything was going right, lucky goals bouncing in and now it's not coming as easy. Now we find out the character. Sometimes you can't score the pretty goals -- you've got to get the ugly goals and you've got to fight for it. We didn't do it."

As I mentioned earlier in the week, it was easy for the guys to get along and show up to practice to do their jobs when things were going swimmingly, but tonight we'll get to see how strong their character really is.

In addition to being our first look at the Americans, tonight's the night those of us in Laredo finally get to see Jean-Philippe Levasseur in net for the Bucks. He's out there taking warmups right now with the rest of the team, and I have to say I'm not really fond of these new jerseys.

For more on tonight's game, you can read Bryan Benway's preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes.

When the game starts, you can of course follow it here, or you can keep up with the Pointstreak box score or listen live on IMAGEN 94.1 FM.

Game No. 3 - Bucks at IceRays

Tonight's game should be starting within the next 10 minutes, and it seems as though Kyle Gajewski will indeed get the start in goal for the Bucks. Kris Tebbs will be in net for the IceRays.

Igor Agarunov is listed on tonight's active roster, so I guess he is playing after all. Coach Ruskowski did say he felt much better yesterday, but they still weren't entirely sure of his status at that point.

You can follow the game as it goes with the Pointstreak box score or listen here.

First period: Just 16 seconds into the game, Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel has taken a roughing penalty to put the IceRays on the first power play of the contest. I should mention that Coach Ruskowski and player/assistant coach Jeff Bes noted the IceRays as a physical team and one against which they would need to be disciplined because of all the firepower the IceRays have on offense. ... Guess they were right, as Jeff Alcombrack has given the IceRays a 1-0 lead just 59 seconds into this one. First time the Bucks have trailed so far this regular season, and they have highlighted the fact that scoring first was a big key to getting those first two road wins. ... Captain Adam Rivet has tied it up with a power-play goal of his own at 3:58. Bes and Lance Monych had the assists. Ryan Garbutt was in the box for elbowing. ... Darryl Smith is now in the sin bin after a slashing call at 4:27. ... Robin Richards and Tyler Sheldrake just dropped the gloves at 7:15 in the period. ... Twenty-three seconds later, Monych got called for unsportsmanlike conduct. Interesting. ... Maxime Boisclair is headed to his team's penalty box for slashing at 8:53. ... Nick Klaren was called for high sticking at 12:58 in this penalty fest, and Ryan Bennett responded with a power-play goal that put the IceRays up 2-1 at 13:05. Alcombrack and Chris Richards had the assists. The IceRays' newest acquisition, R.G. Flath, is now in the box after taking an elbowing call at 14:06. ... Sheldrake just got in his second fight of the evening, this one with Tomas Sample at 17:34, assumably following the interference penalty Sheldrake took at the same time. ... End of the period, IceRays still up 2-1. Bucks lead 13-10 on shots.

Second Period: Due to the fact that Pointstreak claims it is still intermission, I decided to try listening to the game for a minute, but I have yet to hear a score. ... Okay, Pointstreak seems to be waking up. I guess it's still 2-1 about five minutes into the second. ... Neil Trimm has taken a penalty for tripping at 10:13 to put the IceRays on their fifth man-advantage of the game. ... I have a hard time believing these shot totals are right, but if they are, the IceRays have outshot the Bucks 9-1 for the period so far. ... Steven Later and Maxime Lincourt joined in on tonight's physicality with a fight at 15:55 in the period. ... Kyle Peto and Monych just took tripping penalties about a minute apart, at 17:27 and 18:25, respectively. ... Jason Tessier got called for hooking six seconds after his teammate Peto left the box, so the third period will start with 25 seconds of 4-on-4 hockey then 1:08 of a Bucks' power play. At the end of this one, IceRays still lead 2-1 and are purportedly up 23-15 on shots after outshooting the Bucks 13-2 in the second.

Third Period: The final period is under way, and the IceRays have put the Bucks on a short 5-on-3 with a slashing call against Zech Klann 49 seconds into it. Tessier is still in the box after his late hooking call in the second. ... Nothing going on that, and each team has had another power play since, but the score remains 2-1 in favor of the IceRays with about six minutes to play. ... The Bucks' chances to tie this one up just took a hit as Flath scored on assists from Ryan Garbutt and Morgan McLean at 14:49. IceRays lead 3-1 with 5:11 to play. ... Richards just got them closer with his first goal of the season at 18:11. Trimm and Klaren had the assists. Bucks have less than two minutes left to tie it. ... Later decided to send things in the other direction with an empty netter at 19:52. Tebbs gets the assist.

Game Over: IceRays win 4-2, handing the Bucks their first loss of this young season. The Allen Americans will be the only undefeated team at the LEC tomorrow night.

Game Day No. 3

The Bucks will close out their season-opening three-game road trip tonight with a game against the Corpus Christi IceRays at the American Bank Center.

For more on the matchup, you can read my preview, Bryan Benway's preview, Greg Rajan's preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes.

Team captain Adam Rivet will be suiting up for the Bucks, but forward Igor Agarunov was said to be a question mark up until game time.

The goalie situation was also in the air, as Jean-Philippe Levasseur apparently admitted to being a bit tired from moving his stuff down from California and may not be used tonight to keep him fresh for tomorrow night's home opener.

If all has stayed the same since yesterday, Kyle Gajewski will probably get his second start of the regular season tonight.

Wednesday Notes

As some of you probably noticed, the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees took quite a beating at the hands of the Odessa Jackalopes in a 7-0 loss last night.

The fact that the Bees went 0-for-9 on the power play last night made me wonder if that 5-on-3 the Bucks killed off during their 5-3 win over the Bees on Saturday was really such a big deal, but I guess the Bees have more to wonder about than just that right now.

Prior to their loss last night, Brian Sandalow reported that the Bees will be adding veteran winger Joel Irving, who did not play in that game. You can also check out his blog for more on the loss.

Back in Bucks' land, things are going a bit more smoothly, but injuries are still a concern. Adam Rivet was back in full gear skating today and is expected to play this weekend, but Igor Agarunov was just out there to skate and did not participate in drills. He is day-to-day with his upper-body injury.

The Bucks had a full practice at the LEC today for the last time before their weekend games, as they will leave early tomorrow morning and practice in Corpus Christi tomorrow before their Friday night meeting with the IceRays. This time, it's Showtime Boxing that's kicking them out of the arena. Hopefully the ice will be in good shape on Saturday night.

Despite the injuries, most of the players seem to have a positive outlook heading into this weekend, and they are looking forward to playing in front of the Laredo crowd for the first time this season (or ever, as the case is for some).

Saturday's home opener will feature the return of tailgating and the red carpet event that were spoken about on here when announced, and it will also welcome the expansion Allen Americans to Laredo for the first time.

The Americans and Bucks, both 2-0, are two of the three undefeated teams remaining in the Southern Conference, but that could change by Friday night. You can check out the full standings here.

As far as the question from the anonymous commenter on the last post, here's what Coach Ruskowski had to say when I asked if he thinks he's still missing anything from the formula he wants on the ice this season:

"It's still early in the season, and there are still guys that are in a wait-and-see kind of scenario. It's still sometimes I'll like what I see from them, but then I say, 'Oh my gosh, what are you doing there?' It goes from, 'Oh, that was nice,' to 'Oooh, what was that? They have to be more consistent. I'm looking for consistency, and good consistency, not bad consistency. That's what'll make us a stronger team game in and game out.

"There are still some guys on probation, but I'm hoping they can continue to play well. I don't like making move. Trust me. You have to be on the phone trying to do all that... I just want to make my team and work on them and try to do new things with them and do little plays that we can develop and get better at. I don't like making moves, but some guys are still on probation, and I have to have three lines that can score.

"There are a lot of guys who are playing pretty consistently, but there are other guys who play really well then they don't play so well, and that's what I have to watch. I don't want to name names; they probably know who they are. But I need the consistency and the hard work on every shift of every game we play."


To be clear, he doesn't mean probation in the literal sense, just that a few guys need to prove something to him before they're guaranteed to stick around for the rest of the season. He said he was very happy with today's practice but still sees room for improvement in passing, which we all know is always a focus of his.

Jean-Philippe Levasseur was not in practice again today, and Bryan Benway said he should be arriving back in Laredo around 2 p.m. He will travel to Corpus with the team on Friday, but Ruskowski said if Kyle Gajewski gets a start this weekend, it'll be in that game. However, he also said he is not the least bit uncomfortable with Levasseur having missed practice and could possibly start him for both contests. No final decisions have been made on that situation yet.

Meanwhile, today is supposed to be my day off, and I came straight from an early practice to the office, so I'm going to try to leave soon. Most of the quotes I've gotten the past couple days have been for tab stories anyway, so I don't want to post them all on here yet. I'll try to get some leftover info up tomorrow, and I'll probably give Ruskowski a call to see if there's any update on his goalie choices or Agarunov's health.

Weekend Quotes

Here are some of the quotes I got after practice today:

Lance Monych
On team chemistry: I'm pretty surprised, actually, with how we are already. It seems like we've been together for months now. Even after the first win, everyone worked so hard that it was almost like a bonding experience. After the game, everyone was just super pumped, and it seemed like we'd been together for years. But it was only the first game, so it was pretty cool to have that. It must have just been the 10 days of hard practice we had the week before and the tryout process. It seems like we have good guys, and it seems like it's going to work.

On the effort this weekend: I think everything was awesome. Penalty killing, defense, the goalies played awesome. It was just a total team effort. Everyone came to play, both games, even with all the hard travel and stuff. No excuses, and everyone played really well, so it's awesome.

On his line (Jeff Bes-Darryl Smith-Monych): I think we're just three smart hockey players, and with the practice we had the week before, we kind of got to know where each other would go and how each other played. It doesn't always happen that fast that you get production right away, so we're lucky and hopefully we can keep it. That was an exciting weekend, and hopefully we can carry it on.

Coach Ruskowski
On the team's strong start: I was kind of impressed, especially with some of the situations that we had and dealt with pretty well. Especially in Rio, we were up two goals and we get two penalties and we're down almost a minute and a half 5-on-3, and they didn't score. I thought the guys did a tremendous job killing the penalty, and that was a huge aspect of it. Scoring timely goals is huge, too; they had the momentum, and we came back and scored to make it 5-2. It was huge for us. We played basically pretty good defense, but we need to get a little bit better moving the puck and being more composed. A team's going to come on and get more momentum, and we need to be more composed to handle that and make that situation to our advantage not to their advantage.

On special teams: Considering we didn't practice a whole lot, I thought we did a good job. We practiced again today our breakouts, power play and one little thing that we changed up killing the penalties to see how we can do with that. But, basically, I was happy with it. I thought there were guys who worked hard, and guys who I thought were questionable to do that job did it well. Now we're going to see how consistent they are throughout the weekend and the rest of the season. The problem is consistency.

On the goalies: I liked both of them. The thing about it is that the defensemen and forwards like both of them, too. They're good guys, they work hard, they both played very well in the games that they played. I feel very confident that these guys can haul the load for us and do a very good job.

On winning in Bossier: I was surprised. But the thing that really happened was timely goals were very important. One aspect of it was that we scored early - well, not early, but midway through the first period. We played really strong defense, and we didn't let them get going very often. That really brought the crowd out of it, and once you get the crowd out of it, it was just a game. It wasn't such a high-focus, high-tempo game. Third period, they started picking it up, they scored a goal, and they had a couple more chances to score. But our goalie made a good save, or a defenseman who was out by himself made a good play. We have to improve that aspect, but it was the first game. We dealt with that situation, and it was good. Same thing in Rio; they started getting some goals, then we got a timely goal to put things back in place and started playing good defense again.

On possible weaknesses: They're always a concern. Am I totally worried? No. I thought the guys did a pretty good job. But if you want to be a contender, you have to try to improve your team as much as you can and as quickly as you can so you can learn the system and, as the season goes on, get better and better with the system. So there are still some concerns, and there are still some guys I'm looking at really hard to see how they do.

On choosing Adam Rivet as captain: I think he's got a lot of respect amongst the team. He has my respect. He's been for a while, so he knows the ins and outs of hockey and what I do and how to do it. He's a guy that people feel comfortable talking to, and he's a leader. He'll talk to the referees... he's bold enough to go there and ask the questions or relay a message from me to a referee. He's a good ambassador for the game of hockey here in Laredo and to the Central Hockey League. Being here as long as he has, I think people look up to him, and I think he was a good choice for me to be my captain.

On making Mike Looby and Darryl Smith alternates: Looby's the type of guy who'll stand up and say things, and I think Smitty is the type of guy who leads by his emotions on the ice. If he's going well, it seems like everyone's going well. But there are other guys on the team who are pretty good leaders. (Jarred) Mohr is a guy who will stand up and be heard, and he's earned a lot of respect out of that, so it was a tough decision, because he's very capable of doing the same job as the other guys are.


So I guess we know who will be wearing an A if the current captain/alternates miss a game. I know the stuff about the letters is a bit belated, but they left town before anyone was officially willing to talk about the captains last week.

It's obviously a bit early to tell too much about the way this season will go, but as Monych's quotes might tell you, the guys think things are pretty "awesome" so far.

Today's practice lasted a bit longer than one might have expected from a team coming off a weekend of wins and long bus rides, but they were all having a lot of fun out there. But I guess anyone can have fun when they're winning, so let's see if that keeps up and how this team reacts if it doesn't.

I'll be going to practice again tomorrow to collect stuff for the Bucks tab that will hopefully be coming out this Saturday, but if you have any specific questions you'd like answered before then, feel free to let me know.

More on the Weekend

I went to practice this morning but will not have a story in tomorrow's paper, so I'll be sure to share the quotes I got from Coach Ruskowski and Lance Monych, one of the stars from this weekend, ASAP.

For now, I have some links and notes from other sources.

First of all, there's the game story from Friday's 6-1 win over the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs from the Shreveport Times. Sorry I forgot to link to that sooner.

Then there's Brian Sandalow's comprehensive blog post about Saturday's 5-3 win over the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees. He has also updated his rankings. Yes, the Bucks did move up on the list.

For the more obscure information and some audio clips, you can visit Bryan Benway's blog.

He has his own synopsis of Friday's win and audio highlights from that game, as well as a synopsis and audio highlights from Saturday.

Goaltender Jean-Philippe Levasseur was not in practice this morning due to the moving process Benway noted in the latter of those blog posts, while captain Adam Rivet and forward Igor Agarunov missed for other reasons.

As we know, Rivet had a bit of an injury scare early in Saturday's game, but everyone seems to think he'll play this weekend. Not sure what's going on with Agarunov, but I was told there will be an update on him tomorrow.

Monych did not win the Player of the Week honors Benway nominated him for, but he did have a stellar start to his second stint in Laredo with two goals, three assists and a plus/minus of plus-4 over the weekend.

The league opted to name Amarillo Gorillas forward Joe Guenther the Player of the Week for his seven-point performance. He and teammate Anthony Battaglia were the only two players to finish the weekend with more points than Monych and linemate Jeff Bes... and another Gorilla, David Nimmo.

Of course, it should be noted that the Gorillas have played one more game than the Bucks already at this point.

The Gorillas, who are the only other undefeated team in the Southern Conference, also nabbed honors in net, as Mike Brown was named the first Goaltender of the Week for the season.

Though they were left out of the weekly honors, the Bucks were mentioned in the first edition of "Shots from the Point" for the season with the following note:


La-Road-O Off to Impressive Start
A year ago, the Laredo Bucks were sitting an un-impressive 11-14-3 on the road with a couple weeks of the regular season remaining but they rebounded to win four straight on the road to finish out the regular season and have since carried that over to the 2009-10 season winning two straight to start the season. The Bucks won convincingly on Friday beating the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs 6-1 and then on Saturday topping the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees 5-3. The Bucks will go for their seventh straight road win on Friday in Corpus Christi.


Impressive start indeed. For full standings, you can visit Pointstreak. We are using a new computer system here, and it doesn't seem to like the CHL agate very much, so I'm working on getting that fixed to get the standings in the paper sometime soon.

Game No. 2 - Bucks at Killer Bees

The Pointstreak box score for tonight's game, which should begin soon, can be found here.

Brian Sandalow has posted his pre-game blog and has started his running gamer.

Kyle Gajewski and Andy Franck are tonight's starting goaltenders.

First Period: The game has begun at about 7:44 p.m. ... According to Pointstreak, the Killer Bees have taken five shots before the Bucks have even taken their first. ... The Killer Bees are now up 6-1 on shots and getting the game's first power play on a hooking call against Tomas Sample at 6:48. ... Bucks killed that penalty but have taken only three shots to the Killer Bees' eight. ... Matt Sweazey went to the box for interference at 12:28, and the Bucks' power play picked up right where it left last night, with captain Adam Rivet knocking one in on assists from Darryl Smith and Jeff Bes at 12:53. ... Justin Styffe has given the Killer Bees their second chance on the man advantage tonight with a slashing penalty at 13:59. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 1-0. Still down on shots, but only 11-8 now.

Second Period: Concerning bit of information from Sandalow's blog: 40 seconds in and the Bucks might have suffered a big blow. Adam Rivet and Zak McClellan collided and Rivet stayed down. It looked like it might have been knee-to-knee. McClellan is in the box and Rivet is hobbling back to the Bucks' bench. McLellan was given a tripping minor. I'll post an update on Rivet as soon as I see one anywhere. ... Well, no word on Rivet just yet, but Justin Styffe has scored his first goal as a Buck at 4:05 in the period. The goal, which puts the Bucks up 2-0, is currently listed as unassisted. Shots are now 12-11 in the Bucks' favor, giving them their first lead of the game in that category. ... Seems Sandalow was a bit ahead of himself in that initial Rivet assessment considering his next update: So much for that. Rivet is back after the Bees killed the PP. ... Lance Monych now has the lone assist on Styffe's goal. Wonder what the two of them were doing on the ice together. ... And now Monych has scored one of his own on an assist from Evan Schwabe. Are the lines getting changed up, or are shifts just overlapping in a very good way for the Bucks tonight? That goal, at 11:48 in the period, puts the Bucks up 3-0. ... Jay Hardwick has taken the second penalty of the period, for interference at 13:44, to put the Bucks on their third power play. ... And now Mike Looby has scored on the power play at 14:13 on assists from Cody Hamilton and Schwabe to make it 4-o in the Bucks' favor. ... Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel just took a board checking penalty at 14:38 to give the Killer Bees' their second power play chance. ... That was what the Bees needed to break through, as Shaun Landolt has cut the Bucks' lead to 4-1 with a power-play goal assisted by Kurtis Dulle at 14:42. Pretty fast one. That's the first goal Gajewski has allowed tonight on 18 shots. The Bucks are at 24 in that category now. ... Sweazey was just given the second assist on that score. ... Bucks back on the power play with a tripping penalty against Topher Scott at 17:22. ... End of the period, Bucks still lead 4-1. They're up 28-20 on shots at this point.

Third Period: Aaron Lee is headed to the box for roughing at 1:34 in the period to give the Bucks an early power play. ... Daymen Rycroft turned that advantage around, scoring a shorthanded and purportedly unassisted goal at 2:40 in the period to cut the Bucks' lead to 4-2. ... The Bucks got their three-goal cushion back with the first score of the regular season by Dieude-Fauvel, who put one past Franck on a power play created by a board checking call against Bees captain Stacey Bauman. Goal came at 4:32 and was assisted by Evan Schwabe. Bucks lead 5-2. ... And now it's 5-3, as Grant Goeckner-Zoeller has scored the Bees' first even-strength goal, on assists from Landolt and Scott. ... Smith is in the box for holding as of 11:31.

Game Over: Sorry, got caught up pulling late wire, but the Bucks won 5-3 to get a 2-0 start to the season despite having two tough road games up first. ... Okay, here's the link to Bryan Benway's game story from tonight; the paper tomorrow will sadly have a very minimal version of that due to all the local prep athletic events taking up the front page today. The Bucks had to kill off quite a few penalties late in the game, so give those PK guys some credit, especially considering maybe half a practice was dedicated to that task. You can also read the Bees' recap, Sandalow's postgame blog (which is more so a promise for more tomorrow) and his story for The Monitor. ... I'm sure Coach Ruskowski wasn't happy with that shorthanded goal, but seems like this team is looking pretty good, eh? Is this the way you expected the opening weekend to go?

Game Day No. 2

My apologies; I forgot to call Coach Ruskowski earlier and know better than to do so within two hours of game time, so finding out more about last night will have to wait until at least tomorrow.

Tonight is a new story as the Bucks take on the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees at Dodge Arena in the Bees' opening game.

There's plenty to read about this one courtesy of Brian Sandalow, who has blogged a "Laredo report" and his season predictions (note the fact that the Bucks are below everyone from last season's Southeast Division) and written a preview for tonight.

You can also check out Bryan Benway's preview, the Killer Bees' notes and the pre-game notes.

According to Benway's blog, Kyle Gajewski will get his first start of the regular season in goal tonight. Other than that, the lineup obviously can't change.

I'll try to keep up with this one the same way I did last night, and I'll link to Sandalow's game blog once he starts it.

As usual, CHL-TV subscribers can watch the game here, and everyone else can listen to it here.

Opening faceoff is scheduled for a little less than two hours from now.

Game No. 1 - Bucks at Mudbugs

The 2009-10 regular season is set to begin within the next few minutes, with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs hosting the Bucks at the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City, La.

Tonight's game, unlike the rest of the season, can be seen for free on CHL-TV. Of course, you can try to win a season pass here if you're feeling lucky. If not, you can listen to the Bucks on IMAGEN 94.1 FM or just follow the box score on Pointstreak.

Just out of curiousity, have any of you purchased CHL-TV memberships? As far as I've been told, media members can't get free access, and I definitely cannot afford those rates.

New Buck Jean-Philippe Levasseur and oft-Mudbug John DeCaro are your starting goaltenders. By the way, what is up with Pointstreak only having this season's stuff listed on player pages?

First Period: Game is under way as of about 7:11 p.m. ... Well, according to Pointstreak right now, this wasn't on a power play, but Jeff Bes just scored his first goal since his knee injury in January and did so against the team that knocked him out for the rest of the 2008-09 season. The reason I thought it could be on a man advantage is that defensemen Adam Rivet and Jarred Mohr had the assists on the score, which came at 10:43 in the period. Bucks lead 1-0 with shots tied 4-4. ... Well, the guys who made that goal possible each went to plus-1 on the plus/minus department, so I guess it was even-strength. However, they are the only ones with anything in that category, so I guess the CenturyTel officials are not on top of their game right now. ... Okay, penalties are finally being added to the box score, and it seems that was a power-play goal scored during the first of consecutive stints in the penalty box for Mike Salekin. Bes took the first penalty of the game, slashing at 2:52, and Salekin was called for slashing at 8:51 and hooking at 13:10. Salekin then fought Justin Styffe at 18:42, with Robin Richards taking on Neil Clark one second later according to the box. Seems like it's been a pretty rowdy little show over there. ... What the heck, now Lance Monych and Darryl Smith are also plus-1, with the Mudbugs who were on the ice for the goal all getting minuses. I'm a bit perplexed by the officials' logic, because unless Salekin got out of the box eight seconds early for some reason, that was not an even-strength goal. ... Okay, they changed it to a power-play goal, so I can stop rambling about that, haha.

Second Period: Sorry, got a bit busy doing stuff for the paper, but it seems I didn't miss too much. The Bucks have taken a few more penalties, with Smith called for high-sticking, Nick Klaren serving a too-many-men minor and Richards going off for slashing. Joe Zappala also took a slashing call, giving the Bucks their third power-play chance near the halfway point of the period. And, as soon as I refreshed the page, Smith has taken advantage of that to give the Bucks a 2-0 lead. Guess the power play is working out just fine. ... Smith's goal is currently listed as unassisted, and the Bucks are up 20-11 on shots. ... Evan Schwabe has just given the Bucks their first non-power-play goal of the season, knocking one in on an assist from Mohr at 16:53 in the period. Bucks lead 3-0. ... The period has ended, but not before Chris St. Croix could be called for tripping at 19:45, meaning the Bucks will have 1:45 left of a power play when the third period begins. They already lead 2-0 and have a 29-12 shot advantage, which I assume means the 20-11 figure was inaccurate. ... Okay, my apologies, that Smith goal was not on the power play, so he scored the Bucks' first even-strength goal. Regardless, they lead 3-0 with 20 minutes left to play. ... And now the third goal has been changed to Igor Agarunov, with Schwabe and Mohr getting the assists. Smith's is no longer unassisted, with Rivet and Bes getting the helpers. Hopefully things (Pointstreak-wise) will not be such a mess tomorrow night!

Third Period: And the Bucks have taken advantage of that overlapping power play to score yet another goal, this time with Monych getting his first point since re-joining the Bucks. Well, so did Mike Looby, actually. Cody Hamilton had the primary assist. The goal came at 1:09 in the period, giving the Bucks a 4-0 lead. ... Levasseur's chance for a shutout has ended, as Zappala sent one past him at 3:17 in the period. That was the Mudbugs' 13th shot of the game. Justin Aikins had what is currently the lone assist. ... Jeff MacDermid has just taken the first penalty of the period, for tripping at 5:25, to put the Bucks on their fifth power play of the game. ... Clark got called for unsportsmanlike conduct at 10:27, so now the Bucks are on power play No. 6. ... Just noticed the shot disparity has taken a hit, with the Bucks now up 36-21 in that category. ... It seems the reason behind that penalty may have been a bit more complicated than Pointstreak can reveal, as the clock is still stuck at 9:33 left in the game. ... Ummm, wow, the score is now 6-1. Monych knocked one in on assists from Bes and Smith at 14:19, then Smith scored on assists from Monych and Richards at 16:09. Did anyone see this coming? Even Coach Ruskowski seemed a bit concerned about his team heading into this. ... Salekin has been in another fight, this time with Bucks defenseman Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel. About three minutes left in the game, Bucks still lead 6-1. ... Dieude-Fauvel's penalty has been changed to a "no category game misconduct," while Salekin received a "cross checking game misconduct" in addition to his fighting major, and Clark got the same rap as Dieude-Fauvel. I get that the Mudbugs are losing their tempers, but I wonder what Dieude-Fauvel did. Was he defending the player at the bad end of that crosscheck? Considering the fact that this is where Bes was lost last season, injuries were definitely in the back of the returning Bucks' minds heading back to CenturyTel. Let's hope Salekin didn't do anything too stupid. ... Couple minutes later, Schwabe and David Pszenyczny have taken simultaneous roughing minors. It's like they know we're holding Page 3 just for this game story. Apparently the one line that hasn't done any scoring was also the one on the ice for the Mudbugs' lone goal. Forwards Nick Klaren, Justin Styffe and Neil Trimm are the Bucks' only players in the negatives as far as plus/minus goes.

Game Over: We finally have an unofficial final. Bucks win 6-1 on stellar performances by their top line, offensive defensemen and new goalie. Hopefully Bryan Benway's recap will shed some light on the game misconduct penalties. But as long as no one was hurt, what better way to start the year than a thorough beating of a perennial powerhouse for your first regular season win ever in their building? Especially for a rebuilding team, yikes. Wonder if the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees were watching this one. ... Benway's recap does not include any info about those misconducts, so I'll give Ruskowski a call tomorrow to see what I can find out. The guys should be very happy that they won, because tonight's bus ride could have been very unpleasant otherwise.

Game Day No. 1

The Bucks open their 2009-10 regular season tonight against the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs at the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City, La.

Leading up to this game, I had a story in Thursday's Times about Jeff Bes returning to game action and one today about the team's expectations for this big opening weekend, with insight from Bes, team captain Adam Rivet, alternate captain Darryl Smith and, of course, Coach Ruskowski.

You can read the Bes story here, the preview here, Bryan Benway's preview here and the Pointstreak-pre-game notes here.

Earlier this week, I mentioned that forward Peter-James Corsi would be placed on the IR today, and he was, leaving the Bucks with 18 players on their active roster.

Goaltender Jean-Philippe Levasseur, the most recent addition to that lineup, will be starting in net tonight.

Here are some of the quotes, both leftover and used, that I got about this weekend:

Adam Rivet

It is a tough arena to play in, but we can’t really worry about the past with the losing streak in there. We just have to go in there and play hard. Obviously, we have a lot of new guys, and they’re really itching to get at it, and we’re hoping to change the trend there and hopefully get our first win.

You always want to get a quick start you don’t want to fall behind the eight ball. I think the guys know that we have to come out working hard and come away with four points. You want to start the season off right and get out in front of the group. You don’t want to be climbing back in later on, so it is key to go up and show up for both games. It’s a lot of travel, so I’m sure the boys will be tired, but it’s early in the season, so they should still be fresh.

Obviously there are going to be some adjustments as time goes on with boys still learning the systems, but I think they’re starting to get a handle on things. At times, we may have to tweak things a little so that everything’s done properly, but I think we’ll be all right.

Darryl Smith

I think it should be a really good game and hopefully we come out of there with no injuries.

I think we really just have to focus on our tasks, especially in our zone. I think offense will come, but the biggest thing is just working on our defensive coverage and things like that in our own zone, first. Obviously the guys aren’t going to be used to the long bus trip we have right after the game on Friday, but I think at the beginning of the season everyone is still going to be fired up, so it might work in our favor a bit to have the other teams going out and going 100 miles per hour in their home openers.

I’ve always liked it here, and Coach Roscoe has always been great to me along with all the other guys. I think we have a great group of guys, so I’m excited to be back and really start playing again, so I’m really looking forward to the start of the season, and hopefully it goes well for us.

Jeff Bes

Obviously two wins this weekend is our goal, and it would be a huge momentum builder for us. We have to go in there, and we have to play solid hockey. It’s both of their home openers, and they’re going to be excited, so the key is to come out just as strong as they do and hopefully score the first goal to take their crowd out of it then just keep working hard and keep plugging away and keep playing the system. If we do that, we have a really good chance of winning.

We’re definitely prepared. The guys have been working really hard. We’ve had a couple of surprises make the club, and some disappointments, but you’re going to get that every year. But as we all know, if we’re not winning and we’re not doing well, there are going to be changes to be made, but we’ve given everybody equal opportunity to show what they can do, and we’re satisfied with what he have going into Friday night’s game.

Coach Ruskowski

We just need to do our systems. Hopefully we can outplay them and do well in that aspect, but it’s going to be a tough road going out there to play a team with that much experience.

It’s going to be a character builder. No question about that.

I tried to bring in more speed and skill, toughness and spirit, mobile defensemen and solid goaltending. If we have those aspects, we’ll win more games than we lose. But what’s tough about bringing all these new guys in is that they may have all the talent in the world, but if they don’t play as a team, their talent is useless. It all depends on the leadership and how the guys bond with each other.

We practiced (Thursday), and I liked what I saw (from Levasseur). He looked pretty good, and I’m looking forward to seeing him play (tonight).



Lines will stay the same as the ones I mentioned the other day, with Bes-Smith-Lance Monych, Igor Agarunov-Evan Schwabe-Maxime Lincourt and Justin Styffe-Neil Trimm-Nick Klaren handling the forward duties. I imagine Robin Richards will sub into the third and/or second lines at least a couple times.

Defensive pairings were set as of Wednesday's practice, but Ruskowski said he thinks he'll be changing things up a bit during the game tonight. As a reminder, Rivet, Looby, Jarred Mohr, Cody Hamilton, Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel and Tomas Sample are the team's current d-men.

The top power play unit is expected to be the top line with Rivet at one point and Mohr at the other. That decision came as no surprise to me because Mohr has an amazing slap shot. The fact that 16 of his 21 points last season came on the power play is a pretty good hint that this is a smart call.

It should be noted that the Bucks had minimal time to work on their power play and penalty killing (thanks in part to Pit Bull slowing up their progress), so we'll see how well those aspects of the game work out tonight.

Sorry so late in getting to this, but I blame the fact that I have to do the sports section for The Zapata Times before I can do anything else on Fridays. The game starts in about 10 minutes, and I'll be updating as much as I can. You can follow it on Pointstreak for a more consistent flow on information.

Rivet Officially Named Captain

As everyone expected, defenseman Adam Rivet has been named captain of the Bucks for the 2009-10 season.

Rivet served as an alternate captain for the Bucks since I've been here, and he is definitely the responsible type of player/leader people want to see in that position. I know he has a lot of expectations of himself for this season, and I'm sure he knows others will, as well.

Darryl Smith and Mike Looby are this season's alternates, and both of them are excited to be given that leadership responsibility in their returns to Laredo.

Levasseur in Action

There's not much of Jean-Philippe Levassuer on YouTube, but I figured I'd check out some archived press images, and I found this HQ shot from an NHL preseason game in 2007:


















You can see the full image if you click on the one above. Levassaur was at camp and participated in a preseason game with the Ducks again this season, and you can read about that and some of his action with the Bakersfield Condors in articles found here.

I obviously haven't been able to see Levasseur in practice, as he just arrived this afternoon, but have any of you happened to catch him in one of his NHL preseason games or anything of the like?

The only YouTube I can find of Levasseur in action is one of him making a mistake in the game during which the photo above was taken:




Not really the best quality... but I guess we'll get to see him play soon enough.

Fojtik and Salvis Officially Released

Hopefully those of you hoping to see Josef Fojtik and Ryan Salvis traded for a goaltender aren't too disappointed to see them waived with no return.

The Bucks still did get a goalie, of course, in Jean-Philippe Levasseur, but no trades have gone down yet.

I have been asked not to release any details about the decision to get rid of Fojtik and Salvis, and I hope you can all respect that fact and trust Coach Ruskowski enough to know that it was the right move.

If you run into either of them around town, they might be willing to tell you what went wrong.

Bucks Land Levasseur in Net

The Bucks have signed goaltender Jean-Philippe Levasseur, on loan from the Anaheim Ducks organization, to fill the second goalie spot on their roster.

Levasseur is expected to serve as the team's top goaltender, with Kyle Gajewski as his peer/backup.

He had been playing with the ECHL's Bakersfield Condors, who got stocked up with the Ducks' top goalie prospects, before Coach Ruskowski managed to get him.

Levasseur arrived in Laredo at 4 p.m. to sign his contract and will be with the Bucks as they hit the road for Bossier City, La., tonight.

The 22-year-old Quebec native was a seventh-round NHL draft pick in 2005, and Ruskowski mentioned his playing time in the AHL, over 50 games, as an encouraging number.

Obviously, he brings in some more experience than Gerry Festa and Dan Spence, both rookies, had, but what do you think of this move? And how do you feel about keeping Gajewski rather than Festa or Spence?

I'm sorry for the delay in posting this, but the move had to be approved by the league before anything was official.

UPDATE: I had this post ready to go before the Bucks sent out a press release, so I published it as soon as they did and failed to include the link to that. Here it is.

RANDOM: As pointed out by reader and goalie fanatic Jorge M., the picture the Bucks sent out with their press release is actually of Jean-Sebastien Giguere. As evidence, here is the Bucks' photo:
























And here is the photo of Giguere's mask used for the Sports Illustrated goalie mask feature:
























Of course, the fact that the guy in the picture is wearing Giguere's number is another tell-tale sign, haha.

Goalie Moves

I was asked to wait to speak about the goalie situation until an official announcement was made, but as some of you have likely noticed, Gerry Festa and Dan Spence have been waived.

With those moves, Kyle Gajewski is now the only netminder on the Bucks' roster. You can probably guess what that means will happen later, but you'll know for sure soon enough.

UPDATE: Sorry, couldn't post the link from my BlackBerry, but you can check out the Bucks' press release on Festa and Spence's departures here.

Yesterday's Cuts

It slipped my mind earlier that I was supposed to post Coach Ruskowski's quotes about yesterday's cuts today. You can check out my story on them, or read the quotes, which also include some info about the goalie situation, below:

“I don’t think there were any mistakes. With (Matt) McKeown and (Blair) Hawes, they were just alike. I couldn’t tell them apart on the ice. They skated the same, were the same height, had the same stride, they were off by two numbers on their numbers on the back. They were good at everything, but not great at anything, and that's what I told them. They were hard because they're good kids and they worked hard; they just didn't have that next level from junior. But I liked them. I thought they were good kids, really good kids. They're all good kids.

"(Nick) Williams came down on a tryout, and I think he knew he had to get a few more years under his belt professionally to see what professional is all about.

"(Drew) Kivell was a tough one. I really had him penciled in to make the team, but he had a tough camp. He struggled with some different things, a little bit with his weight. He was feeling down a little bit, not feeling well, but you have to go with what you see on the ice.

"(Ian) Clarke is a guy that really intrigues me because I really think he can play in our league. But he needs to have maybe one year in the Southern Professional league to find out what professional hockey's all about and get rid of the mistakes that he was making during camp. I know that he was nervous and excited. He's a good skater, and he's tough; if he could just learn how to play defense as a professional, I think he could be very successful. I'm going to keep an eye on him and see what's going on with him.

"(Kevin) Flather was the kind of guy that I think Europe kinda messed him up. He had some habits that it was going to take me too long to fix, and when you're starting in a couple days, you don't have time. You can't change the system for him, he has to change his system to match yours, and I just didn't think we would have time to do that.

"I'm going to be on the phone, and once I find out what's going on, I have to make decisions on goaltending and one more forward. It's tough. It's why I took a couple days; I've been thinking about what I have to do and what they have to do to be successful. It's just a tough decision.

"I thought (Gerry) Festa played really well the first game, then I thought (Kyle) Gajewski played really well in Corpus Christi. What'd he have, 20 saves the first period? Some of them were pretty tough, and he came up large, so that kind of gave me a good notice that he's capable now of doing what he can do consistently. It's still who to pick between Festa and (Dan) Spence, and that's why I kept them around a little longer to find out which one I'm going to keep."


As mentioned yesterday, Alexander Eaton was out of town for the crucial preseason games this weekend, and here's what Ruskowski said about cutting him when I followed up on that today:

"It was a situation where he was trying to juggle both coming here and going back for the wedding, and he left us at the worst time possible. He was trying to get out of it, but he couldn't get out of it and he came down here anyway. I got to see what he looked like, and he was a great guy. Really responsible, leadership type, but he just maybe didn't have the capability of making my team even though I liked his physical presence.

"Instead of flying him all the way back, then sending him all the way home, when he went home, he said, 'Call me before.' And I told him it probably wouldn't be to his best advice to come back down because the team's kind of already set. I wish he had played because he's a pretty physical player, but you make your bed, you sleep in it. Unfortunately he didn't play, so I didn't have the opportunity to see him (in a game), it was kind of a situation that he lost out on being a part of the team."


The Bucks officially announced Eaton's departure in a press release this afternoon.