Success in South Texas

Hello fellow CHL and especially Jackalope fans! It has been quite a while since my last blog, but I am back to give you my personal take on the Jacks games this past weekend in Rio and Corpus. I was fortunate enough to be able to make both games, and I must say that I had an incredible time. I did have a couple of minor issues (which we will get to in just a few minutes) but overall we had a blast. We will get to all of the details in a few minutes, and we will also break down both games as well as discuss the Jacks upcoming schedule.

Now lets go ahead and move on to the Jackalope's current record, and their upcoming schedule, shall we? The Jacks current record sits at an unbelievable 28-6-2, for a total of 59 points. The Jacks lead the Allen Americans by seven points for the Southern Conference lead, with the Texas Brahmas holding the number three spot with a total of 43 points. I think that it is fairly safe (though not set in stone) to say that either the Jacks or Americans will win the Southern Conference this season. Some may argue that the Brahmas still have a decent chance of making a run for the number one seed in the South, but in order for that to happen the Jacks and Americans would both have to absolutely collapse, and the Brahmas would have to play phenomenal hockey for the remainder of the season. I personally think that it is a two team race in the South, but stranger things have happened, and the season is far from over. Now lets go ahead and quickly discuss the Jackalope's upcoming schedule. As fellow Jackalope blogger jacksfan1975 pointed out, the folks that made the schedules this season are absolutely idiots. The Jacks play the Arizona Sundogs in five of their upcoming six games. They will play Arizona in their three upcoming games in Arizona, head back to the Rio Grande Valley to end the rodeo road trip, and then play Arizona for two consecutive games at the ECC. Why must you put us through this, Mr. or Mrs. CHL schedule maker?!?!? Not only do the fans get bored quickly, but I'm sure the players get tired of playing the same team over and over as well.

Now lets go ahead and dissect this past weekend's games in South Texas against the Corpus Christi IceRays and the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees. We will start with Friday's contest between the Jacks and Rays. I really enjoyed the game in Corpus as the Jacks were able to literally win the game in the dying seconds of regulation. Before I give my detailed opinion on the fans in Corpus as well as the peroformance of the ref of that game, Kevin Graber, I will go ahead and break down who scored for the Jacks, as well as Martin's play in net. Congratulations to Dominic Leveille who picked up a goal and an assist in the game; congrats to Circelli who also had one goal and one assist; congrats to Jeff Pierce who picked up one goal in the game; a big congrats to Jean Bourbeau who picked up the shorthanded goal that sealed the fate of the Rays with five seconds left in regulation; and finally congrats to Mbaraga, Thinel, Sanford, and Swiniarski who all finished the night with one assist apiece. Joel Martin was very good in net, stopping 36 of 39 Corpus shots. This guy is the real deal, and he had another very good game between the pipes for the Jacks. The final of the game was 4-3 in the Jack's favor.

Now we will go ahead and change directions and talk about Kevin Graber as well as the IceRay fans. We will start with Kevin Graber. The guy missed obvious penalties that should have been called on both teams. Many Corpus fans are claiming that he decided the outcome of the game, and basically handed the Jacks the win. Since I was actually at the ABC, I must say that I have to completely disagree with these fans. Both teams had almost an equal number of PP chances, with the Jacks having only one more than the Rays. If Garbutt would have been more disciplined and if he had not taunted the ref by sarcastically tapping his stick on the ice, then both teams would have had the exact same number of PP opportunities. If certain Corpus fans want to make excuses for their team and blame the loss on the ref, then I guess the Jacks could complain about Graber making an absolute phantom call on Bernard for holding with two minutes left in the game. The ref was basically handing the game to the Rays on a silver platter, but the Jacks were able to score shorthanded with five seconds left in regulation to seal the deal for the Jacks. The Rays have nobody but themselves to blame for that loss, as they had the final two minutes of regulation with the man advantage, and should have at least (in the very least) forced the game in to OT to earn a well deserved point. Oh well, as a Jackalope fan I must say that I was extremely pleased with the outcome.

Now lets talk about a couple of the Corpus fans. We sat in the rowdy section at the ABC, and I must say that they make our Section Q boys look like angels. Folks from this section continuously pelted our players that were in the penalty box with chunks of ice, with the off ice officials staring right at them. They did not get in to any trouble for this, and finally we yelled at the officials towards the end of the game. The officials then offered a meaningless finger pointing to the individuals, who then decided to talk crap to us for "snitching" on them. There should absolutely be no physical contact made between the players and fans during the games, and these morons should have been kicked out for their behavior. Another issue with some of the fans was that objects were continuously being thrown on to the ice during the game including bubble gum, coins, as well as a beverage of some type. They would announce for the audience to stop throwing objects on the ice, but these useless threats had no impact. If it would have been Jackalope fans at the ECC doing this, you better believe that the Jacks would have received a two minute minor. Finally, I would like to talk about some adult situations that were occuring during the game in the section directly to the right of us. There was a group of older men with very young women that were engaging in what we will call improper behavior. These men were continuously playing with these women's asses with little kids literally feet away from them. At one point in time, one of these older men put a piece of ice down one of the young "ladie's" pants, to which she then exposed her bare ass while he played with it for a brief moment. There is a time and place for this type of behavior, and these people should have been kicked out of the arena indefinitely for indecent exposure. However, I did not see one security officer during the game, so I guess the fans in Corpus can practically get away with whatever they want. Finally, I would like to address the boarding call made on Tessier as well as the spearing call made on Karlander. Even though many Corpus fans are claiming that the boarding major was bogus, the incident happened directly in front of me, and I must say that it was brutal, cheap, and very dirty. This thug should be suspended for this crap. I did not see Karlander spear anybody, so I can't comment on this. I will say, however, that the Jacks did not seem to be unpleased with the call, so maybe it was legit. Sorry for taking so long with this game, but I had a lot to get off of my chest.

Lets shift gears once again and move on to Saturday's contest between the Killer Bees and the Jacks at the Dodge Arena. I am going to try and keep the rundown of this game short and sweet as it was a hard fought, clean, entertaining hockey game between two very good teams. The Jacks won the game by a final of 4-3 in a very full Dodge Arena. The fans were very passionate, yet very respectful and courteous as well. We had absolutely no problem with the fans in the valley, and even had a nice conversation with a couple of their fans during one of the intermissions. Now lets go ahead and break down who scored for the Jacks, as well as Juha's play in net. Congratulations to Dominic Leveille who had one goal and one assist in the game; congrats to Jean Bourbeau and Mike Lesperance who both finished the night with two assists apiece; congrats to Phil Plante, Kory Karlander, and Alex Dunn who all had one goal apiece on the evening; and finally, congrats to Mike Ramsay and Brian Swiniarski who both had one assist apiece on the game. Juha Toivonen played very well in net for the Jacks, stopping 32 of 35 Rio shots. He made some incredible saves during the game, but I bet he would really like to have another shot at that third goal that he allowed. It was a bit of a fluke goal, but he was still very solid between the pipes, and it is looking like the old Juha is back once again.

With all of this being said, I am going to go ahead and wrap things up and enjoy the rest of MLK day. Hopefully I will be blogging again some time in the next week with more good news as the Jacks play the Sundogs in Arizona for three games in a row.

Elsewhere around the CHL:

• Rapid City's Battachio has been named the Oakley CHL Goaltender of the Week. He went 2-0-0 during the week, with a 94.2 save percentage as well as a 2.00 goals against average. Congrats on a very good week.


• Texas' Godoy has been named the Oakley CHL Player of the Week. In two games Godoy had three goals and three assists for a total of six points. He was also a +3 for the week, so congrats to him as well.


• Finally, the Allen Americans defeated the Arizona Sundogs by a final of 4-2 in the lone game on MLK day. This now puts the Americans seven points behind the Jacks in the Southern Conference standings with one game in hand.

Until next time Jack fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!! and lets get ready to see a whole lot of Arizona in the next week and a half!