Giants 4 @ PG 1 April 24/07

[Swando]

Overcoming Savage and Smith as refs tonight we won a convincing game by the score of 4-1. Bonner stated in the post game that the exciting thing is the Giants can play better. Bonner also mentioned the non call by the refs was real frustrating.
Bad Performance was the words he used!!!

Rabbit in the 1st
Bouma in the 2nd
Machachek and McArdle in the 3rd

PG scored their lone goal as Sexsmith was lying on his back not even facing the play as he was interfered with and a NON CALL.

I look forward to the winner of Calgary and MH. These boys will not let up as they faced big odds (2) in Smith and Savage and still won.


Three Stars

#3 Dana Tyrell
#2 Sexsmith
#1 Bouma

[Knuckles Muldoon]

No doubt about it, the ROLL is ON.
Fighting some bad officiating hardly bothered the boys as they still led after the first period despite all the PG power-plays. The Coogs are outclassed here, there's nothing they can do to stop it. Sexy sounded very strong, PK was big and some timely goals did the job. I find it very satisfying that after PG finally (cough,cough) score, the boys come right back and restore the 2-goal lead. Just rips the hearts out of the other team. Gotta love it. For a team that's not a high-scoring squad, the Giants have a ton of killer-instinct. I like killer instinct. May as well wrap 'er up tomorrow. :thumb:

[rinkrat]

more importantly,there is a three sailing wait at the Albion... :spineyes:

Get a radio deal Toigo,please.

[Swando]

PG knowing they had a 5-0 start on penalties and didn't take the lead which included a 5-3 must have been demoralizing. Can't remember the totals but I think they had 8 or 9 PP and we had 2 or 3. Bonner said that when you get down to the final 4 teams in the West you have to have better officiating than this. I agree. Reffing should never dominate a great game like hockey. The Dub is lacking in reffing. Let bring up some Midget calibre refs I think it would be better!

[Swando]

more importantly,there is a three sailing wait at the Albion... :spineyes:

Get a radio deal Toigo,please.

I was going to ask what you meant but then I caught on..did they cut off the broadcast to tell you of the accident on the Alex Fraser as well? I agree uusally on home games they cut to 10:40 but not tonight I guess. Bonner only spoke for 2-3 minutes. I think the boys were hungry and were on the way out for pizza.

[C.F]

It's almost eery how similar this years playoff have been to last years. Hopefully history continues to repeat itself all the way to the memorial cup(with it stopping there, of course)! ;)

Rollin Rollin Rollin....

[dondo]

Well listened to this one, but Joey's calls were pretty accurate after watching the highlights. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Giants take this one in four as the Cougs have yet to actually show up. Pretty damn homeristic on the three stars selection imo, but w/e.

Its too bad that the reffing was so bad as that severely coloured my feelings about the game especially as it was clear the Giants were being run from behind and given high hits with no calls. Just listened to this one, but listened intently if there are any glaring errors from those of you who saw the game on whltv or live I'd appreciate the full skinny.

here's my take on it

Giants Thump Cougars 4-1 April 24th (http://www.vancouvergiantshq.com/April_24th_GiantsbkThumpbkCougars_118.html)

Giants Thump Cougars
Vancouver 4 Prince George 1


The Giants took their game up north to the CN Centre, extending their winning streak away from home in the playoffs. The G-Men out-worked and out-hustled the Cougars as they did in games one and two, and got some timely goals to get the convincing victory. The win puts them up 3-0 in the series and the whole team has been full money for their effort. 10 different players have GWGs in the playoffs for the Giants with Jonathon Blum the only player with two of the markers.

After weathering 5 straight penalties against the Giants turned the game around by notching a goal at 12:47 of the first. Milan Lucic took the puck into the zone and went down into the corner. He threw the puck out front to Wacey Rabbit who was standing on the doorstep. The WHL site has Lucic as the lone unassisted goal scorer so there’s still some question as to whether Rabbit got his stick on the puck. The Giants padded their lead in the second when Brent Regner got the puck to Craig Cunningham who fed Lance Bouma coming hard down the slot. Bouma went to the net and slipped the biscuit five-hole on Real Cyr along the ice. PG got one back in the third, off of a very controversial play and evidence of how woefully unaware the officials were on the evening. Tyson Sexsmith had his feet pulled out from under him after making a save and the puck went to the point where Jared Walker put it in the net over Sexsmith who had his back to the play after being dumped. The Giants would get some revenge though by ignoring the officials and doing what they did best, going hard in the offensive zone. Brendan Mikkelson and Mitch Czibere combined to get the puck to Spencer Machacek. Machacek went forehand backhand and lifted the puck past Cyr. Kenndal McArdle added the proverbial nail with 6:14 left in the game. Stripping the puck in the neutral zone McArdle came in off the wing and snapped a rocket past Cyr to put the Giants up by three, virtually ending the Cougars chances for a come-back. The mindless refs decided to call some late penalties against PG, to seemingly pad the stats and make it not look like such a lop-sided job of officiating. The Cougars took a vicious roughing and a delay of game penalty with 13 seconds left in the game to do nothing but skew a bunch of stats.

The refs didn’t do the game any favours tonight as they missed blatant penalties and were completely and utterly unprofessional throughout the evening. The good thing is that it did not really affect the out-come of the game, (other than robbing one of the goaltenders of a possible shutout), but for that kind of biased and incompetent officiating to be evident in the Western Finals is indicative of how poor the reffing pool in the WHL has gotten. The league really has to re-establish some credibility with their officials as these playoffs have been littered with inconsistent officiating and have adversely affected the outcomes of games with their incompetence. Chris Savage and Pat Smith need to have their whistles pulled and sent home. I freely admit that reffing is one of the crosses that I choose to bear but from what I heard it was a ridiculous attempt at officiating.

The Giants played yet another great road game shutting down the home team and taking the crowd out of the equation. The Giants now have 13 consecutive playoff road wins going back to last year and really show no signs of slowing down. They worked the home team hard in their end, beat them to loose pucks, and controlled the gaps playing well to a man without the puck. Good Watt showed up tonight and had some great forays in the offensive zone as well as some nice defensive plays in the game. A fair amount of the Prince George fans jumped ship with about 6 mins left in the game, after the Giants fourth goal. Talk about fair-weather, haven’t been to a round 3 game in years and they leave the arena before the final buzzer. In the playoffs especially I personally think this is a very classless thing to do and shows absolutely no faith in their team to pull out a miracle, but then again I don’t leave until the three stars have been called every game, so I guess I’m hard-core. Rabbit looked dangerous tonight as did Machacek and McArdle. Michal Repik seemed to have a tough time handling the puck tonight, but put in a good effort anyway.

The Giants went 0 for 4 on the PP, while the Cougars went 0 for 6. the Giants out shot the Cougars 28-25 and Tyson Sexsmith made a few brilliant stops to keep his team in the game. Early on with the game still in question and the Giants weathering penalty after penalty, Sexsmith made a few point blank stops on the PK to preserve the tie. Sexsmith was very solid between the pipes tonight and his hard work in the first made it possible for the Giants to push back and dominate.

The two teams meet again tomorrow night in PG, for what could be a series ending sweep for the Vancouver Giants. Puck drops at the CN Centre at 7pm PDT.

Three Stars

1 – Lance Bouma
2 – Tyson Sexsmith
3 – Dana Tyrell

[old_time_hockey]

Here's my take. Only thing I have to go on is radio and talking to a PG fan that was at the CN Center, and a Giants fan that saw the 10PM SPAC highlights....

From the sounds of it (but bear in mind Joey Kennward and the WHL score sheet differ on 1 goal) the Giants played Giants hockey, and more so a typical Giants road game for the win. A simple game of playing hard along the boards, winning the battles and making good on their chances. The Giants PK was solid yet again and had to be.

Tyson Sexsmith sounded big in the net, factors into the 3 stars, and assistant coach Bonner is saying the same thing right now in the post game show. Lance Bouma was a big part of the game tonight. And when pushed by the Cougars chopping a 2-0 lead to 2-1, the Giants just get back to business and restore their 2 goal lead.

On the Cougars goal, I have talked to someone that was at the CN Center and he said Sexsmith was hooked/spun around and Joey was right, there should have been a call there. Just glad it didn't factor into the outcome.

Scoring Summary
1. VAN Lucic, (4) , 12:47 <--Joey calls it Rabbits from Lucic...but WHL Scoresheet in the +/- doesn't even show Rabbit on the ice??
2. VAN Bouma, (3) (Cunningham, Regner), 4:08
3. P.G Walker, (7) (Setoguchi, Wishart), 6:07
3. VAN Machacek, (8) (Czibere, Mikkelson), 9:17
3. VAN McArdle, (8) , 13:46

Shots on Goal
Vancouver Giants 8 8 12 28
Prince George Cougars 9 7 9 25

3 Stars
1. VAN - 10 Lance Bouma - Mature mentaly and physically beyond his 16 yearold age. Gets the GWG and plays his normal physical game. 9th Giant with a GWG this playoffs.
2. VAN - 29 Tyson Sexsmith - With all the time on the PK, Sexy came up big and was oh so close to getting his 2nd shutout of the playoffs. Thinking back to his shakey game 1 and 2 against the Bruins, Tyson has buckled down and provided championship calibre goaltending.
3. P.G - 19 Dana Tyrell - Didn't hit the score sheet, but always is such a good player and Joey mentioned his name LOTS

The 4th, and possible deciding game happens tomorrow, at 7PM.


There are highlights on SPAC, from what I gather from someone that saw the 10pm show, that show that the WHL sheet is correct and Joey is wrong and that it is Lucic and not Rabbit that get the opening goal. I'm going to check it out at 11 and pvr it.

[Knuckles Muldoon]

It's almost eery how similar this years playoff have been to last years.

Yep, and I'm loving every minute of it. I was somewhat skeptical that the team could match the level of last year's team, but they've actually done it, even without a gamebreaker like Brule. I love the way this team plays in the playoffs. They work hard, they do their things (and do them consistently), they shrug off adversity and they PLAY LIKE A TEAM. 4 lines, 6 D, everyone pulls on the rope. It's beautiful. Yes, its very reminiscent of last year's run. Things are very much in their favour of winning the MC if they win the WHL Final. Everything is proceeding along very nicely. :thumb:

[Knuckles Muldoon]

There are highlights on SPAC, from what I gather from someone that saw the 10pm show, that show that the WHL sheet is correct and Joey is wrong and that it is Lucic and not Rabbit that get the opening goal. I'm going to check it out at 11 and pvr it.

Saw the SPAC highlights. Rabbit scored the first goal and celebrated accordingly.

[old_time_hockey]

they PLAY LIKE A TEAM. 4 lines, 6 D, everyone pulls on the rope. It's beautiful.

To me, this is what is the key. Like you said, last year they had Brule, and IMO, leaned on him too much.

This year, it HAS to be all hands on deck. From McArdle, Rabbit, Spencer and Bliznak, right down to rookies Bouma (man is this kid going to be great next year) and Cunningham. EVERYONE is chipping in with points.

[dondo]

funny what sticklers we all are --- yeah Joey called it as Rabbit's goal -- replay is inconclusive, but Rabbit was right there and looked as if it might have went in off of him. Sounded far more impressive on the radio than it was as a replay though -- bad goal for Cyr.

[dondo]

Bouma (man is this kid going to be great next year)

I keep thinking that every time I see him play :laugh: :clap:

[Knuckles Muldoon]

I keep thinking that every time I see him play :laugh: :clap:
I heard Wilms talking about Bouma the other night and he said Lance would score 20 next year and that we could take that to the bank. The kid is going to be a monster power-forward by the time he's 18. Right now, he's taking Lucic-lessons.

[Soundy]

http://www.midwestrake.com/divisions/industrial/22brooms/brooms_images/broom_industrial.jpg

[nivek_wahs]

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sports/story.html?id=c89881a1-00a4-4f86-8bda-7321b635db07

Sexsmith slams the door
Giants 4 Cougars 1: Comes out of practice with attitude
Steve Ewen, The Province
Published: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
PRINCE GEORGE -- Tyson Sexsmith was a grouch after the Vancouver Giants morning skate Tuesday and all smiles following their game that evening.

Sexsmith, Vancouver's starting goalie, had his struggles in practice in the morning but was nearly perfect when it mattered most, leading the Giants to a 4-1 win over the Prince George Cougars before a crowd of 5,982 at the CN Centre.

The triumph put Vancouver up 3-0 in the best-of-seven WHL Western Conference final and means that they can finish off the Cougars before their own crowd tonight.

Another ornery effort from Sexsmith this morning would have been considered positive foreshadowing. He was getting peeved at giving up goals in the practice session and hearing his teammates hooting and hollering as a result. His body language, and the times he rifled pucks into the empty stands, made it obvious.

"Did I give up some goals in the morning? Oh yeah," Sexsmith said with a grin after his 24-save effort last night. "They were nice goals -- tic-tac-toe, backdoor. They need to get their shots going in the morning. And they're pretty good to me in the warm-up [prior to the game].

"There's nothing you can control really with that. Not everything always turns out the way you want it to and you have to battle to overcome it."

He led the Giants' battling come game time, that's for sure. Vancouver's nagging knack for sloppy, undisciplined penalties made a re-appearance in the first, giving the vaunted Prince George power play five straight man-advantage chances.

They couldn't convert on any of them, thanks largely to Sexsmith. His best stop came 3:04 in, when he got the paddle of his stick and the back of his blocker on a chance by Cougar centre Chris Durand.

He also got some help in the stint from defenceman AJ. Thelen, who swept a puck off the line at 9:34.

Vancouver went 2-0 at 4:08 of the second, when winger Lance Bouma followed up a game-opening tally by Wacey Rabbit at 12:47 of the first, and the Cougars and their raucous crowd dozed off.

They came back alive at 6:07 of the third on a strange goal. Durand drove the net and got his stick caught between Sexsmith's legs, spinning him out of the net. While he was out of position, winger Jared Walker ripped a shot home. Pleas by Sexsmith and other Giants went unheard.

The crowd started chanting Sexsmith's name mockingly after that and tried to insult him with applause after he corralled a dump-in. He never wavered, and Vancouver winger Spencer Machacek scored from in tight at 9:17 and the comeback was quashed.

"He's been really solid for us," said Giants coach Don Hay. "He was square to the puck all night and he was challenging shooters. Even when they scored, he just kept on playing and kept giving us an opportunity to stay in the game."

Winger Kenndal McArdle added another Vancouver at 13:46 of the third. Real Cyr stopped 24 shots in the Prince George net.

- - -

SERIES AT A GLANCE

Western Conference Final

(Giants lead series 3-0)

Game 1: Vancouver 3 Prince George 2

Game 2: Vancouver 6 Prince George 2

Game 3: Vancouver 4 Prince George 1

Tonight: Vancouver at Pr. George, 7 p.m.

Friday: x-Prince George at Vancouver, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 29: x-Vancouver at Prince George, 6 p.m.

Monday, April 30: x-Prince George at Vancouver, 7 p.m.

x- if necessary

All games on AM 730 radio. SHAW TV will broadcast Games 6 and 7 if played.




© The Vancouver Province 2007

[nivek_wahs]

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/sports/story.html?id=e735c106-25e7-493e-a3ff-54c5868a0b70

Giants on track for series sweep tonight
Victory over Cougars gives Vancouver 3-0 lead

Ian Walker, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
PRINCE GEORGE -- The Zamboni at the CN Centre is painted in black, red and white and in the resemblance of one of the railway company's trains.

Funny. The Prince George Cougars are almost officially off the track.

Yes. The Little Engine That Could has finally met its match. And that means all aboard for Vancouver's junior hockey fans, as the Giants are one stop closer to the WHL's main line after Tuesday's 4-1 victory over the Cougars in Game 3 of the Western Conference final. Vancouver can sweep the best-of-seven series 4-0 with a win here tonight.

Despite spotting their opponent five straight power plays in the game's opening 20 minutes, Vancouver muted the much-ballyhooed Cougars fans late in the first period with Wacey Rabbit's fifth goal in two games. Rookie Lance Bouma made the score 2-0 for the visitors early in the second before Jared Walker brought the 5,982 fans to their feet with a controversial third period goal.

Albeit only briefly. Vancouver's Spencer Machacek restored the two-goal cushion three minutes later and Kenndal McArdle sent many fans home early with his eighth of the playoffs with less than six minutes remaining in regulation.

"Obviously, we kept the fans pretty quiet for most of the game, but when they scored that goal in the third period the place really came alive," said Giants head coach Don Hay, whose team improves to 13-0 on the road in the playoffs, dating back to last season. The loss was the first at home for Cougars this post-season "I think that goal by Machacek quickly answering back was a key to the game."

That, and I think our penalty kill was really good early and I thought [Tyson] Sexsmith was really solid in goal."

The Giants netminder was clearly interfered with on the Cougars lone marker, but the soft-spoken 18-year-old set a fine example by not complaining and just refocusing on the task at hand.

"I think the team responded nicely all things considered," said Sexsmith, who improves to 10-2 in the post-season with his 25-save performance. "They came out strong in the next few shifts and they deserve the credit for pushing hard and getting that insurance goal, which was just what we needed."

The Giants can advance to the WHL Championship for the second straight time with a victory tonight. The Cougars, meanwhile, are at a crossroads. Whether their next stop is their last depends a lot on how much gas they have left in the tank. Prince George swept the Kamloops Blazers in the first round and came back to beat the Everett Silvertips in six after dropping the first two games of a draining conference semifinal.

"We're disappointed, no doubt, if we could have capitalized on those early power plays it could have been a different story," said Cougars head coach Drew Schoneck. "We've won four games in a row twice coming through here, so we just have to take it one step at a time and go from there. It's a tough mountain to climb, but it can be done."

If not, it's back to the yard.

iwalker@png.canwest.com




© The Vancouver Sun 2007

[puckmam]

Giants played a great game and congrats! Rabbitt did score the first and yes reffing was bad. There were bad calls for both sides. The chanting on Sexsmith was by a select few so please don't think all PG fans are jerks.

[TheBrass]

Giants played a great game and congrats! Rabbitt did score the first and yes reffing was bad. There were bad calls for both sides. The chanting on Sexsmith was by a select few so please don't think all PG fans are jerks.

Goalie taunting is all a part of the game........provided nothing overly nasty is said and it's just the chanting of his name, why apologize? Hollering at a young goalie who lets in 9 goals because his D doesn't show up is cruel. Taunting Sexsmith in this situation is all part of the game.

[Soundy]

Goalie taunting is all a part of the game........provided nothing overly nasty is said and it's just the chanting of his name, why apologize? Hollering at a young goalie who lets in 9 goals because his D doesn't show up is cruel. Taunting Sexsmith in this situation is all part of the game.

Ugh... wrote a whole post and the 'net ate it.

Anyway, the other thing to consider is that you want to be careful the taunting doesn't backfire. Anyone who watched the Canucks/Stars series saw this, as the "Turrr-cooo... YOU SUCK!" chants seemed to only inspire Turco to better performance. When the hometown fans have that kind of a hate on for a visiting goalie, it's a good sign to him that he's really doing his job well.

But you're right, it is just part of the game, and given that most of these kids hope to play in the bigs some day, they have to realize that it will only get worse and they better learn to deal with it and/or just tune it out. It's rarely personal; in a hockey town with passionate fans, someone's gonna get cheered and someone's gonna get booed, and if neither are the home team, they'll just pick one.

Remember all the fuss last year at the Juniors, about fans booing the US team in the US/Russia game - it's all political, leave the kids alone, blah blah blah - yet nobody mentioned afterward how the same fans shifted the same booing to the same Russian team when they played Canada the next day. (Of course, there was a bit of a personal thing there: the hated Jack Johnson...)

[old_time_hockey]

http://www.midwestrake.com/divisions/industrial/22brooms/brooms_images/broom_industrial.jpg

Ooooh....is that the Binford 4250E broom with the ergonomic handle?

[Soundy]

Ooooh....is that the Binford 4250E broom with the ergonomic handle?

I think they got it from White Spot ;)

[Carebear]

Nice to see Sexy doing so well after all the comments he'd been getting about not being ready to goaltend a team in the playoffs/mem cup run.

Obviously he thrives on the challenge. Keep it up Tyson!

[SixSixOne]

Are the guys who do Cougars play by play that bias and one sided all the time? My dad and I watched it on Webcast and we ended up watching the game on mute and listening to Joey insteadapplause

We couldnt stand it, the crap that we were hearing...I believe eric hunter was in on it too but i could be mistaken :o

[GF71]

Are the guys who do Cougars play by play that bias and one sided all the time? My dad and I watched it on Webcast and we ended up watching the game on mute and listening to Joey insteadapplause

We couldnt stand it, the crap that we were hearing...I believe eric hunter was in on it too but i could be mistaken :o


Yes they are pretty brutal all the time. Ask beaner about the Giants' ORANGE jerseys lol

[Kassian]

Are the guys who do Cougars play by play that bias and one sided all the time?

Yes they are. They were brutal last night but sadly they were worse last season. I loved how they were moaning and complaining about the Giants getting away with so much when PG had 5 PP's in the 1st period while the Giants had none.

Then of course the jackass play by play guy had to take a shot at the Giants late in the game when it was mentioned that the Giants have been undefeated on the road during the playoffs. He said something along the lines of "well they lost on the road when it counted the most" specifically regarding the Memorial Cup games last season. :spineyes:

[C.F]

Hollering at a young goalie who lets in 9 goals because his D doesn't show up is cruel.
BUUUUTLER! :)

[dondo]

BUUUUTLER! :)

Buutler's not a young goalie and us shredding him in the opening game gave him a chance to shine on Kamloops :thumb:

I'm curious if you are the guy -- who was the drunken Buuutler taunting fan with the most gravelly voice ever -- that guy won't have a voice by the time he's 30.

and thebrass is right on! -- its every fan's gawd given right to mock and or taunt the opposing goalie, but hollering down a goalie who's getting shredded with the game out of reach is classless.

Taunting is actually a compliment

[C.F]

Buutler's not a young goalie and us shredding him in the opening game gave him a chance to shine on Kamloops :thumb:

I'm curious if you are the guy -- who was the drunken Buuutler taunting fan with the most gravelly voice ever -- that guy won't have a voice by the time he's 30.

and thebrass is right on! -- its every fan's gawd given right to mock and or taunt the opposing goalie, but hollering down a goalie who's getting shredded with the game out of reach is classless.

Taunting is actually a compliment
I know Butler isn't young, but "goalie who lets in 9 goals because his D doesn't show up" had me immediately thinking of Butler and the Winterhawks. And no, as someone who has a brother who played goalie at a competitive level, I would never condone tauting a goalie under that circumstance.

[Beaner]

Yes they are pretty brutal all the time. Ask beaner about the Giants' ORANGE jerseys lol

LOL, this message is written in orange.