January 16

[TwoBits]

I'm so mad right now, I don't know where to start. :mad:

Most of it has to do with the fact that my internet provider is PONY EXPRESS!!!! And the feed, if that's what you call it, cut out in the OT period and I missed everything including the shootout.

As for the game.....

25 Penalties? Who was at the game? Was that ref whistle happy or were the two teams lacking in that much discipline?


Don't blame.....

Curtis.

Four shots in the second period? Is that right? Nothing in the SO. All I can say is good thing Mucha didn't play last night too.

Oh and to add insult to injury, or should I say injury to insult........

Who got hurt? Bidlevski? Is he OK?

The only positive thing I can say at the moment is, at least we got one point. Maybe the boys played well and we just didn't get the bounces. Somebody help me out here.


I'm done. My glasses need cleaning.

[TwoBits]

I just checked the scoresheet. The reason we only got 4 shots in the 2nd period was because we were in the penalty box and on the PK for exactly half of the period. That one power play goal in the second period................

OK now I'm done.

[WestLEAFfan]

TwoBits being negative? Wow! vci11 I hope things are more sunny for you today once your glasses are cleaned! :thumb:

[TwoBits]

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/...3119&Itemid=564




Hawks trump Cats in shootout (0) [Back]< Prev | Next >
(Sports) Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 22:55 PST
JIM SWANSON Citizen Sports Editor

Cody Hobbs of the Prince George Cougars takes the worst of this hit applied by Bo Montgomery of the Portland Winter Hawks while watched by Hawks’ Travis Bobbee during Wednesday’s WHL action at CN Centre. Portland took the second of a two-game set, 3-2 in a shootout.The Cougars take to the road for their next game Friday night in Kamloops and visit Kelowna on Saturday. (Citizen photo by David Mah) For a team that has found success hard to grasp, it was equally hard to grasp the change in approach the Prince George Cougars showed from one period to the next on Wednesday.

Then again, with a team this young, maybe it's par for the course -- and a learning tool for the coaching staff on top of it all.

The Cougars battled hard to the net in the first period, forging a 2-0 lead on a pair of power-play goals by Justin Maylan, then sat back for much of the remaining 45 minutes -- second period, third period, overtime - and lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Portland Winter Hawks.

“I thought we stopped going to the net,” was the blunt assessment of Cougars assistant coach Wade Klippenstein one night after the Cats (14-29-1-1) ended a six-game losing streak with a 5-2 win over the Hawks (9-35-0-1).

“We took some penalties, and (in the second period) we got a bad break when one of our guys shot the puck over the glass and it put us down two players. Their guy made a great shot to score, but we had chances to score in overtime.”

The Cougars are now 2-1 in shootouts this season, while the Hawks won in circus time for the first time in two tries.

The sloppy play Tuesday so sickened the coach of the Prince George Cougars, he apparently couldn't stand another night. It may have been the lack of structure that left Drew Schoneck puking his guts out later Tuesday. That left the Cougars without their head coach Wednesday, placing Klippenstein and part-time assistant Brent Arsenault in charge.

Arsenault, a local elementary school principal, got in a full game on the bench. At most home games, the former Spruce Kings head coach watches the first two periods from the press box and jumps to ice level for the third period.

Klippenstein faced almost immediate adversity as rookie Ryan Kowalski was banished for a boarding major in the first period, and fellow freshman Art Bidlevskii left in the second period with a concerning injury. The 16-year-old defenceman, who has picked up a lot of minutes since the massive overhaul of the lineup at the trade deadline, suffered a suspected separated shoulder, and did not return in the game.

“Coming into it, I just wanted a routine hockey game with no major decisions and everything going smoothly,” said Klippenstein, a former WHL head coach in Prince Albert, where Schoneck was his assistant.

“We lost Kowalski early, then Bidlevskii to an injury. We were shorthanded in overtime and then it went to a shootout -- so much for not having to make any decisions. It was a good hockey game with two teams that are young and struggling so far this year, so I guess it was the kind of game I should've expected.”

Maylan had by far the best offensive night of his young career. The 16-year-old frosh is close to keeping pace with the 19-year-old star he was traded for -- Maylan has three goals in four games for Prince George, while Ty Wishart scored twice Wednesday in Moose Jaw's 5-4 home win over Prince Albert and has that pair of goals, five points and no penalty minutes in five outings for the Warriors.

But at CN Centre, the first period was the only one in which Portland goaltender Kurtis Mucha would allow a puck to get behind him. The 18-year-old, who some call the best goaltender in the league in large part because of the heavy workload he handles backing the league's weakest team, finished with 26 saves, none bigger than the rash of chances he turned aside in overtime.

“We had to find a way to get it done,” said Portland coach Richard Kromm, the former NHL player whose club won for just the third time in 21 road contests.

“We showed determination and Mucha was very good for us. He's been steady all year. We haven't been good defensively in front of him on most nights, and we're starting to build. This is a young team and you're going to see mistakes, and we have to stay patient. That can be tough for him.”

Chris Francis got the Hawks on the board in the second period as Portland took advantage of a two-man advantage. Radim Valchar tied the game early in the third, then was the first and only of 10 shooters to find twine in the shootout.

Coming into the game, the Cougars were 8-0-0-0 when leading after two periods, so the shootout loss proved a minor blemish. The Cats had to battle late in the game just to reach the shootout, killing a late penalty to defenceman Cody Hobbs that carried over into the four-on-four overtime. Cougars goaltender Ian Curtis got help from his post and stopped Keith Voytechek on a break to keep his team alive.

“I was happy with our penalty kill -- seven for eight, including one into overtime, and a three-minute power play they had at the end of (Kowalski's) five-minute major,” said Klippenstein, his team now 14 points out of a Western Conference playoff spot.

“There are a lot of positives, but it would've been nice to score one more shootout goal than them.

“Ian played well. We're showing confidence in him, and he gave us a chance to win.”

In the shootout, the Cougars elected to shoot first. Corey Tyrell, Alex Poulter, Greg Gardner, Maylan and Dana Tyrell were all stopped by Mucha, while Curtis stoned Tristan King, Francis, Tyler Swystun and Matt Schmermund before Valchar ended it.

In fact, the biggest cheer of the night might've come when Curtis gave Swystun nothing to look at -- Swystun was again booed, as he was whenever he touched the puck, the fans remembering that the former first-round bantam pick's refusal to join the Cougars, eventually traded to Medicine Hat.

KITTY LITTER: Shots were even, 28-28...The Cougars finished 2-6 on the power play, statistically better than Portland's 1-7 effort... Announced attendance was 2,414. Here's a number - the Cougars, at an average of 2,857 per game, are averaging more than 1,000 fewer fans than the woeful Hawks (3,911 through 24 home dates)... New Cougar Brad Riege and Portland defenceman Scott Gabriel, the WHL leader in penalty minutes, hooked up for a bout in the second period. Gabriel landed more blows, but Riege won the wrestle at the end... How depleted are the Hawks? They are using five-foot-nine, 180-pound centre Francis on the blueline. Three regular defencemen are down with injuries, one of them being former Cougars property Ryan Kerr, the first-overall choice in 2004.



As I suspected, I was too hard on them. Sorry for the rant.