Game Day No. 54

So sorry for the delay in posting today, but I've been swamped with baseball, golf, softball, soccer, track and field... well, you get the idea, since I got here.

Hopefully some of you are at this game so you can let me know anything the box score doesn't, but those of you who aren't can follow it on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.

Due to a shortage on time, I'm just going to copy and paste my story from last night, which focused a lot on tonight, below:


Bucks win, set up key game

The Laredo Bucks picked up two crucial points in the standings with a 3-2 win over the Rio
Grande Valley Killer Bees on Friday, setting up another battle for third place with the Texas Brahmas tonight at the LEC.

Laredo (26-18-9, 61 points) jumped out to a lead in the first period that was quickly lost but regained it in the second and held on to improve to 10-0-3 against Rio Grande Valley (21-25-8, 50 points) this season.

“It was huge,” Bucks Head Coach/General Manager Terry Ruskowski said. “We need to keep people behind us and try to catch Texas. (Tonight) is a big game for us.”

Laredo stands two points behind the Brahmas (29-19-5, 63 points), who defeated the Corpus Christi IceRays on Friday night and will face Texas tonight with third place in the Southern Conference on the line.

“It’s huge,” Ruskowski said. “This is our building. We have them one more time back in their building, which is a very hard place to beat them. Coming in here, we have to show ourselves.
We have to show that we’re capable of playing with a very good hockey team.

“We just have to continue to play the way we’re capable of playing and trying to improve. When we move the puck and come at them with speed, we’re a different hockey team. When we sit back, we’re not effective, so we have to stay on our toes instead of our heels.

“We’ll have to come out, and hopefully we can match them and trump them. It’s going to be a
hard battle, but I think the guys know that, so we’ll bunker down and see what we can do.”

Tonight’s game would not provide the Bucks with the same opportunity had they lost on Friday, and some late defensive stands, especially during a two-man advantage for the Killer Bees, were crucial to that victory.

“That 5-on-3 was the difference in the hockey game,” Ruskowski said. “(Goaltender Pier-Olivier) Pelletier made the great saves, but the guys in the front did a really good job
of containing them, getting sticks on the shots. They did a tremendous job.

“That was really the turning point of the third period, and probably the whole game.”

No goals were scored in the third, making Sylvain Deschatelets’ first tally for Laredo at 6:36 in the second the difference in the game.

Deschatelets scored off a feed from a faceoff win just 26 seconds after Neil Trimm gave the Bucks a 2-1 lead.

Eric Giosa scored Laredo’s first goal at 16:05 in the first when he backhanded a rebound past Wylie Rogers (8-8-2), who was making his first start against the Bucks this season.

“I thought at the start of the game we were going to have trouble scoring because we had some really good chances and never scored, “ Ruskowski said. “But when Gio scored at the end of the first period, then I thought the guys got more relaxed.”

Grant Goeckner-Zoeller scored Rio Grande Valley’s first goal to tie the game at 1 at 2:10 in the second period, and Stacey Bauman’s slap shot with under a minute left in the middle frame led to the final 3-2 score.

Pelletier, in his first start at the LEC since Dec. 31, made 23 saves on 25 shots to improve to 4-4-1.



Not trying to jinx them, but as of when I am typing this, the Bucks lead the Brahmas 3-0 after one period on two goals by Deschatelets and one by Todd Griffith with Pelletier in net.

I'll update again after the game.