Game Day No. 19

Suffering a heartbreaking seventh-round shootout loss late at night then having to drive eight hours only to get back home early in the morning with the knowledge that you have to play the same team again that night is not an ideal situation for any team.

For the Bucks, it's exceptionally bad right now.

As I said yesterday, I really feel for Jean-Philippe Levasseur because there is no way in the world that he deserved to lose that game.

If the Bucks can't beat the Jackalopes with Levasseur making 41 saves PLUS six straight in the shootout, is there really any way they can?

We'll get a chance to find out tonight as they host the Jacks at the LEC for the second time this season, this time with backup Kyle Gajewski expected to be in net.

Though his talent level is clearly not what Levasseur's is, Coach Ruskowski has a lot of confidence in Gajewski and says he's played very well other than the 9-0 loss to the Arizona Sundogs, which he handled well and moved on from without dwelling too much on being left in such a bad situation.

It may be for the best that Gajewski get the start tonight because, despite Levasseur's incredibly calm and mellow demeanor, he can't be too thrilled with the fate he suffered last night.

Gajewski has only had one start since the 9-0 debacle, another loss, but everyone seems to agree he played pretty well in that one.

All told, he is 1-3-1 this season with a save percentage of .866.

The offense got a bit of a wake-up call last night after scoring four goals or more in three of its last four games, and judging from the broadcast, the defense made quite a few mistakes that Levasseur kept from coming back to bite them.

Interestingly enough, the Bucks' penalties also didn't come back to get them, but the biggest goal of the game was still scored with the Jackalopes on a man advantage.

If nothing else, the Bucks got a point out of the loss, but that is a really, really tough way to lose.

For more on last night, you can read the writeup from the Odessa American.

Here's what Brian Swiniarski had to say about his game-tying goal with 32 seconds to play:

“I got a great pass from Dom and we had some people in front of him to screen him out. We had some great chances earlier in the game, so it was nice to get even and into overtime.”

And here are some details about the shootout:

That set up Swiniarski, who raced down the slot on the right side, made a move to get Levasseur to the ice and then slid the puck under the right arm of the goaltender as he attempted to recover to the left post, setting off a celebration on the Jackalopes’ bench.

“I learned the move from a guy I played with in Bakersfield,” Swiniarski said. “He (Levasseur) is a big goalie and he doesn’t give you much room, so it was nice to get the puck behind him.”

Even reading that makes me feel bad for Levasseur. No offense to the rest of the team, but he really seems to deserve to have better skaters playing in front of him. I wonder if he has any regrets about accepting a move to the CHL.

Meanwhile, for more on tonight, you can check out Bryan Benway's preview and the Pointstreak pre-game notes.

There is a tailgating chili cookoff under way at the LEC right now, but I'm not sure how many people are going to brave the very un-Laredo-like cold to participate.

Not that you care, but last night was the first winter night since I've moved here that the low in Laredo was lower than the low in my hometown.

Tonight will also be the night of the Bucks' toy drive, and every toy donated can be exchanged for a raffle ticket to win prizes at the game.

I'll be back with the live blog in a couple hours.