Odessa, TX (April 15, 2016) – The Wichita Falls Wildcats erased a three-goal deficit with a five-goal 2nd and held on to take game one of the best-of-five opening round playoff series, 6-3, Friday night at Kay Yeager Coliseum.
The Jacks and Wildcats were scoreless for the first 17 minutes and 22 seconds until Brandon Tucker (1) cleaned up a Jon Russell shot at 17:22, giving the Jacks a 1-0 lead. 27 seconds later Connor Wood set up Pierce Pluemer (1) who sniped a wrist shot past Justin Kapelmaster in the slot. 39 seconds after Pluemer’s tally, Zach Zech (1) made it 3-0 by beating Kapelmaster through the five-hole on a 2-on-1 at 18:42.
The Wildcats responded in the 2nd scoring five unanswered goals to take a 5-3 lead. Jeff Baum (1) got it started 26 seconds into the period by beating Dean Shatzer from the point on the power play. Jon Lazarus (1) then got the Cats within one at 11:11 and Nikita Litviak (1) tied it at 12:24. The Cats made it 2-for-2 on the man advantage and took their first lead of the game off the stick of Aleksi Pokola at 14:04. Baum (2) completed the five-goal 2nd when he his slap shot beat Shatzer and went through the net at 19:33.
In the third, Andre Pison (1) extended his teams lead with its third power play goal on as many tries, ending Dean Shatzer’s night.
Kapelmaster (1-0-0) recovered after a rocky start to earn the win stopping 35 shots. Shatzer took the loss allowing six goals on 36 shots. Jon Flakne stopped six shots in relief.
All Jacks playoff games can be heard on the flagship station of the Jackalopes, Classic Rock 102.1 FM and also watched on Fasthockey.com. Tickets start as low as $6. To reserve your seats, contact the Jackalopes’ ticket office today at 432-552-7825 or log on to www.jackalopes.org for more information.
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