Austin Ice Bats Defeat Odessa Jackalopes in 3-2 Overtime CHL Win

MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com – Austin, TX – The theme of Wednesday night’s game two contest between the Austin Ice Bats and the Odessa Jackalopes was anticipation.  Austin was anticipating its first home playoff game in five years.  The Ice Bats were anticipating a recovery from their game one loss.  Odessa was anticipating a second round birth by eliminating the the Bats in two games.  And everyone was anticipating a heavy-hitting contest between two teams that developed some bad blood in game one.  It took overtime to decide the winner.
 
In the first period, the Ice Bats came out flying and as a result found the scoresheet first.  Brendan Cook scored his first goal of the playoffs from in front of the net on assists by Mike Bartlett and Jason Tessier.  With 22 seconds left in the first, Odessa tied the game at 1-1 on a power play goal by Collin Circelli.  Olivier Proulx and Mario Joly had the assists.  The first period ended with that 1-1 tie.

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In the second period the Jackalopes took a 2-1 lead when Nathan Ward flipped Kevin Richardson’s cross-ice pass top shelf.  Joly was credited with the second assist on the goal.  The Bats tied it up on the power play when Ted Vandermeer scored his first playoff goal on a two on one with Mike Bartlett.  Bartlett made a move around Jacks goalie, Alexandre Vincent and slid the puck onto Vandermeer’s stick, who tapped it in to make it a 2-2 score.  Brendan Cook also added an assist.  Both teams skated into the third period knotted up at two.
 
In the third pushing and shoving after the whistle, along with upsportsmanlike conduct penalties issued throughout to both sides.  Neither team could pull ahead so the winner would have to be decided in sudden death overtime.  
 
In overtime RG Flath tipped in a centering effort from John Ronan to win the game and tie the series at one game a piece.
 
The deciding game three will be Thursday night in Odessa at 7:05 PM.  The game can be heard on 1530 ESPN Austin and espnaustin.com

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