Odessa beats Rio Grande Valley on Thursday, 7-3

October 3, 2014

Odessa 7 @ Rio Grande Valley 3 – The Jackalopes spoiled the home opener of the Killer Bees on Thursday night on the strength of four, 2nd period goals on their way to a convincing 7-3 win. Defenseman Christian Hausinger had three points in the win, including a goal and two assists.

 

Four of Odessa’s seven goals came on the power play as they went 4 for 6 with the man advantage on Thursday.  After a scoreless 1st period, the Jackalopes scored the game’s first goal in the opening minute of the 2nd period as Leo Lumm sprung Hampus Sjodahl for a goal. Christian Hausinger and Ryan MacKellar scored back-to-back power play goals later in the 2nd period just four minutes apart to push the lead to 3-0. That would spell the end of the night for Killer Bees goalie Ben Johansson, who was pulled in favor of Nick Schmit. The Jackalopes made the score 4-0 on a nice individual effort by Colton Schmidt, who scored his first goal of the season, which would also turn out to be the game-winner.

 

It didn’t take long for Odessa to increase the lead once more as just 2:29 into the 3rd period Rhys Phelps scored to make the lead 5-0.  However, the Killer Bees did not throw in the towel as they scored three straight goals in a span of five minutes as JB Baker, Dean Balsamo and Parker Wood scored to bring Rio Grande to within 5-3. However, the Jackalopes put the game out of reach with two more power play goals from Derek Brown and Lane Valimont. The goal for Brown moved him into a tie for the NAHL scoring lead with teammate Kenny Hausinger, who was held scoreless on Thursday night. The Jacks got goals from seven different players.

 

Parker Butler picked up the win, making 18 saves for the Jacks, while Nick Schmit took the loss making six saves. Johansson made 19 saves before being pulled in the 2nd period.