Tonight the Ice Wolves went up against the second-best team in the league, the Lone Star Brahmas. The Brahmas have won all six games so far in the season series and have shutout the Ice Wolves three times. New Mexico was looking to snap their three-game losing streak and gain some ground on fifth place, Corpus Christi.
The opening period was back-and-forth as each team was only able to record five shots. While it was a low shooting period, Lone Star was able to muscle the puck into the back of the net to give them a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes. Stefan Miklakos (6) scored 14:38 into the period after a big scramble in front of the net.
The middle period saw no scoring but it did see plenty of penalties. There was a combined 37 penalty minutes in the second period. A large portion, 25 to be exact, was assessed to Sean Henry. With nearly two minutes left to go in the period, Henry made a big hit on Lone Star’s captain, Noah Roofe. His hit though drew him a five-minute major for cross-checking and he was also given a game misconduct, which the Ice Wolves would go on to successfully kill. Lone Star registered ten shots in the middle period and the Ice Wolves on had one. Although there were some that went unmarked, but the Brahmas have allowed the fewest shots in the NAHL entering tonight’s game (1,118).
In the final period of regulation, the Brahmas started to find their groove as they added three more goals to their total. It started with Thomas Daskas (15) just 5:28 into the period. Joey Trazzera (1) scored his first NAHL after his shot from the left point took an odd bounce past Henrik Laursen. Joey Baez (30) went on to score the fourth goal for the Brahmas with less than two minutes left in the game. His 30th goal is a league high. When the horn sounded the Brahmas skated away with a 4-0 victory. Lone Star finished with 28 shots and New Mexico had 10 (season low). Ludvig Persson picked up his seventh shutout of the season.
Tomorrow is the final meeting between these two teams until next year. The Ice Wolves are still in search of their first win against the Brahmas. Lone Star improves to 40-9-0-1 (81PTS) and is on a four-game win streak. As for the Ice Wolves, their overall record is now 12-32-2-3 (29PTS) and they are on a three-game losing streak. The Ice Wolves will certainly be hungry tomorrow to split the weekend with the Brahmas.