Brahmas can't complete comeback
March 10, 2004 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Fort Worth Brahmas News Release
The Oklahoma City Blazers held off a late game rally by the Fort Worth Brahmas and managed to come away with a hard fought 3-2 win on Tuesday night in CHL action at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.
Trailing by a 3-1 score with less than 3:00 minutes to play in regulation, the Brahmas tried to mount a comeback against the Blazers. With his team already on the powerplay, Brahmas head coach Al Sims pulled goaltender Erasmo Saltarelli to give Fort Worth a two man advantage. Sims' gamble paid off as the Brahmas scored on the ensuing faceoff to draw within a goal. Center Aaron Davis won the draw cleanly back to Jeremy Vanin at the left point just inside the Blazers blueline. Vanin's seeing eye shot through traffic eluded Blazers goaltender Boyd Ballard and pulled the Brahmas to within 3-2 with 2:29 left on the clock.
Following Vanin's goal, the Brahmas pushed for the tying tally. Saltarelli went back to bench with 40 seconds left on the clock as the Brahmas attacked the Blazer net once again. Fort Worth had an excellent scoring chance with 13 seconds on the clock when a shot from the left wing side from Vanin hit traffic in front and caromed towards the Blazers goal. Ballard, however, found the loose puck and covered it before it went into his net. Oklahoma City then won the ensuing faceoff and cleared the puck to foil the Brahmas rally.
The game began as a one sided affair, as Oklahoma City dominated the first period of play. The Blazers outshot Fort Worth 21-3 in the first twenty minutes of play, and took an early lead when d-man Tyler Fleck scored on a left point shot at the 8:58 mark of the first. Saltarelli kept the Brahmas in the game with save after save, and Fort Worth was able to tie the score at 1 when right wing Joey Bastien deflected Stefan Katalina's shot past Ballard at the 15:03 mark of the first.
After a second period that featured several fisticuffs but no goals, the game went to the third tied at 1. Oklahoma City quickly jumped on top when forward Ryan Watson tapped a centering pass from d-man Peter Robertson past Saltarelli 4:16 into the period. The Blazers then captialized on a Fort Worth turnover, as forward Ryan Campbell hammered home a shot from the high slot to push the Blazer lead to 3-1 at the 14:59 mark of the period. Bowed but not broken, Fort Worth would regroup following the Campbell goal and try to comeback. The Blazers, however, had enough in the tank to hold the Brahmas off and get the home win.
The loss pushed the Brahmas winless streak to 13 consecutive games (0-11-2). It also stretched the Brahmas road losing streak to 12 consecutive games. Fort Worth's record falls to 14-38-9 on the season. Oklahoma City snapped a four game losing streak and improved to 27-27-7 on the year.
The Brahmas will close out the road portion of their 2003-2004 schedule this Friday night, March 12, when they travel to San Angelo to take on the Saints at 7:05 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on KTFW 1460 AM beginning with a 6:50 p.m. pregame show. Fort Worth will then wrap up their regular season with two home games this weekend, hosting the Tulsa Oilers on Saturday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m. and the Austin Ice Bats on Sunday, March 14 at 3:00 p.m. Both games will be at the Fort Worth Convention Center. For more information, please contact the Brahmas office at (817) 336-4423.
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