Weekend Preview Against El Paso

By Jason Felts

 The Dallas Snipers (4-25-5, 6th in Mid-Western Division) play host to the El Paso Rhinos (24-5-2, 2nd in Mid-Western Division) this weekend in Plano. 

The Snipers are coming off a successful series against the Springfield Express a few weekends back, which saw Dallas’ first home win of the season. The Rhinos have yet to see action in 2017, as they last played almost a month ago in the WSHL Showcase in Las Vegas, going just 1-3 in their four games. 

These two teams last met in El Paso all the way back in October of 2016, as the Rhinos swept the series without much problem, winning with an aggregate score of 26-1. However, it’s safe to say that the Snipers team of late is playing much more inspired hockey, showcased by the 6 powerplay goals in the last series against Springfield.

Dallas will certainly need to keep up the tough defense and transition offensive attempts that were seen in the Springfield series if they hope to put up a few on this staunch Rhinos defense. They will look to recent addition forward Michael Tugo, who had 4 goals and 2 assists in the last series, as well as leading scorer Peter Kutlak (13 g, 23 a) to push the break against projected starting goalkeeper Tymen Edelkoort for the Rhinos, who has only allowed 34 goals on the season, and boasts a 93.6% save percentage. 

Edelkoort will be helped out by the Rhinos’ prolific offense, which has two 65+ point scorers already on the season, forwards Alex Johanson (31 g, 36 a) and Chaseton Sare (25 g, 41 a).

The series will start on Friday, January 20th at 7:45 pm at the Dr. Pepper Stars Center in Plano, Texas. Game two will be on Saturday, January 21st at 7:00 pm, and game three will occur on Sunday, January 22nd at 11:15 am. All three games can be seen on WSHL Live. Live updates can also be found on our twitter page, @dallassnipers