Forwards Travis Granbois (left) and Dan Barczuk (center) and the Bloomington Blaze lost a 5-4 shootout decision at the Fort Worth Brahmas on Friday night in North Richland Hills, Tex.  (Photo by Jacob Blome)

By Greg Halbleib

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Tex. - The Bloomington Blaze got two goals each from Kyle Bochek and Nicholas Rioux but lost 5-4 in a shootout on Friday night at NYTEX Sports Centre.

The Brahmas scored first with a power play tally with 12:38 left in the opening period when Chad Woolard converted a pass at the right post into an open net on feeds from Sy Nutkevich and Ross Rouleau. The Blaze tied the game with 8:15 left in the opening period when Kyle Bochek backhanded an errant Brahmas clearance in the slot. The Blaze took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission with just 24.6 seconds left on a Nicholas Rioux wrist shot from the left point on a power play.

Fort Worth converted a power play with 17:40 left in the second period to tie the game at 2-2 on a John Snowden slap shot from the high slot assisted by Calin Wild and Shawn Sydlowski. Bochek cleaned a loose puck at the doorstep for his second goal of the game with 15:06 remaining in the middle chapter during a 4-on-4 with assists given to Travis Granbois and Jeremy Gates. Less than two minutes later, Rioux earned his second goal of the game on a floating wrister from the slot on an assist from Matthew Larke with 13:14 left in the second period. Snowden wristed a shot home from the inside edge of the left circle near the end of a 5-on-3 advantage to cut the Blaze lead to 4-3 with 9:06 left on assists from Nutkevich and Sydlowski.

The Brahmas tied the game at 4-4 with 11:40 remaining in the third period when Adam Hogg connected on a sharp angle from the left side, assisted by Nick Schneider and Chad Woolard.

After a scoreless overtime, the only goal of the shootout came from Shawn Sydlowski in the first round.

Each team had eight power plays, with the Brahmas converting three times and the Blaze only once. Dan Dunn took the overtime loss with 23 saves while Kristopher Westblom earned the win with 18 stops.

The Blaze conclude their two-game Texas swing with a Saturday night matchup at league-leading Allen. Face-off is at 7:05 p.m. with pre-game on WJBC.com and CHL-TV at 6:45. The Blaze then visit Quad City on Tuesday before a two-game trip next weekend to Denver and won't return home until Saturday, February 9.