dondo
12-16-2007, 12:59 AM
Lots of folks at the arena tonight and ton of bears found their way to the ice. James Henry scored his first goal in a Giants uni and I don't think he'll ever forget it as it was followed by a barrage of stuffed toys of all shapes, sizes and varieties. Waived off goal was bogus in my mind. Sexsmith gets his league leading 6th shutout of the season.
Giants Stuff Bruins 2-0 - VGHQ (http://www.vancouvergiantshq.com/December_15_GiantsbkStuffbkBruins_177.html)
Giants Stuff Bruins
Vancouver 2 Chilliwack 0
Don Robinson
After last nights game the Bruins could be nothing but better and they were. The Chilliwack squad camped-out in front of their net, made sure they cleared away loose pucks and took the body, something they completely neglected to do last night in their home arena. The Giants were full money for their game as well having to make some adjustments by tightening up their checking and taking care of the defensive end first before venturing in the offensive zone. Bruins goalie Mark Friesen got the start tonight after his solid work coming in off the bench for Matt Esposito last night. The Giants played hard at both ends of the ice getting some solid shots on Friesen, but could not find the twine until the second period and it took six of them to do it. With the goalie pulled on a delayed penalty Craig Schira rifled the puck on net from point and 16 yr old James Henry scored his first goal in the WHL, off the rebound. Being the first goal of the game it unleashed a hail of teddy bears as it was the Giants teddy bear toss night, which saw 10,700 fans show up to pitch their stuffies onto the ice for charity.
Late in the second James Wright padded that lead -- wait a minute -- actually he didn’t pad that lead with a beautiful back-hand goal off of the rebound because the ref decided that the goalie was interfered with on the play, which is completely bogus. Instead James Henry who was in the crease when the goal was scored going hard to the net, but not touching the goalie, was given a goal-tender interference penalty. The score remained 1-0 ‘til the last minute of the game when the Bruins pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. After icing the puck a few times the Giants finally got it right when Mario Bliznak and Spencer Machacek combined to chip the puck up to lance Bouma who took the puck down to the top of the crease and made sure he slid it in between the pipes, guaranteeing the Giants the victory. The ref let the players play for the most part, but made a couple of soft calls in the third that seemed to make no sense as he had allowed worse plays to happen just the shift before. So the picking and choosing of infractions seemed odd to me, but in the end it was a decently reffed game even if he did over-reach in waiving off the Wright tally.
The G-Men rolled all four lines all night long and Garet Hunt earned third star honours for playing intense simple hockey with his line-mates Chris Cloud and Craig Cunningham. Evander Kane was unlucky not to get a goal on the night as he was working the body and the puck at both ends of the ice. Jonny Blum and Brent Regner are developing some almost psychic chemistry as the two combined to keep the Bruins off the score sheet and each found places to pinch in the offensive zone as they would seamlessly cycle back to support one-another. The fact that the forwards so automatically rotate to occupy the point position when the D pinch helped the pair make some creative moves in the Chilliwack zone. Tyson Sexsmith earned the shut-out facing only 16 shots, but a good deal of them were of the stellar variety and he had to be very good turning away breakaways and making stops through traffic to get his league leading 6th shut-out of the season. That shut-out ties him for the career regular season record for shut-outs at 17.
The Giants out-shot their guests 37-16 and were 0 for 3 on the PP, while the Bruins went 0 for 2. Not a bad game for what was essentially a 1-0 win, both teams played hard in their own zones and the goalies had to be good to keep their teams in the hunt. There were no fisticuffs tonight and not too many extended scrums around the net, but that didn’t mean that the game lacked intensity as both squads laid the body pretty well and the Bruins D were very good at standing up and cutting off the Giants attackers. This was something they did not do at all in Chilliwack and the score reflected this fact.
The Giants will lose Henry and Kane to the under 17 hockey tourney for part of January and Jonny Blum for the World Juniors as he goes to play for the US squad. All the boys get a much deserved break over the holiday season and the Giants won’t see game ice again until December 27th when they take on the Kamloops Blazers at the Coliseum. The Giants have now won six straight games, convincingly out-scoring their opponents 33-6 in those wins. The G-Men will be without Michal Repik until at least mid-January and could be a long as early February. The other players have stepped up so far in his absence and will need to continue to do so as the Giants embark on an extended Eastern road swing beginning January 11th, 2008. Happy Holidays everyone, to you and yours.
Three Stars
1. Mark Friesen
2. Tyson Sexsmith
3. Garet Hunt
Giants Stuff Bruins 2-0 - VGHQ (http://www.vancouvergiantshq.com/December_15_GiantsbkStuffbkBruins_177.html)
Giants Stuff Bruins
Vancouver 2 Chilliwack 0
Don Robinson
After last nights game the Bruins could be nothing but better and they were. The Chilliwack squad camped-out in front of their net, made sure they cleared away loose pucks and took the body, something they completely neglected to do last night in their home arena. The Giants were full money for their game as well having to make some adjustments by tightening up their checking and taking care of the defensive end first before venturing in the offensive zone. Bruins goalie Mark Friesen got the start tonight after his solid work coming in off the bench for Matt Esposito last night. The Giants played hard at both ends of the ice getting some solid shots on Friesen, but could not find the twine until the second period and it took six of them to do it. With the goalie pulled on a delayed penalty Craig Schira rifled the puck on net from point and 16 yr old James Henry scored his first goal in the WHL, off the rebound. Being the first goal of the game it unleashed a hail of teddy bears as it was the Giants teddy bear toss night, which saw 10,700 fans show up to pitch their stuffies onto the ice for charity.
Late in the second James Wright padded that lead -- wait a minute -- actually he didn’t pad that lead with a beautiful back-hand goal off of the rebound because the ref decided that the goalie was interfered with on the play, which is completely bogus. Instead James Henry who was in the crease when the goal was scored going hard to the net, but not touching the goalie, was given a goal-tender interference penalty. The score remained 1-0 ‘til the last minute of the game when the Bruins pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. After icing the puck a few times the Giants finally got it right when Mario Bliznak and Spencer Machacek combined to chip the puck up to lance Bouma who took the puck down to the top of the crease and made sure he slid it in between the pipes, guaranteeing the Giants the victory. The ref let the players play for the most part, but made a couple of soft calls in the third that seemed to make no sense as he had allowed worse plays to happen just the shift before. So the picking and choosing of infractions seemed odd to me, but in the end it was a decently reffed game even if he did over-reach in waiving off the Wright tally.
The G-Men rolled all four lines all night long and Garet Hunt earned third star honours for playing intense simple hockey with his line-mates Chris Cloud and Craig Cunningham. Evander Kane was unlucky not to get a goal on the night as he was working the body and the puck at both ends of the ice. Jonny Blum and Brent Regner are developing some almost psychic chemistry as the two combined to keep the Bruins off the score sheet and each found places to pinch in the offensive zone as they would seamlessly cycle back to support one-another. The fact that the forwards so automatically rotate to occupy the point position when the D pinch helped the pair make some creative moves in the Chilliwack zone. Tyson Sexsmith earned the shut-out facing only 16 shots, but a good deal of them were of the stellar variety and he had to be very good turning away breakaways and making stops through traffic to get his league leading 6th shut-out of the season. That shut-out ties him for the career regular season record for shut-outs at 17.
The Giants out-shot their guests 37-16 and were 0 for 3 on the PP, while the Bruins went 0 for 2. Not a bad game for what was essentially a 1-0 win, both teams played hard in their own zones and the goalies had to be good to keep their teams in the hunt. There were no fisticuffs tonight and not too many extended scrums around the net, but that didn’t mean that the game lacked intensity as both squads laid the body pretty well and the Bruins D were very good at standing up and cutting off the Giants attackers. This was something they did not do at all in Chilliwack and the score reflected this fact.
The Giants will lose Henry and Kane to the under 17 hockey tourney for part of January and Jonny Blum for the World Juniors as he goes to play for the US squad. All the boys get a much deserved break over the holiday season and the Giants won’t see game ice again until December 27th when they take on the Kamloops Blazers at the Coliseum. The Giants have now won six straight games, convincingly out-scoring their opponents 33-6 in those wins. The G-Men will be without Michal Repik until at least mid-January and could be a long as early February. The other players have stepped up so far in his absence and will need to continue to do so as the Giants embark on an extended Eastern road swing beginning January 11th, 2008. Happy Holidays everyone, to you and yours.
Three Stars
1. Mark Friesen
2. Tyson Sexsmith
3. Garet Hunt