North Richland Hills, TX – The Lone Star Brahmas defeated the Amarillo Wranglers by the score of 4-1 at NYTEX Sports Centre on Saturday night. This matchup was the final game of five straight on the road for Amarillo.
In the Wranglers’ final visit to NYTEX Sports Center in the regular season, Connor McDonough started in net after stopping 35 of 37 shots faced the night before. McDonough had a record of 11-5-3 on the year, a 2.31 GAA, a .911 save percentage, and one shutout entering the contest. Lone Star’s starting goaltender was Jack Wieneke, who recently won goaltender of the month for November with a record of 12-0-0-4, a 1.21 GAA, a .950 save percentage, and four shutouts on the season. Newly acquired defenseman Nick Troutwine made his Wranglers debut after coming to the team via trade.
The Wranglers penalty kill unit got to work early, killing two minor penalties within the first six minutes of the game. Lone Star’s Owen Kerr opened the scoring with 5:58 remaining in the first period from Anthony Cappello and Alex Keskintepe. The Brahmas would hold the 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission. The shot count after 20 minutes of play was 9-4 in favor of Lone Star.
Amarillo was able to quickly tie up the game 2:54 into the second period when Trace Day found Colin Doherty at the left point for a slapshot that was tipped in by Tommy Chunchukov for the score. Chunchukov’s goal was his first of the season and tied the game up 1-1. The remainder of the period was scoreless, and the Wranglers were able to kill off a 5-minute major penalty along with another minor penalty late in the period. The Brahmas led the shot count 22-12 entering the second intermission.
The third period was scoreless until Lone Star’s Jacob MacDonald broke the 1-1 tie with a goal with 5:58 remaining in the third period. The Brahmas added another goal from Charlie Masek with 1:22 to go to take a 3-1 lead. The Brahmas added an empty net goal to their total to settle the score at 4-1.
With the loss, the Wranglers fell to 13-9-4 on the season, and the Brahmas improved to a league-best record of 21-6-0-2. The Wranglers penalty kill went 6/6 and Connor McDonough stopped 27 of 30 shots faced in the loss.
The Wranglers will return home to finish off the season series with the Lone Star Brahmas on December 8th and 9th, you can get your tickets at panhandletickets.com.