Jacks Take Care of Sundogs Over Weekend

Hello fellow Jackalope fans! It is a snowy Tuesday here in the Permian Basin, and the Jacks are feeling pretty good after defeating the Sundogs in both weekend games at the ECC. The Jacks current record now sits at an incredible 23-4-3, and they still lead the Southern Conference by nine points. The Allen Americans have not lost a game since losing three in a row to the Jacks, so we have not been able to put any distance between us and Allen in the Southern standings.

Even though the Jacks were able to take both games from the underrated Arizona Sundogs, it definitely was not an easy task as the Jacks won both games by only one goal. Saturdays final was by a score of 6-5, while Sunday's was by a final of 4-3. Even though a win is a win, and the Jacks were able to take both games, I think just about everybody can agree that the Jacks looked pretty sloppy during both games. The passes were not very crisp, the PP wasn't clicking, the defense looked deflated, and in my honest opinion, Juha did not look like his usual self. In fact, Juha giving up three goals in a time span of a little over three and a half minutes is unacceptable in my eyes. Now, Juha definitely does not deserve all of the blame as the defense deserves some as well, but I do not think anybody was expecting the Finnish Flash to give up five goals on 38 shots. Oh well, I think we all know that Juha will get back to the way he was playing at the beginning of the season in the very near future.

Now lets go ahead and break down Saturday's game, shall we? As I already stated, the Jacks won by a final of 6-5 in front of 2,510 fans at the ECC. On a side note: Come on guys, lets start filling the Jack Shack and get the place to rocking. Okay, now back to the game. The Jacks went 2-7 on the PP, while giving up only one goal to Arizona with the man advantage on 8 PP opportunities. Special teams was pretty decent during this game. Now lets move on to who scored for the Jacks, and break down how Juha did in net. Kory Karlander finished the night with one goal and one assist; Sebastien Thinel picked up three assists; Dominic Leveille had two goals and one assist; Kenny Bernard picked up two points with a goal and an assist; Brian Swiniarski had one goal; Phil Plante picked up a PP goal; and finally, Jean Bourbeau, Garrett Gruenke, Alex Dunn, Jeff Pierce, and Mike Ramsay all finished the night with one assist apiece. As far as Juha goes, he stopped 33 of the 38 shots on goal that he faced. He did pick up the win, but I think we can all agree that he was not at his best during this game. I must give him credit, though, as he did make several key saves down the stretch. Hell, there was even a brief Juha chant after he stopped a few shots that seemed to be destined to find the back of the net. Hopefully he will get out of this mini slump in the very near future, and we will see the Juha from last season's playoffs once again.

Now lets move to Sunday afternoon's game against these same Sundogs. The Jacks won by a final of 4-3 in front of a crowd of 2,035. The Jacks looked a little better, in my opinion, during this game, but they were still a little sloppy. The Jacks, shockingly, went 0-11 on the PP, but I don't know if there was one of these PP chances that were a full two minutes as referee Kevin Mallin was an absolute joke. Also, the Jacks PK allowed one goal on three of the Arizona man advantages. Now lets break down who scored for the Jacks, and Martin's performance in net. Mike Ramsay finished the afternoon with two goals; Alex Dunn had a two point afternoon picking up one goal and one assist; Collin Circelli had one goal; and finally Paul Kelly, Jean Bourbeau, Sebastien Thinel, Phil Plante, Kenny Bernard, Dave Van Drunen, and Joel Martin all capped off the evening with one assist apiece. I don't know what is up with our goalies picking up all of these assists this season, but if I am not mistaken, both of our goalies now have more total points than a couple of our defensemen. Joel Martin also stopped 33 of the 36 shots that he faced, and still sits as the number one goalie in the entire CHL. In fact, I would like to congratulate Martin as he was recently named the CHL goaltender of the week for the second consecutive week. This is a very well deserved honor for Joel, and hopefully his play in net will continue for the remainder of the season, and into the playoffs.

I would also like to congratulate Dominic Leveille who picked up his 300th professional point over the weekend. By the way, the majority of those points have been accumulated by Leveille as an Odessa Jackalope. This guy is a true Jackalope, and he is one of my personal favorites. Hopefully he will continue to have a successful career, and hopefully when the time comes for it to end, it will be in the Jack's red and black! Once again, congratulations to Leveille on a fantastic milestone reached!

Finally, lets go ahead and talk about the Jack's upcoming schedule. The Jacks will have three games in three days at the ECC against the finally clicking Texas Brahmas, the struggling Amarillo Gorillas, and the inconsistent Corpus Christi IceRays. Hopefully the Jacks will take all three games, and head for the annual rodeo road trip on a ten game winning streak. Speaking of the rodeo road trip, it begins after these three home games at the ECC for the Jacks, and then they are on the road for most of January. So, please lets fill up the Jack Shack for these three upcoming games, because there will not be hockey in the Permian Basin again until the 29th of January.

Around the league:

• Speaking of the Texas Brahmas, they have just announced that they signed Nathan Perrott, an enforcer with NHL experience for the rest of the season.


• And finally, the only other real news that I could find pertaining to the rest of the CHL: A dubbed "blockbuster" trade has been made between the Riverkings and the pitiful Thunder. Wichita receives Ian Keserich, Steve Makway, and Kevin Cooper from Mississippi in exchange for Kevin Truelson and Tim Boron. A couple of questions really come to mind when thinking about this trade: First, at this point of the season will anything help the Thunder who have won only three games this season? And secondly, why would the Riverkings give up a great player in Kevin Cooper for two struggling players from a last place team?

Until next time Jack fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!! and lets have a great steak dinner with A-1 Sauce on Thursday night when the Bulls come to town!

Jacks and Martin Stay on Fire!

Hello fellow Jackalope fans! The Jacks have looked great the last few games, and are now on a five game winning streak! Also, the Jacks have now pushed the second place Allen Americans further away from the Jacks in the Southern Conference standings, leading them by nine points.

Now lets get on to tonight's game, shall we? The Jacks put a beatdown on the Americans tonight, defeating them by a final of 5-1. I must say, however, that the score could have been a whole lot different if it were not for the outstanding play of Jackalope goaltender, Joel Martin. Martin stopped an incredible 44 out of 45 shots on goal. Not to mention that just the other night Martin stopped 37 shots on goal against these same Americans as the Jacks shut out Allen by a final of 3-0. As far as how Martin's play has been over the last several games, one word comes to mind: WOW!!! This guy is absolutely dominating, and Juha sure isn't no slouch either. In fact, I would dare to say that the Jackalopes have the best goaltending duo in the entire Central Hockey League. After tonights huge win, Martin remains the number one goalie in the entire league with a record of 12-1-2, a goals against average of 2.05, and a save percentage of 93%. Now lets move on to who scored for the Jacks tonight. Mike Ramsay and Kenny Bernard both finished with one goal and one assist a piece (with Rammer's being a shorty); Jeff Pierce, Brian Swiniarski, and Alex Dunn also had one goal a piece; and finally Mike Lesperance, Phil Plante, Dominic Leveille, Collin Circelli, Jean Bourbeau, and Kory Karlander all finished the night with one assist a piece.

On a side note, I must say that I have been extremely impressed with Swinny ever since he has come off the IR. The guy not only brings an extra physical element to the Jacks, but he has proven that he can score too. I would also like to say that the Jacks are proving that they are the cream of the crop in the CHL this season after beating the very talented Allen Americans three games in a row. I can honestly say that I did not expect the Jacks to win all three games, although I definitely wanted them to. I guess I got my wish, though, as the Jacks won on Friday in Allen in overtime by a final of 3-2 (with the Jacks forcing overtime with less than one minute to play in regulation); the Jacks and Martin then shut out the Americans at the ECC by a final of 3-0; and finally the Jacks put a beating on the Americans at the ECC tonight with a final of 5-1.

By the way, tonight was the last time the Jacks play the Americans for the rest of the regular season. Who knows, though, maybe we will see them come playoff time! Finally, I would like to say thank you to everybody who showed up to watch the Jacks tonight at the ECC. The Jacks had their best attendance (I believe) of the season tonight, with over 3,700 people filling the seats at the Jack Shack. The place was electric, and the atmosphere was very enjoyable. I bet the boys were probably very happy to see a full house tonight. I must say that I also think it is sort of neat that in my last blog posting I was hoping for 3,500-4,000 to be at the Jack Shack to support the team, and then tonight we hit almost exactly in the middle of those numbers with 3,700+ in attendance. Lets hope that our attendance will stay like that for the rest of the season!

With that being said, I am going to go ahead and wrap things up here. Before I go, I would like to wish everybody a safe and merry Christmas, and I will be back in a few days to hopefully post more good news after the Jacks handle the Arizona Sundogs over the weekend at the ECC.

Around the CHL:

• The Laredo Bucks have been struggling as of late, losing to the Amarillo Gorillas the other night before losing to the Missouri Mavericks tonight in a shootout. You better believe that Lord Roscoe is pulling out several of those grey hairs as he finds his team falling further and further behind in the South.


• The struggling Riverkings pull out a road win against the struggling Ice Rays by a final of 5-3. Who would have guessed that the 'Kings would have a season like they are having so far?


• And finally the Colorado Eagles defeated the Rapid City Rush by a final of 6-5 in Rapid City. I guess this means that Gillis won't be coaching the CHL All-Stars this season, but something tells me that Gilly isn't worried about the rest of the CHL, only his Southern Conference leading Odessa Jackalopes.

Until next time Jack fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!! and lets sweep the Sundogs this weekend!

Southern Conference Tightening Up!

Hello fellow Jackalope fans! I Hope all is well, and I hope everybody is ready for Saturday night when the Jacks look for revenge against the very talented Allen Americans. The Jacks lost to the Americans in a very good game at the ECC back in November by a final of 5-4, and you better believe that the Jacks are ready to return the favor. In fact, the Jacks will get their chance before Saturday as they play Allen in Allen on Friday, before making the trip back to Odessa to play the Americans at the ECC on Saturday night. Both games should be exciting, and both games are very crucial for both teams as the Jacks narrowly lead the Americans by two points in the conference standings. Lets all hope that the Jacks can push Allen further back in the standings, and keep a tight grip on the number one spot in the South.

With all of this being said, I do have one thing that I would like to get off my chest: the attendance at the Jack Shack. The Jacks have one of the best (if not the best) teams in the entire league, yet we are averaging only 2,500 people per game at the ECC. Not only that, but I think we all know that attendance numbers are based on tickets sold, not the actual number of butts in seats. This needs to be fixed and fixed fast. I know the excuse is usually that football is going on around the Permian Basin, and football is king in west Texas. However, high school football is now over in our area, and we need to start rockin' the Jack Shack to help encourage our boys to win. They deserve a good crowd with the way that they are playing, and I would personally like to see 3,500 to 4,000 people at the ECC on Saturday. So grab whoever you can (aunt, uncle, cousin, friend, neighbor) and drag them to the Jack Shack on Saturday so we can have an electric atmosphere for what is sure to be one hell of a game. Who knows, maybe we can create some new Jackalope fans and increase our anemic fan base.

Now that I have given my two cents about our struggling attendance, lets move on to the Jacks pretty good weekend, shall we? In what many were calling a potential preview to the President Cup Final, the Jacks took on the Northern Conference leading Colorado Eagles in an absolute thriller. In a battle of the conference leaders, the Eagles won by a final of 2-1 in a shootout, but the Eagles had several advantages that may have given them the edge in getting the big "W". First of all, the game was played at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado. This place has sold out (I believe) every single home game since the birth of the Eagles franchise. Having a sold out crowd backing a very good team definitely gives the home team the advantage. Another advantage that the Eagles had were power play chances, which I wholeheartedly disagree with. I believe the Jacks outplayed the Eagles for most of the game, although it was pretty close, and I believe the Jacks should have been the team with the five power plays with the Eagles having the three. There were a couple of obvious calls that could have and should have been made on Colorado that were not, and there was one call that was absolutely bogus that was called against the Jacks. In fact, that iffy interference call on Dave Van Drunen was the power play that gave the Eagles the tying goal. With that being said, I can't complain too terribly much as the game was called almost evenly, which is more than I can say about some other games this season. Both goalies were absolutely stellar in net, and both made saves that were definitely game changers. One huge save made by Penner that I can think of off the top of my head is when the Jacks had a 2 on 0 shorthanded opportunity that he turned away. Martin also made some incredible saves, including a huge one in overtime that sent the game to a shootout. I was really hoping that Martin would shut the Eagles down in the shootout like he has to so many other teams, but he let two of their shooters score, while Penner only allowed Leveille to score. Martin still looked very good in the shootout, but unfortunately Penner looked just a little bit better. Oh well, the Jacks still earned a very well deserved point, and I'm sure Gillis and Cressman were happy with the effort that the boys gave in that game. Before I move on to Sunday's game against the Apes, I would also like to point out that Mike Ramsay scored the Jack's only goal of the game, with Alex Dunn and Sebastien Thinel picking up the assists. Martin also made 26 saves on 27 Colorado shots on goal.

Now lets move on to yesterday's game against the struggling monkeys. The Jacks played the Amarillo Gorillas in Amarillo, and lets just say that the Jacks handled the apes very easily. The final of yesterday's game was 9-2 in the Jack's favor. There were many highlights from the game, so lets go ahead and point some of them out. First of all, Kenny Bernard had a natural hat trick as well as an assist to cap off a big four point night; Sebastien Thinel also had a huge night picking up five points (1G-4A); Dominic Leveille picked up three assists; Bourbeau and Gruenke both picked up rare goals; Juha Toivonen picked up his fourth assist of the season leading all CHL goaltenders in points; the Jacks also went two for three on the power play; and finally the Jacks killed off all four of Amarillo's man advantages. There were many other Jacks that picked up points, but if you would like to check those stats out then you should visit pointstreak's website at http://www.pointstreak.com/prostats/gamesheet_off.html?gameid=1067593.

All in all, the Jacks had a very good weekend picking up three out of four possible points. Most importantly, the Jacks have once again claimed sole possession of first place in the Southern Conference by a slim two points. This upcoming week as well as the Jack's upcoming home stand will be extremely critical for the Jacks success. As I already stated, lets fill the ECC up on Saturday and give the boys the electric atmosphere that they deserve. With that being said, I'm going to go ahead and wrap things up here and go and grab a bite to eat.

Until next time Jack fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!! and lets put a beating on the sun puppies on Wednesday night!