Back in Fourth

The Texas Brahmas picked up a 2-1 shootout win over the Allen Americans today to improve to 26-17-5 (57 points) and take over third place outright again, dropping the Bucks (23-16-9, 55 points) back to fourth.

Each team has now played 48 games this season, and the Bucks will get a chance to move back into a tie for third when they host the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (20-21-7, 47 points) again on Thursday with the Brahmas off for the night.

The Bucks and Brahmas both have 3-in-3s this weekend, but the Brahmas do not start playing until Friday.

They host the last-place Wichita Thunder (7-35-4, 18 points) and first-place Odessa Jackalopes (36-9-4, 76 points) then play the Thunder in Wichita, while the Bucks host the Killer Bees, face the Corpus Christi IceRays (21-21-7, 49 points) on the road, then drive down to Hidalgo to play the Killer Bees again.

Obviously, yesterday's game against the Killer Bees did not go as the Bucks had hoped, as suffered a 4-3 shootout loss to fall to 2-0-3 against their former Southeast Division rival at home this season.

You can read more about the game in my story and Bryan Benway's press release.

Coach Ruskowski was not very talkative after the game, at least not in talking about it, but he still served as jersey auctioneer and opted not to make the team skate today following a tough 3-in-3, so it's safe to say he wasn't as upset as he has been with some other losses.

Here's some of what he had to say:

On the effort yesterday: I don't know. We didn't pass, we didn't... you know, they lost a couple games in a row, and they played very hard. I just don’t know what my team’s going to do game in and game out. I can’t judge them anymore, I just can’t judge them, so it's hard. We didn’t play our best game, obviously, but we showed character in the third period to come back. So that was a positive, but we couldn’t close the door.

On the weekend as a whole: Again, I guess the only positive thing is that we came back, scored two goals in the third period to come back and tie it. We lost in a shootout, mind you, but it going .500 for the week with two away and one home, that’s okay.But if you set your sights low, you’ll shoot low, and we’d like to set our sights high. If we don’t reach our goals, at least we have a good substitute for second place.

On shootouts against the Killer Bees: I don't know. Obviously, when you go to a shootout, it's whoever's lucky, whoever has the best shot to score. They have a very good goalie, and we have a tendency to not score a whole lot on him in shootouts, or in regulation. When it goes into a shootout, it seems like we’re at a little disadvantage.

On players stepping up: I think (Curtis) Billsten, scoring that goal, was good going to the net. I really can't mention anybody really who comes up in my mind.

On goalie play over the weekend: I thought (Pier-Olivier) Pelletier played very well last night, very well, and I thought Desfosses played OK today.

The team got the full day off today, as far as I know, but they'll be back on the ice tomorrow, so we'll see how Ruskowski is feeling after they get a practice in for the first time since last Monday.

I'll be back to report on practice, and his post-practice thoughts, tomorrow.