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!