Rush Crushed!

Hello fellow Jackalope fans!  It is a very windy day in the Permian Basin, and the Jacks are gearing up for the Colorado Eagles (who visit the ECC tomorrow evening) after sweeping the defending Ray Miron President Cup Champs Rapid City Rush this past weekend.  While the Rush were far from crushed in the game on Saturday night (with the Jacks winning 3-2 after a seven round shootout) the Rush were absolutely crushed on Fridays contest where the Jacks pummeled the defending champs by an 8-0 final.  The Jacks made a huge statement this weekend in the Black Hills, and lets hope the Jacks continue to play good hockey tomorrow night when they take on the Turner Conference leading Colorado Eagles.

  By the way, this will be the first meeting between the Jacks and Eagles since the Van Drunen/'MacMillan incident that left Van Drunen with a mangled face and broken jaw.  It should be an emotional, interesting, exciting night, and lets just hope that the Jacks put an absolute beatdown on the Eagles on the scoreboard.  I'm hoping for a huge crowd at the Jack Shack for tomorrow's contest since the Van Drunen/MacMillan incident received quite a bit of publicity throughout the Permian Basin.  I know it's a weekday game, and very few teams have good weekday game crowds, but I'm hoping for a huge exception tomorrow.  I hope people from Odessa, Midland, and the surrounding cities and towns come out to support the boys and let the Eagles know how we feel about them.  But, more importantly I hope all these folks show up tomorrow to let Dave Van Drunen know how we feel about him.  He is our captain, our leader, our best defenseman, and the backbone of this Odessa Jackalope team.  We are extremely happy that he has been back in the lineup for the past few games, and I am very pleased that he will be in the lineup tomorrow when the Jacks take on the Eagles.  It can't be said enough how vital Dave Van Drunen is to this team.  It's time for this community to get behind the Jackalopes, and come out to support them like the Jacks support the community.

  Now that I've hyped up tomorrow's game, lets go ahead and take a look back at this past weekends games that featured the Jacks taking on the Rush.  We will start with Fridays contest where the Jacks absolutely crushed the Rush by an 8-0 final, which was the worst defeat the Rush have suffered in their franchises history.  Several Jackalopes registered multiple points in the game, with eleven different Jackalope players registering at least one point in the game.  Todd Robinson finished the night with four assists; Sebastien Thinel had two goals and one assist; Kenny Corupe and Kenny Bernard also had two goals and one assist a piece; Mike Lesperance tallied one goal and one assist; Jeff Pierce, Mike Ramsay, and Alex Dunn all finished the game with two assist a piece; Dominic Leveille had one goal; and finally Patrick Mbaraga and Phil Plante each had one assist in the game.  Man, that was a lot to type.  Congrats to all those guys on registering points in the blowout against Rapid City, and congrats to the team as a whole for picking up two big points against a very good Rapid City team.  Now lets move to the play of Michel Robinson, who picked up his as well as the teams first shutout of the season.  Simply put, Robinson was fantastic in net for the Jacks stopping all thirty of the Rapid City shots.  Congrats to Robinson on the shutout, and if I were a betting men I would say that Robinson gets the start in net tomorrow night when the Jacks host Colorado.  The Jacks special teams were also (for a change) great in the game, with the power play going 4-11, while the penalty kill killed off all five of the Rush man advantages.  All in all, it was a great win for the Jacks, and the largest margin of victory the Jacks have had against any opponent so far this season.

With that said, I think everybody was shocked that the Jacks beat the Rush so badly on Friday on Rapid City's home ice, and nobody was surprised to see a much more competitive game on Saturday night.  The Jacks completed the sweep of Rapid City on Saturday night by defeating the Rush by a final of 3-2 after a seven round shootout.  This was a great game to listen to on the radio, so I can only imagine how exciting it was for the home crowd to watch it live.  Sebastien Thinel continues to be red hot as he tallied both of the Jackalope regulation goals in the second game.  Corupe, Plante, and Robinson all finished the night with one assist a piece, and Alex Dunn scored the game winner in the shootout.  Congrats to all the guys on an exciting win, and an even bigger congrats to the boys for skating away from Rapid City with four HUGE points.  Michel Robinson was in net for this game as well, and once again he was simply amazing.  He stopped 32 of the 34 Rapid City shots on goal, as well as six of the seven Rush shooters in the shootout.  His record now sits at 2-2-1 with a 2.15 goals against average and a 93.3% save percentage.  He is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, and he is definitely proving that he is not a backup to anybody.  Finally, the Jacks power play was terrible in this game going 0-6, where they were unable to convert on two lengthy five on threes as well as three minutes of a five minute major against Rapid City's Les Reaney after he was called for slew footing.  It is still very perplexing how the CHL's best power play from a season ago is now one of the worst power plays in the CHL the very next season with multiple returning players.  I just don't get it.  With that said, the Jacks penalty kill was pretty good once again killing off six of seven Rush man advantages.

  Now that I have covered both games against Rapid City this past weekend, I'm going to go ahead and wrap things up here.  Remember to show up tomorrow for what is sure to be an exciting game between your Odessa Jackalopes and the Turner Conference leading Colorado Eagles at the ECC.  Be sure to check The Enforcer frequently as I will hopefully have a recap of tomorrow's game some time later in the week.


Until next time Jackalope fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!! and lets make chickens out of those Eagles tomorrow night at the Jack Shack!