Two convincing wins on Sunday evening gave Laredo a 3-2 series lead over the Killer Bees and sent Bossier-Shreveport through to the Northern Conference Finals, awaiting the Colorado-Oklahoma City winner. The Bucks drilled Rio Grande Valley 9-1 as each team has held serve in their home building during the series. The Mudbugs jumped all over Wichita, determined not to return to Kansas for a Game 6, and ended up taking the contest 7-4.
Wichita 4 @ Bossier-Shreveport 7
Bossier-Shreveport Wins Series 4-1
The Mudbugs and the Thunder traded two goals each over the first 24 minutes of the contest, but Bossier-Shreveport reeled off four consecutive goals in the next 20 minutes to take a commanding 6-2 lead midway through period three. When all was said and done, Wichita put a couple more pucks in the net later in the period, but a trio of 'Bugs each had two goal games and David Cacciola continued his strong play making 38 saves. Chad Spurr and Brett Smith both lit the lamp twice, as did Scott Sheppard, who also had a pair of assists in the game. It was evident early on that Bossier-Shreveport had no interest in going back to the Kansas Coliseum as they peppered Thunder goalie Sebastien Leplante with 26 shots in the first period alone, but were only able to manage two goals - suprisingly, they had less than 10 shots in each of the next two periods and scored five goals in that span. The Mudbugs now sit back and await the winner of the Eagles-Blazers series with Colorado up 3-2 and Game 6 on Tuesday night.
Rio Grande Valley 1 @ Laredo 9
Laredo Leads Series 3-2
The Killer Bees seemed to have momentum after taking both games on home ice to even the sereis 2-2, but all that was dashed as Laredo rolled 9-1 in Game 5. The Bucks outshot Rio Grande Valley 48-19 in the game and five different players put a puck in the net. They were led by Chris Grenville, who had a hat trick and two assists, but also by two goals apiece from Ladislav Kouba and James Hiebert. The Bucks scored the games' first two goals before Daymen Bencharski lit the lamp in the second period to cut the lead in half. That was it for the Bees. Laredo took control, answering that goal 41 seconds later, converting on five of 11 power plays for the game and scoring seven unanswered goals. The series shifts back to Rio Grande Valley for Game 6 where the Bees face elimination and will be looking to extend the series to a deciding seventh game.
Live CHL Playoff Scoreboard
CHL Playoff Bracket
The CHL Playoffs on CHLTV.com