Game No. 18 - Bucks at Jackalopes

I had grand plans to use the free trial of CHL-TV and watch the Bucks (10-4-3, 23 points) take on the Jackalopes (15-3-2, 32 points) tonight, but it seems the first period was played before I was able to crawl out of the pile of work I've been buried under all afternoon.

Now that such things have been taken care of, I am going to settle for listening to the rest of the game, so I will try to live blog the rest of the game... with some breaks to take basketball calls and edit incoming stories.

First, though, here's an update: Eric Giosa scored his fourth goal of the season, on assists from defenseman Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel and newcomer Curtis Billsten just 3:57 into the game to give the Bucks a 1-0 lead.

That point marks Billsten's first with the Bucks and is maybe proof of the fact that he was a bit rusty on Wednesday, which Coach Ruskowski had mentioned as a possibility.

From there on, the only things to hit the box score were penalties, with two called on each team and all four power plays held scoreless.

The Bucks are actually outshooting the Jacks 13-8 through the first, but we'll see if they can keep up that pace throughout the game.

Jean-Philippe Levasseur is in net for the Bucks, almost guaranteeing Kyle Gajewski will get the start tomorrow, and Joel Martin is between the pipes for the Jackalopes.

Second Period: Of course, as soon as I start listening, a pane of ice gets dislodged. That'll make for a slight delay here early in the period. ... Okay, maybe not. ... The Jackalopes seem to be controlling play early in this one, as Levasseur has already had to make quite a few saves. ... According to Bryan Benway, Jeff Bes was just "nearly assaulted," but then he got called for interference to put the No. 1 power play in the league back on the ice. ... Nothing doing on that one. ... Dieude-Fauvel apparently made quite a hit, not sure who was on the receiving end. ... Okay, turns out I'm getting more basketball calls than anticipated. Each team had a power play in the second half of the period, and neither team scored. The Jacks doubled the Bucks on shots in the period, 18-9, and now lead in that category, 27-21, but are still down 1-0.

Third Period: Jacks going on their fifth power play with a hooking call against Evan Schwabe at 4:44. ... I know I'm not supposed to care in this way, but my heart goes out to Levasseur right now. He's played so well, and he really deserves that shutout, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. With just 32 seconds left to play, Brian Swiniarski scored an extra-attacker goal to get the Jacks on the board. And now, because the Bucks couldn't score after that early goal, the game is going to overtime.