Monday, May 4th, 2009
CENTRAL HOCKEY LEAGUE HEADLINES
Home Ice Advantage
The Texas Brahmas took over home ice advantage in the series by splitting the two games in Colorado and holding serve in Game Three at the NYTEX Sports Centre on Sunday afternoon. This season, the Brahmas were 26-5-1 at home and have won six of seven home games in the playoffs. Texas has a chance to win the Cup on home ice with wins on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Brahmas have outscored the opposition 35-18 at home during the post-season.
History on the Brahmas Side
The Texas Brahmas have two points of history indicating that they will be the team hoisting the Cup this week. First off, they won Game One and in the history of the CHL Playoffs 15 of 16 teams that earned the victory in the first game of the finals went on to win the championship. Additionally, the Brahmas won Game Three which has meant a series win during the 2009 Ray Miron President’s Cup Playoffs as the team that has won Game Three in a best-of-seven series during this year’s post-season has gone on to win in all six occasions.
No Time to Waste
Of the 10 goals scored by Colorado during the finals, the Texas Brahmas have been able to answer rather quickly keeping momentum away from the Northern Conference Champs. Three times the Brahmas have scored a goal after Colorado has scored a goal within two minutes including a 16 second gap between Jay Birnie’s and Jason Deitsch’s third period goals in Game Two. Five times during the series, it has taken less than four minutes for Texas to respond to an Eagles goal with a goal of their own.
Power Plays on Display
Both Texas and Colorado have been on fire with the special teams connecting 31% of the time. The main difference is discipline as the Brahmas have a 2-1 advantage with the man-up situations. Texas is 8 for 26 on the power play and Colorado is exactly half that going 4 for 13. Tyler Skworchinski has four PP goals in the series and Scott Sheppard and Ed McGrane each have two PP goals.
TEX/COL Series Notes:
-The Eagles have played in five overtime games in the post-season going 4-1 including winning the lone OT game in the finals and are 7-1 in games decided by one goal in the playoffs
-Texas has outscored the Eagles 8-2 in the third period of the three games combined
-Tyler Skworchinski has a league-high 13 goals during the playoffs including four in the finals…The CHL record for goals in a single post-season is 17 scored three times…Skworchinski has five game winning goals which is tied for the most GWG’s in a single playoff season…Amazingly for Skworchinski, his total includes a six-game drought during the Southern Conference Finals
-Both Colorado and Texas have three shorthanded goals during the post-season including two for the Eagles during this series (Steve Haddon and Ed McGrane)
-Texas is 9-0 and Colorado is 6-1 when scoring the first goal of the game making that one of the more telling statistics of this year’s post-season
TEX/COL Series Schedule - - Brahmas Lead Series 2-1
Game 1 –4/29 Texas 5 @ Colorado 3
Game 2 -5/1 Texas 4 @ Colorado 5 (OT)
Game 3 -5/3 Colorado 2 @ Texas 6
Game 4 -5/5 Colorado @ Texas, 7:05 PM
Game 5 -5/6 Colorado @ Texas, 7:05 PM
Game 6 -5/8 Texas @ Colorado, 7:05 PM (if necessary)
Game 7 -5/10 Texas @ Colorado, 7:05 PM (if necessary)
***all times local
Game 1 – TEX 5 @ COL 3
Texas used their power play to gain the Game 1 victory going 3 for 7 with the man advantage. Tyler Skworchinski scored a pair of goals and Jordan Cameron had a goal and an assist. Kevin Ulanski scored two goals and had an assist in the loss.
Game 2 – TEX 4 @ COL 5 (OT)
Ed McGrane scored the game winning goal in overtime as the Eagles pulled even in the series. Adam Hogg contributed four assists and Andrew Penner finished with 29 saves. Scott Sheppard had two goals and an assist in the loss.
Game 3 – COL 2 @ TEX 6
The Brahmas scored the last four goals of the game breaking up a two-all tie. Tyler Skworchinski had two goals and an assist in the win and Ed McGrane scored both Eagles goals in the loss.
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