Weekend Wrap Up

Nov 8, 2011

The El Paso Rhinos had, once again, a winning weekend against the San Diego Gulls this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday in San Diego.
Friday’s game ended with a 1-1 tie, the first goal was scored by Tyler Basham during the first period. But this tie was later broken in overtime by Tobias Pehrson who scored the game winning goal 41 seconds in, beating the Gulls 2-1.

Tyler Basham scored 2 goals Saturday night, followed by Jackson Hewitt (1), Mike Rivera (1), Brendan Gust (1) and Carl Graf (1).  The Gulls only scored 2 goals during the second and third periods, giving the Rhinos a 6-2 win.

Sunday’s game was a 5-4 win for the Rhinos, Carl Graf (1), Dallas Szustak (1), David Nelson (1), Tyler Basham (1) and Kyle Stephens scored to give the El Paso Rhinos the final win of the weekend.

Coach Herman is very proud of the Rhinos’ performance “The guys played pretty well on the road. Still a lot of room for improvement but they battled hard and won in a tough building,” he said after getting back. The Rhinos will now start getting ready to play the Dallas Snipers for the second time; although this time they will play in Dallas.

Regarding a pleasant surprise, he said “Brandon Smolarek played extremely well. He was a very big surprise this weekend. He was a major part in us winning this weekend.” Overall, Brandon Smolarek saved 97 shots throughout the weekend, indeed making him key in this weekend’s success.

The Rhinos are still undefeated in the WSHL. November 11 will be the Rhinos’ next game against the Dallas Snipers at Dallas; next home game will take place November 23 against the Idaho Steelheads.

Nidia Flores can be reached at nflores@elpasorhinos.com.