The Texas Tornado have advanced to the 2012 Robertson Cup Championship Game! The game is Tuesday, May 8th at the Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco. The game starts at 7:30pm against the St Louis Bandits.

Tickets are $5 in the Fan Zone and are available either by calling the Tornado office at 972-335-9800 or by coming by the box office.

Come out and support the Texas Tornado as they try and claim their 5th Robertson Cup Championship!

Go Tornado!

Hockey Fans! The Texas Tornado have advanced to the National Semi-Finals in the 2012 Robertson Cup National Championship. The Tornado will play the 2011 defending National Champion Fairbanks Ice Dogs @ 7:30pm here at the Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco.

Tickets will be $5 anywhere in the building and you can purchase in advance through the Tornado office by calling 972-335-9800 or at the box office prior to the game.

Come out and support the Texas Tornado as they chase their 5th Robertson Cup in 12 years!

www.RobertsonCup.com has all the details.

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The Texas Tornado (36-16-8, 80pts, #3 South) closed out the regular season in style over the weekend. Playing Corpus Christi with the Ice Rays season on the line, the Tornado picked up a pair of victories to eliminate Corpus from playoff contention. Friday's 3-1 Tornado victory put Jack Prince atop the Tornado record books. 24 hours later, a 6-1 win gave Texas three straight wins heading into the 2012 NAHL Robertson Cup Playoffs, which begin later this week.

More on the Tornado and the Playoffs after the jump...

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The Texas Tornado (34-16-8, 76 pts, #3 South) played their final road games of the season last weekend, with games at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi. The Tornado have struggled against the Ice Rays this season, especially in Corpus, where the Ice Rays came in sporting a pristine 4-0-1 record against Texas. The Tornado went on to take 3 of a possible 4 points from the Ice Rays over the weekend, with an OT loss on Friday followed by a dominant win on Saturday.

With two games remaining in the regular season, Texas and Topeka are tied for second place in the South Division, with the Roadrunners holding the tiebreaker. If these standings hold, Topeka would hold home-ice over Texas in the first round of the NAHL playoffs.

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The Texas Tornado (33-16-7, 73pts, #3 South) stayed hot over the weekend after picking up two home wins against the New Mexico Mustangs. With the victories, Texas now has wins in four straight games. The Tornado dominated play on Friday, but still trailed heading into the third period before three straight goals gave the Tornado a 4-2 win. The next night, Drew Allen notched a hat trick, with line-mate Drew Mayer assisting on all three of his goals en route to a 5-2 Tornado victory.

Texas even got a win in exhibition play on Sunday, beating a roster filled with former pro hockey players in a 4-3 win at the sixth edition of Pros vs. Prospects.

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The Texas Tornado (31-16-7, 69pts, #3 South) went into the Amarillo Civic Center with the scent of revenge on their nostrils after having dropped four straight games to the Amarillo Bulls. Two games and four points later, the team got exactly what they were looking for. Texas allowed just one goal to the NAHL's top team, while also clinching a playoff spot in the South Division Playoffs.

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The Texas Tornado (29-16-7, 65pts, #3 South) closed out its season series against the Topeka Roadrunners over the weekend, and the games panned out exactly as they had all season long. As in the previous two weekend meetings, the Tornado dispatched of Topeka on Friday night but were unable to replicate the performance the following evening. The Tornado closed out the season series against Topeka 3-2-1, but still remain four points back of the Roadrunners for second place in the South division.

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The Texas Tornado (28-12-6, 62 pts, T-2 South) had a daunting 3-games-in-3-days this past weekend and were able to take two of three from the Wichita Falls Wildcats. The Thursday and Friday games were played in Frisco, with the Tornado dropping the third game in Wichita Falls on Saturday evening.

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The Texas Tornado (26-11-6, 58pts, T-2 South) welcomed the Fresno Monsters to the Dr Pepper Arena this past weekend for just a lone game on Friday night. Hunter Leisner, the Garland-native who the Tornado acquired last week made his first start and helped propel the Tornado to a 6-2 victory over Fresno, helping complete the 3-game season sweep of the Monsters.

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The Texas Tornado (24-10-6, 54pts, #2 South) came into last weekend 0-3 in 2012. With three games on the schedule, the Tornado hoped to be able to put the losing streak behind them. They did so with wins on Friday over Wichita and Saturday night over Odessa in Frisco, but fell short in a fight-filled contest on Sunday afternoon in Corpus Christi.

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The Texas Tornado (22-9-6, 50pts, #2 South) have been bitten by the injury bug and have struggled offensively as a result. The Tornado have scored just three goals in their past three games and have not been able to completely shut it down on the defensive side, leading to a 3-game losing streak, the first of the season.

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The Texas Tornado (22-7-6, 50pts, #2 South) spent much of their holiday season on the ice, as they had three games in the last calendar week of 2011. After a complete 6-2 victory over Corpus on December 28th the Tornado traveled to Odessa for a New Year's Eve set against the Jackalopes. A Tornado 9-1 romp on Friday would not spill over to New Year's Eve however, as the Tornado dropped the Saturday tilt 4-1.

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The Texas Tornado (19-5-6, 44pts, #2 South) played a 3 game set against the Corpus Christi Ice Rays, with the Friday and Saturday match-ups coming in Frisco and the Sunday matinee being played in Corpus. The teams split the games at the Dr Pepper Arena and then Texas was able to mount a furious 3rd period comeback to secure an OT win on Sunday.

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The Texas Tornado (17-4-6, 40pts, #2 South) ventured out to Rio Rancho, New Mexico this past weekend to battle the Mustangs. Texas had been 5-0-1 against the 'Stangs this season however, they ran into a hot goalie on Friday night and were only able to come away with a weekend split, with the loss on Friday snapping their 12-game streak of earning at least a point.

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The Texas Tornado (16-3-6, 38pts, #2 South) wrapped up the Thanksgiving weekend with two games against the Odessa Jackalopes. After edging the Jackalopes in their first meeting 4-3 on Wednesday the 23rd in Frisco, Texas traveled to Odessa for the weekend set.

A 2-1 SO loss to Odessa started the trip and the Tornado were able to bounce back and secure a 3-0 victory on Saturday, leaving their mark over the holiday week at a decent 2-0-1.

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The Texas Tornado (15-3-5, 35pts, #2 South) wrapped up this week with a solid 2-0-1 record, including an OT loss and a dominant 3-0 victory over first-place Amarillo over the weekend. A mid-week game against Odessa proved slightly difficult but the Tornado were able to muster a 4-3 SO win to head into the Thanksgiving "break" on a short 2-game win streak.

Texas will be in Odessa on Friday and Saturday for two more games against the Jackalopes as they try and continue their recent play and pick up 2 more wins.

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The Texas Tornado (13-3-4, 30pts, #2 South) ventured out to Fresno, California this past weekend to take on the Monsters. While the Tornado sport a solid overall record, prior to the weekend, Texas was a very average road team, with a road record of 3-2-2 going into the 2-game set.

With a come-from-behind 3-2 victory in the shootout on Friday and a solid 4-2 win on Saturday, Texas took both games in one of their longest (distance-wise) trips of the season, and improved their road record to a more respectable 5-2-2.

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The Texas Tornado (11-3-4, 26pts, T-2nd South) ventured to New Mexico this past weekend looking to continue their early season dominance against the Mustangs, having beaten them 4-out-of-4 games this season. However, all of those wins had come at home in Frisco at the Dr Pepper Arena.

The Tornado ended up with a split on the weekend series, but should have won both games after blowing a 3-goal lead in the last 45 seconds of the third period on Friday.

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The Texas Tornado (10-3-3, 23pts, #2 South) had a bit of a breather this past week after playing a daunting 6-games-in-8-days. The Tornado returned home for a weekend set against the New Mexico Mustangs, a team which they have thoroughly dominated in the young season, and looked to continue to re-find their game against the Mustangs.

Texas was looking to bust out of a bit of a funk, and the Mustangs provided the perfect tonic, as the Tornado cruised to 4-0 and 5-2 victories over the weekend.

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The Texas Tornado (8-3-3, 19pts, #2 South) ended their run of 6 games in 8 days with two games back-to-back in Corpus Christi against the Ice Rays before returning home to the Dr Pepper Arena to take on the Wichita Falls Wildcats this past Saturday.

While all games were close, and the Tornado were able to almost re-find their early season form, they still dropped 2 of the 3 games, bringing their 10-game point streak to an end. The one win was a mighty important one, as it enabled Head Coach and GM Tony Curtale to tie the all-time wins record for United States Junior Hockey.

Tornado Fall Flat, Lose 3-1 to Ice Rays

After dropping 2-of-3 games the previous weekend, the Tornado had a back-to-back set against Corpus Christi to try and right the ship. A strong road start kept the game scoreless after one period and when Taylor Herndon scored early in the second it looked as though Texas was on it's game. The Ice Rays responded well and used a strong net-drive throughout the period to tie the game at 1 late in the second. Riding that momentum into the third, Corpus would pot two more goals and take the game 3-1. The loss sent the Tornado to their first back-to-back losses on the season.

More on the Tornado after the line change...

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The Texas Tornado (7-1-3, 17pts, #2 South) rode into this stretch of 6 games in 8 days on a 4-game win streak, and had picked up points in 7 straight games. While the point-streak is still in tact and now stands at 10 games, the win-streak is not, and there are certainly some lessons to be learned from how they lost the games. 

It wasn't all bad this week as the Tornado picked up points in all 3 games and sandwiched two bad losses with a good, solid win. However, the way they lost has to be picked up on and improved quickly moving forward.

More on the Tornado after the jump...

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The Texas Tornado (6-1-1, 13pts, T-2nd South) came off the opening weekend wins against Fairbanks with a huge boost of confidence. Beating the defending league champions twice in your own barn will do that for a team. The challenge that presented itself this past weekend when the New Mexico Mustangs rolled to town was quite different. The best teams find a way to play their game at their level, no matter how poorly the competition plays.

You could say that the Tornado accomplished this task just fine, with two dominating wins over New Mexico by final scores of 6-0 on Friday and 5-1 on Saturday.

After the jump more on the weekend's games and a look ahead...

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The Texas Tornado (4-1-1, 9pts, #3 South) came into the opening weekend of games against Defending Robertson Cup Champion Fairbanks as a bit of an unknown. Kicking off the season 2-1-1 was a solid start, but Fairbanks had stormed to a 6-0-2 record before visiting the Dr Pepper Arena last weekend. And as they say in some circles, their reputation had preceded them to Texas.

But preparing for stern tests are nothing new for Coach Tony Curtale, who has already instilled some mental toughness in this group, and it was on full display early in the young season. Both games were hard fought right to the end, with Friday night's contest decided in OT while Saturday's match-up went the distance and had to be decided in the skills comp, err, shootout.

More on this past weekend's action after the jump...

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The Texas Tornado (2-1-1, 5 pts, #4 South) have spent the past two weeks in preparation for home opening weekend this Friday, September 30th and Saturday, October 1st at the Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco. Puck drop for both games is 7:30pm. Texas has been off since returning home from the Combat Hockey/NAHL Showcase and will face their toughest test of the infant season as they face-off against defending national champion Fairbanks Ice Dogs this weekend.

While Texas looked good in its first regular season action, Fairbanks has played 8 games already on the young season and compiled an impressive 6-0-2 mark, good enough for 14 points and first place in the West Division. Perhaps most impressive about Fairbanks' early mark is their 4-0-2 mark away from their home confines. As is the case in any hockey league, the ability to win consistently on the road defines any great team.

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The Texas Tornado (2-1-1, 5pts, 3rd in South Division) started off the 2011-2012 regular season at the Combat Hockey/NAHL Showcase in Blaine, Minnesota and the results definitely show a positive trend for the season. The Tornado went 2-1-1 and are now off to prepare for the home opening weekend against Defending National Champion Fairbanks on Friday, September 30th and Saturday, October 1st at the Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco.

The season began with a disheartening 4-1 loss at the hands of the Traverse City North Stars in a game that Texas was never really in. Rebounding after that defeat, the Tornado came back strong in the next two games, securing 7-4 and 6-1 wins over Alexandria and Springfield, respectively. The 4-games-in-4-days showcase ended with a 3-2 OT loss to the Aberdeen Wings.

All in all, the Tornado leave Blaine with a 2-1-1 record and some positive building blocks for the season.

Individual game recaps after the jump...

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[Editors note: Please welcome Nick C. to the DBD group of contributors. Nick will be providing us with weekly updates on the progress of the Texas Tornado season to go along with weekly reports on the Texas Stars and Allen Americans this year. -BG]

As most professional hockey teams around North America are just beginning to blow the dust off of their collective equipment, the Texas Tornado of the NAHL have already completed their training camp and pre-season slate of two games (recaps after the jump).

For those of you less familiar with the Tornado and the NAHL let me provide you a quick description of who we are and what our mission is as a member of the NAHL.

What is the NAHL? Well, here is a full-blown explanation, but in a nut-shell, they are North America's largest Junior-A, USA Hockey sanctioned league. The league provides a platform for the best amateur players, 21 and under, to be exposed to professional and collegiate scouts through a 58-game regular-season schedule, showcase tournaments, and the Robertson Cup National Championship Tournament (more on this later). The most famous NAHL Alumni include Tim Thomas, Patrick Kane, and Ryan Miller.

While a few of the team members are from the Metroplex area, a majority of them are not. While the roster has not been completely finalized as of this writing, it is possible that the Tornado will sport players this season from Texas, Michigan, Minnesota, Canada, England, and Russia, among several other places across North America.

More about the Tornado and this upcoming season after the jump...

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so i lucked out as a senior and got a ticket to the rose bowl, however, my roommate, and most of my close friends did not get tickets...so just trying to figure out if any other students are going/where they are staying/and any other general information about the experience in pasadena.....i dont really want to sell my ticket but i dont want to be stranded in socal by myself after the game either....any words of wisdom from the great BON?