Bucks' power play unlucky for Scorpions

By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

The New Mexico Scorpions are wishing the Bucks didn’t stop here, especially on Friday the 13th.

Visiting Laredo converted on a pair of 5-on-3 power plays in the second period, then made it stand up to earn a 3-1 victory over New Mexico at the Santa Ana Star Center.

After breaking a scoreless deadlock with almost midway through the second period, New Mexico was whistled for five straight penalties to close out the stanza. The first four led to the two-man advantages Laredo converted into scores; the last, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Seth Leonard born out of frustration of the previous four calls, had a 1:53 carryover into the third.

The Scorpions couldn’t rally to extend their season-high winning streak to four games in the first of back-to-back games against Laredo.

After failing to convert on four power play tries in the first period, the Scorpions got on the board first with a more conventional 5-on-4 power play. Torren Delforte got the goal with 12:38 remaining in the period, with the assist going to Neil Trimm.

Less than a minute later, Mike MacDonald was called for interference. Adam Blanchette was whistled for holding only 15 after that, and it took the Bucks only 10 seconds to tie the game on Darryl Smith’s blast from the right circle.

Calls of high sticking (on Seth Leonard) and slashing (on Chris Robertson) only 14 seconds apart put New Mexico in a two-man hole with 6:24 left in the period. It took the Bucks 1:08 to convert this time, with Serge Dube getting the unassisted score with 5:16 remaining in the period.

Alex Goupil’s empty-net goal with 59 seconds left made the final margin two goals.

New Mexico remained in seventh place in the eight-team conference with 38 points, but dropped to eight points out of the playoff race. Only the top five teams in each conference make the postseason.

Corpus Christi moved into the fifth spot, a point ahead of Arizona and eight in front of New Mexico, with a 3-2 victory over Rio Grande. The defending league champion Sundogs dropped to sixth place with a 7-5 loss at Amarillo.

Saturday’s rematch is “Pink in the Rink” night, with proceeds from the sale of pink towels used by the players going to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation for cancer research. Ticket information is available by calling 881-PUCK or going to www.ScorpionsHockey.com.

Complete statistics and standings are available at www.CentralHockeyLeague.com.