Brooks fumes as Bees ruin Bouchard's milestone night

HIDALGO - Robin Bouchard picked a bad night to reach a career milestone, especially considering what coach Chris Brooks said after the Killer Bees' 4-1 loss to Mississippi.

"The way we played tonight, we played like 18 individuals," Brooks said. "In order to get to where we were when we were rolling at the start of the year, the guys have to figure it out."

At the 3:03 mark of the second period, Bouchard scored his 600th career goal, beating Mississippi goalie Kevin Beech from above the right circle on a 5-on-3 power play. The tally gave the Bees (7-4-2) a 1-0 lead and made him the second active player and seventh minor leaguer ever to score 600.

But like during their recent slide, the Bees didn't get too much else done after that. They allowed the RiverKings to score four consecutive second-period goals, including two on the power play from Jeff Nelson, on their way to the easy win.

After the game, Brooks was as upset as he had been all season and sounded embarrassed by the Bees' performance in the loss, the fourth in their last five contests.

"The one thing I told them at the start of the year is that the one thing they don't want to do as a team is to embarrass me. I'm never embarrassed as a coach and there will be consequences," Brooks said. "Our attention to detail and our commitment to doing the little things that make us successful was poor.

"The way we played tonight I felt disrespected."

Bouchard was in the same mood as Brooks and didn't sound much like a player who had done something just a handful of players ever had before. He said that reaching the milestone is something he will eventually appreciate.

But not Wednesday night.

"It puts a damper on things. The big thing tonight is the loss," Bouchard said. "I'm sure down the road it's going to be a cool thing. It still is a pretty cool thing but the 4-1 loss is taking over the whole thing."

ICING: Forward Rob Voltera was the Bees' scratch Wednesday night, with Brooks saying he was tending to a nagging injury and could play Friday in Bossier-Shreveport. Prior to Wednesday, Voltera had played in all 12 games, scoring four goals and adding six assists. Trevor Weisgerber replaced Voltera as one of the Bees' associate captains. ...

Defenseman Stephen Burns, who hadn't played since the Bees' 3-1 win over Laredo on Nov. 1, dressed in Voltera's place. ...

Wylie Rogers was pulled at the 17:18 mark of the second after allowing Nelson's second power-play goal. But Brooks brought him back to start the third and finish the game.

Brooks called it a "momentum decision."

Brian Sandalow covers the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436.

Wednesday's Game

RIVERKINGS 4, BEES 1

MIS                 0    4    0     -   4

RGV               0    1    0      -   1

First period - No Goals. Penalties - Bouchard, RGV (hooking) 10:43; Stoddard, MIS (goalie interference) 17:19.

Second period - 1, RGV, Bouchard 5 PP (Ansell, Banga) 3:03; 2, MIS, Larson 4 (Chaumont) 4:16; 3, MIS, Nelson 3 PP (Chaumont, Alcombrack) 9:45; 4, MIS, Nelson 4 PP (Summers, Alcombrack) 11:44; 5, MIS, Dumont 9 (Lackner, Larson) 17:18 Penalties - Stoddard, MIS (hooking) 1:44; Dumont, MIS (tripping) 2:06; Larson, MIS (goalie interference) 6:14; Perrin, RGV (hooking) 9:29; Dulle, RGV (roughing) 10:30

Third period -  No Goals. Penalties - McClellan, RGV (interference) 0:19; Dumont, MIS (hooking) 4:47; Larson, MIS (roughing) 7:41; Rankin, RGV (roughing) 7:41; Stoddard, MIS (charging) 7:41; Landmesser, MIS (tripping) 19:13.

Power-play opportunities: MIS 2-4; RGV 1-7.    

Shots - Mississippi: 13-17-11--41 ;  RGV: 17-11-7--35     

Goalies - Mississippi: Kevin Beech 10-5-0 (35-34);  RGV: Wylie Rogers 4-3-1 (38-34); Christian Boucher (3-3)

A - 4,701   T - 2:21

Referee - Mark Lemelin Linesmen - Shane Nakic, Jared Ottenhof