Long Night, Good Win

Photo Credit: Melissa Guzman

Nov 12, 2009- (The views expressed in this blog are the views of Bryan Benway,and may not be the views of the Laredo Bucks organization). Oh Hi Friends. I am writing to you as I try and avoid falling asleep at the computer this morning (I am exaggerating, but). Last night seemed more like a marathon than a hockey game, but the Bucks won it in the end.

On the way to the LEC today I was pondering on what topic to start with in the blog today (yes I ponder while driving, who doesn't?). I voted to start with how exciting of a game last night was, even though the Bucks had trouble hanging onto leads again.

Last night had everything, except for dancing monkeys and flying apes, last nights game had everything. Two great goaltender performances. J.P Levassuer looks likehe may never lose a game this season, while Andy Franck played like the Andy Franck that he's supposed to play like. Franck deserved a better fate last night, he played outstanding, while J.P let two rocket goals in from Jesse "don't call me uncle Jesse" Bennefield. How big of a game changer is Bennefield? He's so fast that if you lose sight of him for a split second he will come up from behind you and steal your girlfriend without you knowing. Now, putting that ridiculous comparison into hockey terms, I feel that Bennefield is the most important offensive player on the Bees. Bar none. He showed it again last night.

I'll bet that every game this season between the Bucks and Bees goes down to the wire. The two teams are so evenly matched, and they both have a fighting spirit. I don't know about you but when Rio tied the game 18 seconds after Justin Styffe gave the Bucks the lead I thought Laredo was going to lose the game. Just the look on everyone's faces on the bench said it all. But they didn't lose it, they won in a shootout against a very powerful Bees team. Give the Bucks all of the credit in the world. They trailed 1-0 after three rounds in the shootout, then came back and scored in the fourth and fifth rounds, with Levassuer stoning the Bees in those two rounds.

The Bucks have now won three games in a row for the first time this season, and they should be fresh on Sunday when Rio comes back into town.

I don't know if anyone saw this last night but I did, after Mike Looby scored in the fifth round of the shootout last night El Presidente Coach Rosco had a smile from ear to ear on the bench. He went and was patting every player on the back. And then J.P stopped the final shot and Rosco let out a great big yell on the bench. He was very happy and releived to get that win. In the post game interview (which i'll post up in a bit) he said he's happy, but that there's still more to work on. He called J.P "the man", and that he will play forever if he can.

I keep getting more and more impressed with Justin Styffe's play. He is always working hard and hustling up and down the ice. The shorthanded breakaway goal he scored last night was pure hustle. He wanted the loose puck more, and he got it. He doesn't always show up on the scoresheet, but he makes a lot of plays that don't get noticed, but they help his team win. He will continue to be an asset as long as he never stops working hard.

Rosco was so pleased with the win last night that he gave the team a day off from practice today, which was a suprise to all of us. I truly believe that Rosco needed a day away from hockey also, and it's a good move on his part.

Congratulations are in order for coach also today. With last night's win he passed Gary Unger for fifth place all time in CHL wins with 293, and he is 26 wins away from moving into fourth place in CHL history.

I feel kind of bad for the Bees, and the only reason that I feel bad for them is because I never want this to happen to myself or the Bucks. The Bees bus broke down before it even left the parking lot yesterday (and people complain about our bus, at least it runs). Not only did the Bees break down then, but they broke down while they were on the road as well. This throws the players preparation's out the window. They finally arrived at the LEC around 7pm, the time the game was supposed to start. They then had 30 minutes to get prepared for warm-ups. The game finally started at 7:56pm, a mere 56 minutes later than scheduled. And to make matters worse for the Bees they lost in a shootout, and had to drive to Odessa after the game last night (they used our bus, i'm know they made it). Poor Rich Bocchini. After all that last night I got a text from him around 1am asking "do the windows open on this bus, I think mine is sealed shut". A longer night was made that much longer for Rich. Like I said I do feel bad for the Bees, I would never want that to happen to me or the Bucks. It would make for the worst day in a while.

Apparently CHL-TV gave a lot of people fits last night. The internet bandwidth was very low here in the arena last night, and we are not sure why.So when people were watching it it kept freezing up and buffering. I'm not going to get into the technical jargon about it, but basically what normally works very well did not last night. We are trying to find the culprit who used the CHL-TV internet last night in the arena and forced us to have a bad signal last night. Whoever it was we are going to put them in a steel cage for two minutes with Mike Sgroi. That should settle it. I sincerely apologize to everyone who had a bad CHL-TV experience last night, especially to the Bees who had a big watch party. I hope it won't happen again.

The Bucks will resume practice tomorrow, and i'm sure they will work on the power-play and passing drills at practice.

I'm off to get "Bucks Insider" ready to tape today, look out for the press release on that later this afternoon.

That's it for now, have a wonderful day!

Until next time,

It will be a hot one in the old town tonight!

GO BUCKS GO!