Deja Vu in the Black Hills

Hello fellow Jackalope fans on a cool and windy day in the Permian Basin. The Jacks are coming off a bad weekend, filled with its fair share of blown leads and controversy by the referee, Dan Dreger. First lets get to the obvious bad news: The Jacks were swept by the Rapid City Rush over the weekend, losing back-to-back games in regulation for the first time this season. Friday's final was by a score of 7-5 after the Jacks game-tying goal was waved off with two minutes left in regulation, while Saturday's final was by a score of 6-4 after the Rush were given the goal that gave them their first lead of the game in the second period after Juha had control over the puck. Not only that, but the puck never crossed the goal line, meaning that the goal should not have counted in the first place. With that said, the Jacks should have never given up the big leads that they had in both games, and I think it is safe to say that the Jacks need another quality d-man to help bring relief to our fatigued defense. Now lets go ahead and move on to Saturday's contest in the Black Hills between the Jacks and Rush.

In a game that the Jacks really wanted, and actually really needed, they were not able to get the win after blowing a two goal lead yet again. Of course, controversy tainted the contest for the second consecutive night with the very same referee, as Dan Dreger awarded the Rush a goal that was stopped by Juha Toivonen, and never crossed the goal line. Talk about deja vu! Or as some of the Rush fans are claiming... karma! How funny is that!?!? Oh well, the Jacks will be seeing this same team two more times this season, only they will be in our house, and hopefully the ref will be a little more fair when these games happen.

Now lets go ahead and break down the scoring and play in net for Saturday's game. The first period was a pretty good period of play for the Jacks, as they trailed the Rush by one goal, only to come back and score three unanswered of their own to take the two goal lead in to the first intermission. Congrats to Collin Circelli who picked up the Jacks first goal on the powerplay at the 3:07 mark, with the assists going to Mike Lesperance and Jeff Pierce; congrats to Kenny Bernard who tallied the Jacks second goal at even strength, which was also unassisted at the 16:10 mark of the first period; and finally, congrats to Sebastien Thinel who picked up an unassisted, even strength goal at the 18:32 mark of the first period. Juha Toivonen looked good in net as well, as he stopped 11 of the 12 shots that he faced in the opening period.

The second period is where things began to change for the worse for the Jacks, as they blew their lead after more controversial officiating from referee, Dan Dreger. The Rush cut the Jacks lead to only one goal at the midway point of the second period, as Rich Hansen scored a powerplay goal after a questionable elbowing call was made against Patrick Mbaraga. The sad thing about this is that just a few minutes earlier, Kory Karlander was cross checked repeatedly from Colt King as the ref looked straight at them with no call made. The Rush then went on to tie the score less than three minutes later after Scott Wray was able to find the back of the net for the Rush. Things got "interesting" just three minutes later when Rapid City was awarded a powerplay goal on a play that saw Juha Toivonen cover the puck, only to be repeatedly jabbed at, and not to mention that the puck never crossed the goal line. A couple of Rush fans have even stated that they did not think that the puck ever crossed the goal line, so I guess this is not just me being a homer. Oh, and by the way, the Rush did not show a replay of this goal, even though they showed a replay of every other goal that they scored over the weekend. Something to hide? I guess you can be the judge of that. The Jacks were not able to score during the second period, and Juha stopped 11 of the 14 shots that he faced in the middle frame.

Now on to the third period, which believe it or not, was not filled with controversy. The Jacks were able to tie the game at the 10:31 mark, when Dominic Leveille found the back of the net, with the assist being handed out to Phil Plante. I fully expected the Jacks to either force OT or take the game in regulation, but it was just not meant to be. At the 19:06 mark of the third period, Brendan Cook was able to put a rebound past Juha Toivonen to seal the fate of the Jacks. The Rush then went on to add an empty netter to make the final of the game 6-4 in favor of the Goons, er I mean Rush.

After an entertaining, yet controversial weekend for the Odessa Jackalopes, I think a couple of things can be taken away from the contests with Rapid City. First, the Jacks need to figure out how to hold on to big leads. When you are leading by two or more goals pretty late in the game, an elite team should be able to seal the deal, and get the win. Second, the Jacks need some help defensively. If the Jacks are able to add one more quality d-man in the near future, then I truly believe that we will be unstoppable. If we could only get Russ Moyer or Sylvain Dufresne back, that would be fantastic for the Jacks. Hey, I guess I can dream can't I? Finally, I think we learned that the Jacks are not perfect, and are not invincible. Yes, both of this weekends games were very controversial, and yes the Jacks played a great team in the Rush. However, you can't win them all, and I'm sure that the Jacks will be just fine for the remainder of the regular season, and I still have faith that we will be hoisting the cup when all is said and done. With that said, I am going to go ahead and wrap things up here, and hope that the Jacks will take out their frustration on the Arizona Sundogs on Tuesday, when the Jacks make their way to Prescott Valley.

Until next time Jack fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!! and lets beat those puppies on Tuesday night!