Tornado knocked off by Bulls, 7-4
February 24, 2012 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Texas Tornado News Release
The Texas Tornado yielded three power-play goals in the first period, along with 51 total shots on goal in a 7-3 loss at the hands of the Amarillo Bulls on Friday night. Marc Biggs had a pair of goals sandwiched around a marker from Jack Prince, but Bulls goaltender Mike Taffe stopped 30 of 33 shots in goal in the Bulls victory. Hunter Leisner saw a total 40 shots in his two periods of work before Joakim Jutras came in to start the third period.
Amarillo came into the game with the league's fourth-best power-play, and after the first period, the Bulls had already scored three times with the man advantage. An early penalty gave the Bulls a power-play just 39 seconds into the game, with Brooks Behling giving Amarillo the 1-0 lead at 1:15 of the first. Greg Gibson's initial shot was blocked, but Behling made no mistake on the loose puck and collected his league-leading 34th goal of the season.
After Texas was unable to capitalize on a pair of power-plays, Drew Mayer was given a major penalty for slashing, forcing the Tornado to play shorthanded for a full five minutes. Both Gibson and John Gustaffson picked up goals on the extended power-play, as Amarillo took a 3-0 lead into the dressing rooms.
The Tornado got on the board early in the second, on Biggs' first goal of the game. After Mico Solorzano dumped the puck into the Bulls zone, Justin Greenberg won the race to the end-boards and centered a pass to the slot for Biggs, who was waiting to fire it past Mike Taffe for the first Tornado goal of the game.
Nearing the midway point of the period, Amarillo had control of the puck inside the Tornado zone. From behind the goal line, Gustaffson found Omar Mullan at the left-wing circle, and Mullan sent a shot past the glove of Leisner to give Amarillo the 4-1 lead. The Tornado answered exactly four minutes later, however, on Prince's 33rd goal of the season. Solorzano picked up his second assist of the game after his centering pass led to Prince's goal, which made it a 4-2 score.
The Bulls extended their lead to three later in the second period once again, this time on Gibson's second goal of the game. Leisner had some trouble with the puck in the corner and lost it to Gibson, who sent it out in front, off of Nick Neville's skate, and in to the empty goal to extend the Amarillo lead to 5-2. Just over two minutes later, however, an Amarillo turnover allowed the Tornado to pull within two once again. A bouncing puck came to rest just inside the Bulls' blue line, where Biggs wound up and rifled it past Taffe to cut the Bulls' lead to 5-3 at the end of the second period.
A five-minute elbowing call against Michael Hoy 35 seconds into the period led to another extended power-play for Amarillo, though they were unable to score on it this time. Later in the period, Mullan picked up his second goal of the game and Tyler Deresky added on a goal of his own to complete the 7-3 score.
With the loss, Texas remains behind both Amarillo and the Topeka Roadrunners and sits in third in the South division. The Tornado will be back at Amarillo Civic Center on Saturday night, when the weekend series against Amarillo concludes with a 7:00 start.
North American Hockey League Stories from February 24, 2012
- Ben Carries Wild Over Roadrunners - Wenatchee Wild
- Bulls Power Past Tornado 7-3 - Amarillo Bulls
- Bruins Hold off Wings - Austin Bruins
- Stolarz Stops 44 Shots in Loss to Odessa - Corpus Christi IceRays
- Tornado knocked off by Bulls, 7-4 - Texas Tornado
- IceRays Ink Two More Tenders - Corpus Christi IceRays
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