Arizona beats Scorpions, clinches title

By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

On the grease board hanging in New Mexico Scorpions’ head coach Randy Murphy’s office are several lists.  Under the heading “Topics,” the second item listed was “dealing with adversity.”

After Tuesday, that may now move up to the head of the list.

The Arizona Sundogs clinched the Southwest Division of the Central Hockey League by beating the New Mexico Scorpions 8-6 Tuesday night.  But even worse for New Mexico is that the Scorpions dropped to third place in the division, fourth in the conference and potentially in an extra postseason series that may not include any games in the Santa Ana Star Center.

Odessa moved into second place, blowing a three-goal lead but then rallying to defeat the visiting Gorillas 5-4 in a shootout to earn two points in the standings.

Odessa has two games left, at Arizona on Friday and Saturday. The Scorpions, meanwhile, play at Amarillo on Friday before concluding the season with a home game against the Gorillas on Saturday.

Now that the division title is decided, the battle for second and third in the division – and third and fourth in the conference – is important for playoff seeding and avoiding an extra postseason series. The top five teams in each conference earn spots in the playoffs, with the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds playing a best-of-three series for the right to play the No. 1 team.

Right now New Mexico, the No. 4 seed, would play host to Austin in the best-of-three series. Should they survive that, the Scorpions would face No. 1 seed Laredo, which has a conference high 83 points and a stellar 23-7-1 record at home. Laredo is also 4-0 against New Mexico this season.

If the Scorpions can overtake Odessa, they would avoid the extra series and play the Sundogs.  Arizona has a 20-8-1 record at home, but New Mexico is 3-3 in the Valley of the Sun this season. New Mexico finished with a 6-4-2 record vs. the Sundogs this season, including an overtime road loss on March 11.

“We can compete against them and we’ve got a pretty good record against them,” Murphy said. “I’m very comfortable playing against them when we commit to defending. We just didn’t commit in our own end tonight.

“It doesn’t matter who you play against. You’ve got to defend. That was a lack of focus and it hurts.”

A Walt Disney ice production is moving into the Scorpions’ home location beginning Wednesday, March 26, and running through the weekend – likely dates for a No. 4 vs. No. 5 playoff.  “We’re looking at different scenarios,” general manager Rick Carden. “I don’t want to comment beyond that.”

Among the possibilities: Three games in three days beginning Monday, with a Wednesday afternoon game to allow the Disney group to begin its setup Wednesday night; New Mexico giving up its home ice advantage by playing at home on Monday and then traveling to Austin for its next two games; or a possible Game 3 in Santa Fe or some other venue.

New Mexico is 6-4 vs. Odessa this season, the second tiebreaker should the team end up with the same number of points. The first is victories, where both teams have 32 each.

New Mexico can avoid any of those situations by winning two games this weekend and having Odessa split with Arizona. But it’s out of Murphy’s control, a feeling best expressed when his hands crumpled up a piece of paper in frustration before he began his postgame interview.

“The bottom line is you can’t give up seven goals (plus an empty-netter in the closing seconds) and expect to win a game,” Murphy said. “We put it in other people’s hands. That’s uncomfortable.

“They (the players) know the urgency of the situation. Nobody wants to go down and play Austin. Anything can happen in a short series.

“Our ultimate goal was to win the division. Now that’s out of reach. The next goal is to finish second.”



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