Bucks, Martin Shutout Brahmas 2-0

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TX- The Laredo Bucks shutout the Texas Brahmas 2-0 Saturday night at the NYTEX Sports Centre. The Bucks win coupled with Rio Grande Valley’s 4-1 loss to Corpus increases the Bucks lead to six points over the Bees for the third playoff spot in the Conference. The Bucks won their second game in a row to improve to 33-22-5 (71 points).

Andrew Martin picked up his first shutout of the season as he stopped all 25 Brahmas shots to lead the Bucks to the win.   The Brahmas lost their second straight home game as they fall to 40-15-5 (85 points).

The Bucks jumped out in front for the second straight game when Igor Agarunov struck again. Agarunov sent a rifle slap shot from the slot past Brett Jaeger to give Laredo a 1-0 lead 11:23 into the first. The goal was Agarunov’s 18th of the season.  It was just the 11th time the Bucks had scored first in their last 35 games.

Laredo is now 21-7 when scoring first this season.  The Bucks outshot the Brahmas 9-5 in the first period, with Texas not recording their first shot until seven minutes left in the period.

Laredo would increase their lead to 2-0 11:18 into the second when James Hiebert pulled up at the right circle on the power-play and slammed a slap shot past Jaeger. The goal was Hiebert’s first since returing to the Bucks.

The two teams combined for 47 penalty minutes in the second period, with Hiebert receiving a game misconduct penalty (Fighting aggresor) for fighting Nathan Saunders.  The Bucks were outshot in the period 10-9.

The Brahmas pulled Jaeger for the final 1:30 of the game to try and tie the score, but could not get the equalizer.

The win gives Bucks President/General Manager and Head Coach Terry Ruskowski is 498th career win.

Laredo outshot the Brahmas 26-25, with Jaeger stopping 24 of 26 Bucks shots.