Texas 4, RGV 2
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS -- The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees fell 4-2 to the Texas Brahmas and fall behind 1-0 in the best-of-seven series Friday night.
Tyler Skworchinski scored twice for the Brahmas while Evan Rankin had a goal and a helper for the Killer Bees. Brett Jaeger made 18 saves in the win for the Brahmas.
Ross Rouleau opened the scoring 2:04 into the opening period with a shot from the left point that broke through RGV goalie Wylie Rogers. Rogers suffered the loss with 27 saves.
The Killer Bees knotted it up with a 5-on-3 power play goal by Evan Rankin at 8:33, but Texas regained the lead just 1:22 later on a power play tally by Jason Deitsch.
The Brahmas took a 3-1 lead into the third period after Tyler Skworchinski jammed home a centering feed from below the hash marks at 10:49 of the middle frame.
RGV killed off nearly four minutes of a Kurtis Dulle slashing major late in the second period and notched their second power play goal of the night in thrid to make it one-goal game. Grant Goeckner-Zoeller tipped home a 2-on-1 feed from Evan Rankin and Dan McGoff at 7:33 to make it a one-goal game.
Texas got the goal back at 10:59 on a Skworchinski steal inside the Rio blue line. He cut through the right circle and beat Rogers for his second goal of the night.
Game 2 is set for Sunday at 3:05 p.m. at Texas. The series shifts to RGV for Game 3 on Wednesday.
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