Allen Americans defenseman Ryan Fairbarn shoots the game-winning goal in overtime at the Allen Event Center on Saturday. The Americans came back agianst the Texas Brahmas to win the game, 3-2.
The Texas Brahmas and Allen Americans renewed their cross-town rivalry once again on Saturday night. This time, the two teams reached back to the past and donned Fort Worth Wings and Dallas Blackhawks jerseys for the first game of two entitled the “North Texas Vintage Game Series“. Once again, it took overtime to determine a winner. This time, the game’s hero was Ryan Fairbarn, who scored at the 4:11 mark of the OT period.
Bruce Graham, however, was the one who set up the whole opportunity with his strong play in the Brahmas zone before Fairbarn got the puck. Americans’ head coach Dwight Mullins felt that Graham was the best player on the ice for more than just that possession.
“Bruce Graham, from about the ten-minute mark of the third period was a man possessed,” said Mullins. “I thought that he was clearly the best player on the ice. You can see why he was a second round draft pick with the tools that he has. I can’t say enough good things about what he’s done for our hockey team here. It was a great example of him using his abilities tonight. If he doesn’t play like that, we maybe don’t have those opportunities.”
“But, for about two and a half minutes there in overtime, he really dominated,” Mullins concluded.
The Americans got the opening goal, just 34 seconds into the game, as Justin Bowers poked in the puck through a pileup at the Brahmas net. In the second period, the Brahmas got goals from Jason Deitsch and Grant Jacobsen to take the lead, 2-1.
Allen got the game-tying goal from the newest member of their team, defenseman Sean Perkins, in the third period.
“We did the research and he was a fit for all of our criteria,” Mullins said about Perkins. “He’s a good young player; he played in the East Coast Hockey League last year. He completes like crazy and he’s got an offensive ability to him. I wouldn’t say that’s his entire game, but he’s a competitor. He really played well tonight for just stepping in.”
The other big story for the Americans in Saturday’s game was the return of Charlie Effinger in net. Effinger’s last game was against these same Brahmas on November 28th. Effinger charged out of net to play the puck as Brahmas forward James Hiebert was coming into the zone. Effinger played the puck, but took a hard hit from Hiebert. The play drew the ire of Americans players and earned Hiebert a suspension. Effinger missed a total of 9 games between the pipes before returning to action on Saturday. I asked him if there was some nervousness returning to the net against a team with which they had such a strong rivalry, and against whom he had suffered his injury.
“I’ve been playing hockey for nearly 15 years, so I’ve been doing it a long time,” Effinger explained. “I just go back to doing what I do. I have a lot of respect for (Brahmas goalie) Joe Palmer. I played against him a lot in college; he was at Ohio State and me just down a little south south at Ohio at Miami. It’s always fun to play against good competition, and I respect their team a lot. To have a good game with them and win one at home in front of a crowd like that is all you can ask for.”
Photos by: John O’Neill
