Jalapenos vs. Garcias

3-30-18- Thursday evening at the Mac, AAA green giant, Jalapenos faced off against third seed underdogs, but not to be underrated, Garcias.  From the outset, it was 54 minutes of feathers flying once the refs dropped the rooster at center-ice. Jalapenos survived the barn burner by a narrow 2-1 margin, with Garcias matching the first seed superpower, play for play in a game of which many in attendance that night commented as high-quality hockey.  Ryan Ghan set the fog horns off early for Garcias, burying the biscuit at 16:25 in the opening minute, unassisted for the 1-0 Garcias goal. At 11:42 of the second period, it was a full house in the sin bin, with Jalapenos’ Carl Hanson and Garcias’ Ben Morse sitting out two minutes for roughing while Garcias’ Ghan shared a seat for tripping. On the power play at 10:37, Jalapenos’ Jason Elledge crushed it in the crease for the 1-1 tie-score off some strong assist work from Billy Bagron and Eric Jensen. With :05 remaining in the second, Jensen scored the game-winning-goal for Jalapenos, going tic-tac-toe for the top shelf score assisted by Brandon Spoerhase and Josh Spurgeon.  After a combined four power plays and two timeouts in the final minutes of the third, Jalapenos held on for the low-score, high-octane win, leading the best-of-three series 1-0. Garcias surely has plenty of fight left in the tank, as indicated by their relentless third period play.