On Friday, the Allen Americans announced a pair of pre-season games against the Texas Brahmas to be played in October. (Photo Credit: John O'Neill)

Pre-season news from the Americans:

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ALLEN, Texas – The Allen Americans, in conjunction with the Texas Brahmas, announced today that they will face off in a pair of preseason games Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 in North Richland Hills and Allen, respectively.

The Americans will hit the road for a 7:30 p.m. matchup Oct. 8 before hosting the Brahmas on Saturday, Oct. 9. The second preseason battle between the cross-town rivals will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Allen Event Center. Fans at the game will receive a magnetic schedule courtesy of Allen Eye Associates.

Allen went 4-3-2 in its inaugural season versus Texas. The two teams see each other a total of 11 times in the 2010-11 regular season. The Americans host the Brahmas six of those times.

Individual tickets for the 2010-11 season go on sale Sept. 3, but season tickets and partial plans for Allen’s second season are on sale now. Ticket prices start as low as $9 per game, and there is free parking at every game. For more information, call 972-912-1000.

Texas Brahmas forward A.J. Gale and an unidentified Brahma break in on Allen Americans' goalie Charlie Effinger and defenseman Michal Hrcka in the second period of the Americans' inaugural hockey game. The Brahmas came away with the victory, 4-3. (photo credit: John O'Neill)

The Allen Americans hosted their first game at the Allen Events Center last night, inviting media to come see the squad face the reigning champs, the Texas Brahmas.  The Brahmas’ strong play in the second period gave them a large enough lead to withstand the Americans’ comeback attempt in the third, and Texas came out on top 4-3.

For a team that had only been on the ice together since Monday, though, the Americans looked strong.  They didn’t back down from physical play at all, and their defense was a challenge for the Brahmas all night.  On the other side, the Brahmas played strong, but looked a little out of sync through most of the game.  It’s still early in the pre-season, however, and lots of roster decisions remain to be made.

The game was played in the smaller rink at the Allen Events Center, which will be used for practice and other smaller events, as it has no substantial seating.   Even though the seating was limited, the seats were along the glass and spectators got an up-close view of all the action.  The ice held together well, even though the temperature outside was in the upper 70s and the humidity was high.

Rather than get into a play-by-play recap of the game, which I may do from time to time throughout the season, I will let pictures and video speak for themselves.  I’ve posted several clips from the game out on my page at YouTube, and have embedded them here.  I will also post a ‘photo story’ of the game, and you can see some stellar shots of the Americans in action for the first time.

First, two clips of some back-and-forth action, which was pretty indicative of how the game played:

Here is the only goal I was able to capture on video. It was a nice one, though, by the Brahmas’ Alexandre Lacombe:

And lastly, here is a 2:00 clip of some game action, capped off with a fight between Ryan Bartle and Derek Merlini that went rather one-sidedly:

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LAREDO, TX – The Laredo Bucks of the Central Hockey League announced that they will play two pre-season games against fellow Southern Conference rivals.

The Bucks will open the pre-season hosting Rio Grande Valley at the Laredo Entertainment Center on Friday October 9th. Season ticket holders get a FREE ticket to the game, with all other tickets just $5, with proceeds going to the Junior Bucks. Call 718-BUCK (2825) to order now.

Laredo will then take to the road the next night playing at Corpus Christi on Saturday October 10th.

After the two pre-season games the Bucks plan to make cuts on Sunday October 11th.