Wildcats Defeat Bulls for Tenth Consecutive Game
March 18, 2016 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wichita Falls Wildcats News Release
The Wildcats remained undefeated at the KYC in 2016 and defeated the Bulls for the tenth straight game with a 6-2 victory on Friday.
First periods had not been the Wildcats' strongest area of late. In Corpus Christi, they allowed a goal within minutes on Friday night and they found themselves trailing 2-0 after the first 20 minutes on Saturday night. However, they would jump out to a 1-0 lead just 4:14 into the game after Erich Jaeger stuffed a rebound past Brian Baker for his 20th point of the season. Just over two minutes later on the first penalty kill of the night, Domantas Cypas scored his first shorthanded goal of the season with a snap shot high on Baker's glove side. He became just the second Wildcats defenseman this season (Jeff Baum) to score a shorthanded goal.
The Bulls would respond on their next power play after Coale Norris fired the puck past Justin Kapelmaster on a good cross-crease play. Norris has been a thorn in the Wildcats' side since joining Amarillo in late January, scoring three goals in as many games against Wichita Falls. However, he and teammate Jacob Nitsche found themselves in penalty trouble later on in the period, giving the Wildcats a 5-on-3 power play to work with. They made no mistake, as Jonny Lazarus finished off a nice pass from Aleksi Poikola and one-timed a shot past Baker, scoring in his first game back after his upper-body injury.
The second period, on the other hand, has been a strength of the Wildcats, and Friday night was no exception. Kapelmaster stood tall, turning aside the dozen shots he faced. Just three and a half minutes into the period, Rourke Russell unloaded from the left point on a screen shot that blew by Baker for the young defenseman's fourth goal of the season.
A fortunate bounce in the third period got the Bulls back in the hockey game. Jeff Solow fired a shot from the blue line caromed off the end boards, off his right skate and into the back of the net, making the score 4-2.
With the 20's Line reunited and Lazarus back and healthy, he, Austin Albrecht, and Nick Rosa were firing on all cylinders. Rosa and Lazarus set up Albrecht from behind the net for a beautiful bar-down shot to extend the Wildcats' lead to 5-2. With the goal, Albrecht became the first Wildcat and the 12th NAHL player to 50 points this season. Erich Jaeger would put the icing on the cake with a late power play goal and his second tally of the evening.
Kapelmaster had a 22-save night for his 29th victory of the season, which tied the league-lead with Fairbanks' Gavin Nieto and Bismarck's Hunter Shepard. Baker was charged with his 5th defeat as a Bull, stopping 35 of 40. Alex Cathcart came in relief at the end and stopped four of five shots. The Wildcats play the Bulls on Saturday, March 19th for the 12th and final time of the season. All tickets to the game are five dollars.
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