Bucks stomped by Mudbugs 5-1

The Bucks were easily taken care by the Mudbugs 5-1 at the CenturyTel Center in Louisiana on Tuesday night. The Abbott brothers, who have been huge contributors for the Bugs this season, combined for four goals and four assists en route to the Mudbugs' victory. With the loss, the Bucks fell two points behind Colorado in the Governor's Cup race, and the Eagles also have one game in-hand on the Bucks.
In the first, Mudbugs' goaltender John DeCaro was under assault, but he made some spectacular saves to keep the Bucks scoreless. DeCaro only surrendered one goal on thirty-six shots throughout the contest. Eric Marvin gave up five goals on only fifteen shots, and he was pulled in the opening minute of the third.
For the Mudbugs, Chris Abbott and MacPherson scored in the first, Cam Abbot in the second, and both Chris and Cam Abbott in the third. James Hiebert, making his 2007 Bucks debut, scored the lone goal for the Bucks. Laredo was outscored 10-3 in two losses at the CenturyTel center this season.

This game had absolutely no bright spot for the Bucks. The Bucks will have another opportunity to prove themselves Saturday night against Memphis in Laredo.
With only three goals in the past three games, the Bucks must find their scoring power to beat Memphis. Before this game, the Bucks' goalies allowed only four goals in the previous four games. The Bucks must back-up their goaltenders to remain one of the CHL's top competitors.

James Hiebert Returns

James Hiebert has been signed to a five game contract by the Bucks, just in time for the Shreveport game tonight. He was reassigned by Manchester of the AHL from the Phoenix Roadrunners (ECHL) to the Bucks. I don't know how Ruskowski can pull transactions like this off. He got an AHL team that the Bucks are not even affiliated with to reassign him to another league right at the end of the season. Either Ruskowski has some good AHL connections or Phoenix had absolutely no use for Hiebert for this transaction to occur. I would say a little of both.
Hiebert can be a great goal-scorer and large physical presence on the ice, but he can also be a waste of a roster spot. There's some games when he gives 110% (game 7 two years ago against San Angelo comes to mind), and there's others where he spends the whole game in the penalty box. Hopefully, we'll see more of the former for the rest of the season and playoffs.

Night and Day Difference

It was all a night and day difference: the Bucks play, the attendance, and the daylight outside when the game ended. I don't think anyone can justify shutting out Colorado 1-0 and then losing to Corpus 2-1, both at home. No matter what excuse that may come up, it surely cost the Bucks in their run to the Governor's Cup. Although Laredo and Colorado are tied, the Eagles, who own the tiebreaker with the Bucks, have one game in hand.

Neither team was able to get much going in the first. Laredo out-shot Corpus 12-8 in the period.
In the second, the Bucks struck first, thanks to Steve Simoes's determination and hustle. With a defender on him, Simoes managed to take a quality wrap-around shot that got Ron Vogel out of position. The puck came to a stop right in the slot, and Don Margettie slipped it past Vogel to put the Bucks up one. The Rayz then scored two in only two and a quarter minutes, starting with Justin Quenneville twelve minutes into the second and then Kevin Watters 14:16 in.
In the third, the Bucks were on the powerplay for a total of seven minutes and thirty-one seconds, while the Rayz had no PP time. Out of that 7:31, the Bucks had two full minutes on a 5-on-3 advantage, and they were unable to capitalize. The Bucks just couldn't properly set anything up while on any of those powerplays. All in all, quite a poor effort by the Bucks after Friday's great performance.
The Bucks fell to 19-8-3 at home, while they are 20-6-2 outside the LEC. In the previous four years combined, the Bucks lost only 16 games at home in regulation.
With the Bossier-Shreveport game this Tuesday in Bossier City, the Bucks need to regain their form very soon in order to compete with the CHL's best. Memphis will also visit Laredo this coming Sunday.

Bucks top Eagles 1-0 in exciting game

The Bucks shutout the Eagles 1-0 last night in front of the first LEC shutout in almost a year. With the victory, the Bucks earned their eleventh consecutive victory, setting a franchise record.
This game surely lived up it its expectations. With the two best teams in the CHL and a sold out crowd, the LEC's atmosphere was the most electrifying I've witnessed in a long while.

The game started off with both teams missing several passes. In addition, way too many penalties were called in a game this important. With these two factors, I don't think there was any solid scoring chances for both teams throughout the first.
In the second, the Eagles took control of the momentum early, but it was instead the Bucks who scored the first and only goal of the night. While on a two-on-one breakaway, Chris Korchinski froze Eagles' goalie Marco Emond and then fired a shot glove side that was perfectly placed on the top-right section of the net.
Towards the end of the second, referee Tudor Floru awarded the Eagles with a penalty shot. The call instead should have been a two minute hooking penalty on the Bucks; there were several players all around the net, and a penalty shot should be awarded only when there is a breakaway with a man all alone. Anyway, the Eagles didn't have a Brent Cullaton on their roster (see this game), and Seth Leonard couldn't capitalize on the free shot.
It was Eric Marvin's time to shine in the third period. He came up with several spectacular saves throughout the period. Most notable was a diving glove save with just a few minutes left in the third.
The Bucks played with the determination needed to win these games. When players are diving constantly to block a shot, you know which team is playing with heart.

With the win, the Bucks have now secured the top spot in the Southern Conference for the fourth consecutive time. The Bucks are also two points ahead of Colorado although the Eagles have one game in hand.
This week will prove important for the Bucks in the quest for the Governor's Cup. The Bucks will return to the ice to faceoff against Corpus at home on Sunday. The Bucks haven't dominated Corpus as in previous years, and this game is the perfect time to send a statement to the Rayz. The Bucks will then travel to Bossier-Shreveport for a Tuesday game against the Mudbugs, who have the third most points in the CHL. Laredo will return back home over the weekend, which includes an important game against Memphis, the fourth best team in the league.

Bucks complete trade just before deadline

While this certainly wasn't your CHL "blockbuster" trade just before the deadline, it should improve the Bucks. Palmer, who was traded to Odessa, and Seguin, who was traded to Tulsa, (both defensemen) weren't an asset to the team and probably won't be missed too much. In return, the Bucks received Don Margettie from Odessa and Fredrik Oduya from Tulsa. Just with a quick glance at stats, I'm surprised Odessa would trade out Margettie. I'm guessing he had ties to McKee and Odessa's new coach wanted to move him out. Whatever the case, Margettie seems to bring decent scoring talent as well as some physical play. Oduya's stats indicate he's solely an enforcer with a good amount of AHL experience. Simoes's addition to the roster should come any day on pointstreak. With Simoes, hopefully Ruskowski will move Dube back as a defensemen. Dube did a good job as forward, but by his style of play, his natural position is on the blue line. He scored more points per game as a defenseman than a forward, anyway.

Bucks playing without effort...

The Bucks' poor home play continued this weekend, first with a loss to the sub-500 Arizona Sundogs on Friday, then another loss to the Rayz on Sunday. In between, the Bucks fell to the Bees on Sunday night in Hidalgo.

To sum it all up against the Sundogs: the Bucks played terrible. The Bucks were only able to score two goals against rebound-prone Chris King, and Reiter couldn't stop a beach ball. Jeff Bes scored just a minute and a half into the game, but the Bucks were unable to hold on. Brent Kelly, who ultimately scored a hat trick by the end of the game, answered just three and a half minutes later with a shot from Reiter's left side that easily got past him. With a double minor penalty against Arizona 16:38 into the first, the Bucks were in a prime position to tie the game. Instead, Cory Stillman extended the Sundogs' lead with a shorthanded shot that went five-hole thirty seconds after the penalty began. Chris Korchinski tied the game with a nice wrist shot three minutes into the second. The Sundogs answered once again just a few seconds later. Reiter got a only a piece of David Svagrovski's shot, and the puck slowly trickled in the net. Kelly struck again on a shot that easily sailed past Reiter's right side. Reiter was pulled after that, and both goaltenders stopped every remaining shot they faced. Kelly sealed the win for the Sundogs and his hat trick with an empty net goal.
I couldn't listen to the game in the Valley, so I can't write much about it. Just by looking at the scoresheet, Kouba took a stupid tripping penalty in overtime that resulted in RGV's OT goal just eight seconds into that penalty. Ruskowski seems to have lost it after that.
Back to Laredo on Sunday, the Bucks continued to struggle. A fight broke out right after the opening faceoff, which is whatever was leftover from the last Bucks/Rayz meeting. I couldn't figure out why Ruskowski would start Clark, but his job became quickly evident when the fight began. The Rayz' first goal is completely attributed to Jeff Bes's laziness. The Bucks were on the power play when Jeff Bes decides to have a penalty of his own seconds after the Rayz penalty began. Maybe Jeff Bes just wanted two minutes to rest, and he took the easy way out. Not only did he kill the power play, but the 4-on-4 situation resulted in the Rayz first goal. Bobby Chaumont answered halfway into the second, but the Rayz retook the lead before the second ended. The third was rather uneventful, except for a terrible hooking call charged to Paul Elliott by Steve Cruickshank. That resulted in a Todd Paul goal just four seconds later. I'd say the Bucks completely gave up after that. I cannot fail to give credit to the Rayz; they played with the hustle needed to win hockey games. That's the best Rayz team I've seen here in the past five years.
The "reported" attendance was 4,767, which I believe is the lowest this year )although there were much less people at the game.)

The LEC really needs to get their act together. With the carnival taking up the biggest LEC parking lot, anyone can guess the parking disaster at the LEC. Talk about a complete lack of planning. After circling the entire building and about 20 minutes later, we were finally able to get a parking space.
But the parkign wasn't the only problem. Those new metal detectors that were supposed to speed up the security check at the LEC did just about everything except that. They were so badly programmed it was (I can't even find a word to put here). According to fan reports, some passed through metal detectors that didn't detect anything. In my, and other's, case, the metal detectors simply "beeped" on everyone. As a result, we were also wanded, which just defeated the purpose of the metal detectors in the first place. Therefore, the process took twice as long, and the security lines at the LEC were longer than those found at both the Laredo airport and even DFW.

Bucks give up two 3rd period goals in loss

After I missed four home games in a row, I had the displeasure of attending the last two home games (Youngstown & Wichita). Doesn't it feel like the Bucks can only beat the Bees and the Bats? To put this argument into numbers, the Bucks have won nine of their last eleven games. Out of those nine wins, eight of them came against Austin or the Valley.

Saturday's game:

In the first period, the Bucks and Thunder traded powerplay goals. Travis Clayton scored eight minutes in, then Chris Korchinski answered about six minutes later. The Bucks scored two goals in the second. But before I go on, I must give credit again to Chris Korchinski. Korchinski had a total of 20 penalty minutes coming into this game, but he took part in one of the best fights I've seen all year. Punches were flying between him and Wichita enforcer Matt Coughlin. Continuing on, Igor Agarunov took a shot about seven minutes into the frame that bounced off the top of Wichita's Sebastien Laplante's glove and into the net to put the Bucks up by one. Later, with a delayed penalty coming and an extra attacker on for about a full minute, defensemen Steve Weidlich fired a shot from the blue line that was just redirected by Igor Agarunov to put the Bucks up by two.
Now, for all who have been to the LEC, you know that the building is at its loudest during the "Minute of Madness" at the start of the third period. The unthinkable has occurred two home games in a row. Last week, Youngstown scored about two minutes into the third with the home crowd still roaring. Yesterday, Wichita's Jason Duda scored an unassisted, shorthanded goal just thirteen seconds into the third. I cannot figure out how the visiting team has scored twice with the crowd screaming. Shouldn't the home team be feeding off all the noise? To me, the Bucks are sending the message that "we don't care if everyone's cheering for us since we're not going to try any harder." Those were two sorry goals the Bucks gave up, and I attribute Wichita's win solely on that goal. Wichita scored once more in the third to erase the Bucks' lead and send the game into overtime. Only Wichita's Ryan Lauzon scored in the shootout to earn the game winning goal. I don't think anyone thought of this outcome after Wichita got hammered the night before in RGV.
Was Wichita really only held to fourteen shots on goal throughout the entire game? I didn't think the Bucks took forty-nine shots and Wichita was held to fourteen.

This surely isn't the best way to start a six game road trip. The real showdown comes this Wednesday, when the Bucks visit the Colorado Eagles.