Cotton Kings Game Night Preview
March 17, 2006 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Lubbock Cotton Kings News Release
3/17/06 - FT. WORTH BRAHMAS (16-35-8) @ LUBBOCK COTTON KINGS (26-27-4) - 7:05 LUBBOCK MUNICIPAL COLISEUM
LUCK OF THE IRISH
The Lubbock Cotton Kings need a little luck of the Irish if they want to sneak into the postseason. Hosting the Fort Worth Brahmas tonight, the Cotton Kings enter the night 8 standing-points behind the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees. Lubbock has seven games remaining, with two games-in-hand over Rio Grande Valley and three games-in-hand over Austin (11 standing-points ahead of Lubbock). Tonight, the Cotton Kings need some help around the league with a trio of road wins, as they need Odessa to defeat Amarillo, Tulsa to defeat Austin and Corpus Christi to top Rio Grande Valley.
THE SERIES
The Fort Worth Brahmas are completing their second and final visit of the season to the Hub City tonight. Lubbock is 2-0-0 this season against the Brahmas. The Kings lead the all-time series against the Brahmas with a 10-5-2 record. Kings forward Bobby Brown (3-7) and former forward Dave MacIntyre (4-6) are the Kings all-time series leaders offensively with 10 points, while the Brahmas are led in the all-time series by former members Chad Woollard (7g,4a) and Ross Harris (5g,6a), who each had 11 points.
THE LAST TIME
3/8/06 - The Lubbock Cotton Kings jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held on for a 3-1 victory in a fight filled game against the Fort Worth Brahmas at the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum.
Lubbock was fired up in the opening period, out-shooting the Brahmas 21-3 in the period, but Brahmas goaltender Larry Sterling kept the Brahmas in tact and prevented the Kings from garnering a big lead in the first period. Jan Melichercik was the only one to get the puck past Sterling in the period and it came with 2:35 remaining in the period on a power play tally, as Melichercik was able to scoop a pass from Bobby Brown in the slot past Sterling. Fort Worth had trouble getting any offense going and even had a five-on-three power play advantage for a full two minutes, in which they were unable to get a single shot on goal.
The second period started to get out of hand as the Brahmas wanted to play a game of "Rock'em Sock'em Robots" after the Kings opened the period with a pair of goals 1:32 apart. Vic Periera scored what turned out to be his first game winning goal of his career 1:51 into the frame with a tip in off a miss by Emery Olauson. Kyle Nosan extended the Kings lead to 3-0 with his 13th goal of the season. That was the point Fort Worth wanted to drop the gloves, as four fights broke out over the next 1:17. The only game misconducts handed out were to Lubbock's Paul Fioroni and Fort Worth's Chris Bain, who squared off in the official's crease while waiting on official Keith Kaval to indicate the fighting majors for the previous tilt moments prior.
The game changed it's tune with 2:10 remaining in the second period as Fort Worth cut the Kings lead to 3-2 with Ty Hennes redirecting a Konrad Brand slap shot past Brett Koscielny. It was the only blemish for Koscielny, who faced 26 shots. Fort Worth tried to rally back, but couldn't muster up any offense in the game's remainder.
Lubbock out-shot the Brahmas 47-28 in the game and Sterling stopped 44 of them in the losing effort. Teams combined for 106 penalty minutes (Kings season high for combined teams), with Lubbock whistled for a season high 52 penalty minutes. The five major penalties handed towards Lubbock was also a season high. The Kings were able to tally a power play goal for the fourth consecutive game (1 for 6), while preventing any from the Brahmas.
ROSTER CHANGES
Lubbock is without defenseman Stacey Bauman, who remains on the injured reserve list. Fort Worth will continue without forwards Derek Seal and Chad Nicholson, who are each on the 45-Day IR.
STANDINGS
Kings - 56 points, 3rd place, 14 points back, Southwest Division. Brahmas - 40 points, 4th place, 42 points back, Northeast Division.
TEAM LEADERS
Kings - Bobby Brown 51 points; Nolan Graham 26 goals; Bobby Brown 31 assists; Paul Fioroni 141 penalty minutes. Brahmas - Cory Stillman 54 points; Cory Stillman 28 goals; Wes Mason 32 assists; Chris Bain 231 penalty minutes.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Kings - Power play: 14.9% 12th, Penalty killing: 82.7% 13th. Brahmas - Power play: 10.8% 15th , Penalty killing: 81.8% 15th.
GOALTENDERS
Kings - Brett Koscielny (9-10-1, 1 SO, 2.46), Lance Leslie (14-12-3, 0 SO, 3.02). Brahmas - Larry Sterling (15-26-3, 1 SO, 3.46), Andrew Martin (0-4-3, 0 SO, 3.91)
WHAT'S NEXT
Lubbock - Saturday, March 18th 7:00 PM @ Amarillo Gorillas Cal Farley Coliseum
Fort Worth - Saturday, March 18th 7:00 PM @ Odessa Jackalopes Ector County Coliseum
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Central Hockey League Stories from March 17, 2006
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