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!