Albuquerque, NM — The Odessa Jackalopes accomplished on Saturday what they did not all of last season. They swept a south division opponent on the road.
The Jackalopes (3-0-1-0) defeated the New Mexico Ice Wolves (0-7-0-1) 4-2 at the Outpost Ice Arena in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Jackalopes got out to a 1-0 lead after Aeden Drossos found a loose puck at the base of the circle and fired it in short-side to pick up his second goal of the year.
After New Mexico tied the game 1-1 off a point shot, the Jackalopes soon had their finest few minuets of the weekend as they scored three goals on three consecutive shifts.
Kam Ottenbreit scored off a net-mouth scramble to pick up his first ever North American Hockey League goal to put Odessa up 2-1.
On the next shift Michael Sacco found Vilho Saariluoma to maneuvered his way into the slot. With all kinds of time Saariluoma picked his spot and buried it in behind New Mexico netminder Henrik Laursen.
Off the ensuing face-off, Matt Hutton took the puck and streaked up the right-side wall, moving up to the corner and below the goal line, Hutton fed a quick and accurate pass to Jan Blasko who was sitting in front of the net. Blasko made no mistake from his favorite spot and buried his second goal of the year to put Odessa up 4-1.
The New Mexico Ice Wolves made a goaltender change after the four goal and the Jackalopes could not find the back of the net again for the reminder of the game. All in spite of some excellent changes, specially in the second period.
Though New Mexico capitalized on a power-play goal in the third period, it came with just over five minutes to play and was too little, too late.
Jackalopes goaltender Max Miller picked up his first NAHL win in his first start of the season for the Jacks.
Odessa now gets ready for their home opener against the Corpus Christi IceRays on October 4.
