Kenzle and the Luckies defeat the Braves

The Braves traveled to Houston on Halloween night for the latest chapter in the Braves/Luckies rivalry.

This game was more of what was expected between these two teams as opposed to the two previous lop-sided contests.

It was a low scoring, hard checking battle that in the end came down to goaltending with the Luckies' Kenzle the decisive victor of the two.

The Luckies opened the scoring early in the first, on the first shift of the game.

Derek Dinelle collected a rebound kicked right to him by Hart off the Sheperd point shot and deposited the puck into the yawning 6 x 4.

The teams would trade chances and powerplays until with six minutes left in the frame the Luckies' Randy Szydlik let a shot go from a bad angle that beat Hart to the glove side. The period would end with the Luckies up 2-0.

In the second again the teams would trade chances and again Kenzle kept the Braves at bay. Late in the period on a scrum in front of the net the Braves took exception to some apparent liberties taken by the Luckies' Jason Bassani and a dog pile ensued.

The penalty boxes were jam packed after the melee with three Braves and four Luckies crowding in the sin bin.

The Luckies ended up with the extra two out of the deal but the Braves were unable to capitalize on the opportunity. The period ended as it began with the Luckies up by two.

In the third the Braves played like a team with their backs to the wall and came out firing against a seemingly flat footed Luckies squad.

The Braves directed shot after shot at the Luckies goal with Kenzle proving up to the task. Just when it seemed like the Braves couldn't beat Kenzle with a golf ball Jason Gudjonson swatted a rebound out of midair to make it a one goal game with 3:52 remaining.

The Braves continued to pressure and with 2:09 on the clock the Luckies' Kyle Crump apparently forgot what the score was and took a foolish roughing penalty to put the Braves on the powerplay.

Again the Braves applied pressure and again Kenzle stood tall.

The Braves pulled Hart with less than a minute on the clock but could not capitalize on the two man advantage and dropped a heartbreaker 2-1.

Final shots were 47-27 for the Braves, clearly Kenzle was the difference on the night.

The Braves have a weekend off before traveling to Prince Rupert on Nov.14 & 15 and then back home to face the Luckies on Nov. 28.          

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