After fighting through multiple challenges and playing long stretches of their season on the road, the Odessa Jackalopes narrowly missed out on the 2022 Robertson Cup Playoffs.
The Jackalopes closed out their last home game of the 2021-22 season with a 2-1 loss against the Shreveport Mudbugs Saturday at the Ector County Coliseum, maintaining an aggressive approach on offense to the tune of 31 shots on goal.
First-year coach Scott Deur said by the time the campaign is over, the Jackalopes will have accumulated 116 days in hotels, which is something that other North American Hockey League teams haven’t endured.
“It hasn’t been an easy season, but they persevered and they’ve won more games than we have in a while here in Odessa,” Deur said. “I’m pretty proud of this group. I’m sad that we fell a little bit short but these guys have been through a lot this year.”
Despite spending a large portion of time away from home, the Jackalopes won 15 of the 30 games they hosted at the Ector County Coliseum.
At one point the team looked poised to advance to the postseason, but a recent three-game skid saw their chances fizzle away.
In their most recent showing against the Shreveport Mudbugs, the Jackalopes struggled to finish the chances they created and only came away with one goal from Chris Duclair about three minutes into the second period.
The Mudbugs took 15 shots on goal, but made the most of their opportunities and won the game with a third period goal from Lukas Sedlacek.
“I don’t usually go in the locker room and say that we should have won a game, but we should have won the game,” Deur said. “We definitely had more chances, we just ran into a really hot goalie.”
Before he took the head coaching job, Deur didn’t know much about the support the Jackalopes have from the community but that changed in a short span of time.
He was encouraged by the growing number of supporters that attended each home game, with the most recent contest bringing in 2,106 spectators.
Alex Proctor helped slow down the scoring from the Mudbugs Saturday, coming away with 13 saves.
The goaltender said getting the chance to play in Odessa was a dream come true.
“I grew up in Dallas, so I watched the Jackalopes when they were a professional team,” Proctor said. “It’s everything I expected and more.”
Although their playoff hopes are dashed, the Jackalopes (27-24-1-4 overall, 59 points) know they still have a lot to play for heading into the last four games of the season.
The team is set to face the Amarillo Wranglers at 7:05 p.m. April 8 at the Budweiser Bull Pen in Amarillo.
Deur believes pride will be a motivating factor as his players look to close out the campaign in a strong fashion.
“It’s about pride in the logo, it’s about pride in having your name on the back of the sweater,” Deur said. “That’s kind of the message, you play with pride and you finish things off the right way.
“Then we get into next season and see what happens from there.”
The Jackalopes are currently fifth in the North American Hockey League’s South Division, just four points ahead of the Amarillo Wranglers and eight points ahead of the Corpus Christi Ice Rays.
Proctor wants to see his teammates continue to fight through the rest of their remaining games.
“We got four games left, it’s about 240 minutes of hockey,” Proctor said. “We can’t quit now, playoffs are gone but you’ve got to keep working.”
>> Follow Chris Amaya on Twitter at @OA_CAmaya
