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.