On April 4 and April 5, the Amarillo Bulls went up against the Wichita Falls Wildcats at the Budweiser Bull Pen in the Amarillo Civic Center. Amarillo Bulls took a 2-0 lead in a best of five series in the North American Hockey League playoffs, winning on April 4, 4-2 and 7-4 over the Wildcats on April 5.
The match on April 4 had a very close first period with both teams having seven shots on target. At the ninth minute, forward Mike Davis took a shot at the Wildcat goalie, David Zevnik, who was unable to handle the puck and marked the 1-0 lead for the Bulls. Kyle Gattelaro and Joe Grabowski both earned assist on this play.
In the second period, the Bulls outshot the Wildcats 11-9. At the eight minute mark, Wildcat defender, Matt Koch, scored a shorthanded goal with the assist by Nick Farmer and Sam Piazza. Late in the game, Mike Davis scored an unassisted shorthanded goal that enabled the Bulls to take the lead again.
In the final period, the Bulls took control of the first nine minutes of the period. With 43 seconds into the period, forward Tyler Gernhofer took a shot that beat Wichita Falls goalkeeper Zevnik once more. Eric Purcell and Roman Ammirato both earned assist on the play. At the ninth minute, Bulls defender Brendan Vetter scored with the assist from Brady Ferguson. The Wildcats answered back a minute later, by forward Rudy Junda scoring with the help of Ben Kucera and Andrew Kerr.
“We did our best today, and tomorrow we will go for another win,” Mike Davis said.

Davis was the star player of the April 4 match.
The game on April 5 seemed to go in favor of the Bulls as they were up 3-0 by the end of the first period. Roman Ammirato scored a shorthanded goal at the two minute mark, assisted by Tyler Gernhofer, and Brett Szajner. The Bulls later scored at the eight minute by Cody Gylling assisted by Brendan McGuire and Patrick Pollock. Later on, Tyler Gernhofer took the puck unassisted at the tenth minute and scored. The Bulls had outshot the Wildcats 13-9 and earned a great lead.
The second period saw the Wildcats catch back up to the Bulls on the marker. At the fifth minute a Wildcat forward took advantage of the power play and scored with the assist of Ben Kucera and Brett Szajner. The Wildcats kept pushing forward and kept insisting. At the 11th minute, forward Todd Koritzinsky scored for the Wildcats. Then seconds later, forward Evan Okeley scored with the assist by Max Reisinger and Tyler Ledford to tie the game for the Wildcats.
With a minute and a half left for the period, Bulls forward Kyle Gattelaro was able to break the tie on a power play with another score for Amarillo, assisted by Roman Ammirato and Brendan Vetter. Wichita Falls had outshot the Bulls, 18-9.
The Bulls came back into the third period as they outshot the Wildcats, 6-3. Halfway into the period, Patrick Pollock assisted Bulls forward Brady Ferguson on a power play. Ferguson came back again and scored a second goal shorthanded with the assist of Mike Davis. The Bulls seventh goal was scored by forward Eric Purcel, who finished both passes from Ammirato and Gernhofer.
The Wildcats scored on a five man on three man power play against the Bulls, but was not enough to haul in victory to the Wildcats.
Game Three will be to be on April 11 at 7:05 p.m. in Wichita Falls. If the Bulls win, the series will be sealed and Wichita Falls is out of the playoffs. Wichita Falls would need to win three games in order to kick the Bulls out of the playoffs.
With the two wins that the Bulls won, all they need is one more win to advance deeper in the NAHL playoffs.