Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Game Day No. 62

The Bucks will face the Odessa Jackalopes at 7 p.m. with an opportunity to clinch the third seed for the Southern Conference in the upcoming Central Hockey League playoffs.

The Bucks (31-20-10, 72 points) can clinch with a win, a loss by the Texas Brahmas (31-24-7, 69 points) or an overtime loss and an overtime loss by the Brahmas.

The Jackalopes (45-11-5, 95 points) are fighting to clinch the Governor's Cup ahead of the Rapid City Rush (42-13-6, 90 points), who host the Brahmas tonight.

There are plenty of benefits to getting the third seed for any team, but for the Bucks, that extra week off and a chance to avoid a possible matchup with the Corpus Christi IceRays is even more appealing.

You can read more about the importance of finishing third and the weekend that got them where they are now in my notebook in today's Times.

Teams just came out for warmups, and Eric Giosa and Mike Looby are both out there, so it looks like they should play tonight. Jarred Mohr is not on the ice, so it seems he will miss his third straight game. Pier-Olivier Pelletier (9-4-2) will get his fourth straight start in goal.

The Bucks are wearing special St. Patrick's Day jerseys for the final jersey auction of the season, so we'll see how well the off-ice officials can keep up with the numbers tonight.

As Joe Rutland reported in Tuesday's Times, today's press conference was held to announce the purchase of the naming rights of the LEC, which will now be known as Laredo Energy Arena.

Laredo Energy CEO Glenn Hart, also the majority owner of the Bucks, made a point of the fact that this investment is solid proof that the Bucks are here and not planning on leaving anytime soon.

Back to tonight, though, you can read more in Bryan Benway's preview or the Pointstreak pre-game notes.

You can follow the game here or on Pointstreak, watch on CHL-TV or listen on Imagen 94.1 FM.

Note: Sorry for the delay in this being posted; the Internet at Laredo Energy Arena went out for a while.

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