Texas Teams Not doing well in the NAHL

With the Texas Tornado and the Wichita Falls Wildcats both at the bottom of the South Division. What's going on here as the Texas Tornado and Wichita Falls Wildcats look to turn around their seasons.

Texas Tornado

This Weekend, the Texas Tornado are in Washington State playing the Wenatchee Wild who have the leagues best record at 19-4-0, this is the last thing that the Tornado need right now as the Texas Tornado have split the last 3 weekend series against the Wichita Falls Wildcats, St. Louis Bandits and the Springfield Jr. Blues.

If you look at all the wins the Tornado have done this season, most of the victories have been low scoring and a lot of penalties. The Tornado have a lot of players at 6'0" or taller and throwing their bodies around which has resulted in a lot of penalties. As for, the Wenatchee Wild are showing that the speed of the team and a lot of goals with players like Jeff Jubinville who has already 23 points (10G 13A).

However, the big problem is when the scoring is high, the team can't keep up. Loses like a 6-5 OT Loss against Owatonna and a 6-2 loss against the St. Louis Bandits back on October 10 are just clear examples of the team doesn't have the offense to keep up with teams like St. Louis and Wenatchee.

For the Texas Tornado, they have the experience and the steady hand of Tony Curtale to get the most out of this team. However, if this is the best he has, maybe he should of used the off year last year to look for another coaching opportunity when he had the chance.

Wichita Falls Wildcats

For the Wichita Falls Wildcats, after what looked like a spring board after just barely losing to the Topeka Roadrunners in the Division Semifinals during last year's playoffs. It's gone down hill as the Wildcats are a woeful 4-10-2 through 16 games and are in last place in the South Division and are among the worst records in the league.

Despite having players like Brian Sheehan who has 12 goals so far, no one else has more then 5 for the season. One of the main problems for Wichita Falls is the goaltending where Phillip Graveline has taken a big tumble since the playoffs last year, at just 3-7-2 and having a 3.50 GAA.

When the season started, a lot of people thought that Graveline was ready to make a big jump this season, but that hasn't happened, now part of that has to do with the lack of scoring support as the team has scored only 49 goals this season.

If Wichita Falls is going to turnaround, Phillip Graveline will need to find the magic that helped have the great playoff run last year and the Wildcats simply don't have enough speed.

For both teams, they will need to find some offense to help turnaround the season as the goaltending will need to improve.

It's starting to look like that it could be a long year for hockey fans in Frisco and Wichita Falls if things don't turn around soon, especially with Topeka and St. Louis both expected to be contenders for the South Division Championship and getting a chance to go to Washington State for the 2010 NAHL Robertson Cup championship in Wenatchee, Washington.