dondo
04-10-2008, 01:30 AM
Well the Giants have found out that they can't just trust their system and they are going to have to dig a lot deeper if they want to succeed against the Chiefs. A tight game between two teams who seem to understand one another, but the Giants are failing to capitalise on their chances and seemed tonight to not be able to manufacture those chances. The Chiefs appear to be more able to make the Giants few mistakes count against the G-Men. Should be a good game four, but the Giants need to show up for the full sixty and stop allowing themselves to be stripped of the puck so easily.
Chiefs Edge Giants - VGHQ (http://www.vancouvergiantshq.com/April_9_ChiefsbkEdgebkGiants_218.html)
Chiefs Edge Giants
Vancouver 2 Spokane 3
Don Robinson
It was pretty tight battle tonight for both squads, but in the end the Giants did not have the stamina to keep it up the whole game, which frankly surprised me. The Giants kept to their system for the majority of the game, but it failed to give them what they needed when they were required to step it up and come from behind. The Chiefs used their speed and excellent stick work to their best advantage and in the end were able to capitalise on some gaffes by the Giants, which proved to be the difference in the game. Most disappointing to me though was when the Giants came out hard in the third, had some great momentum off of some intense work and hard checks, but then the Chiefs scored and the whole Giants squad sagged - playing lifeless hockey for the rest of period. Seemingly not even trying to get back into the game and spending the remainder of the third playing a system Spokane was shutting down and sending in one forechecker, sitting back in their 1-2-2 defensive system instead of going for the win. Needless to say this tactic played into Spokane’s hands and the Giants ran themselves out of time, not even trying to draw penalties with some hard work in the offensive zone.
The first goal has become quite important in this series and is very important for Spokane. Spokane opened the scoring in the second after a scoreless first, off of a very poor defensive play by the G-Men in their own zone. Two checkers went to take the body on David Rutherford and Ondrej Roman went to the net all alone, took the pass from Rudy and flipped it past Tyson Sexsmith on the doorstep. Dumb, dumb, dumb play. Just over a minute later with the teams skating four a side, Brent Regner got the puck up to Spencer Machacek who went in on a perfect 2 on 1 with CPZ. Machacek held onto the puck down the right wing keeping it away from the Chiefs defender and drifted the puck across the slot to a wide open CPZ. Dustin Tokarski had no chance. Rutherford and Roman hooked up for another tally when RJ LaRochelle made a blind back pass around his net up the boards and it was picked off by Roman waiting along the side boards completely open. Roman took the shot and Rudy tipped it puck past Sexsmith with nice deflection.
The Giants would get that back with a bit of help from a Spokane defender driving back to his net and some great traffic in the crease from Mario Bliznak. The Spoke player backed Bliznak into Tokarski who was unable to stop Mike Piluso’s shot from the face-off dot off of a rebound in front of the Chief netminder. Some nice work by Michal Repik and Bliznak got the puck to the net and Bliznak went right to the blue-paint for the screen. It’s a shame they didn’t have that kind of drive to the net for the rest of the game. The first minutes of the third belonged to the Giants as they had bump shift after bump up shift keeping the pressure on and seemed to be pushing Spokane back a bit. The Chiefs managed to change that momentum off of a weakish goal coming from some sharp awareness by Tyler Johnson. Levko Koper wristed the puck five-hole from the face off dot with no real traffic and Sexsmith (who should have had the puck easily) caught most of the puck, but not quite enough as the biscuit trickled through his pads and sat just shy of the goal line. With two Giants defenders standing right there, neither player recognized the loose puck and Johnson slipped in and tapped it past the goal line.
From then on it was all Chiefs as the Giants not only sagged but backtracked with a good 14 minutes still left in the final frame. To be frank I did not think that this team could be that fragile, but instead they went back to doggedly playing their system, neglecting the fact that they had to score to still be in the game. As I said before they sent in one forechecker for most of the period and it sucked. They’d dump and sort of chase, they lacked puck support and although individuals tried to step it up, they lost all of their team cohesiveness and it was their undoing. By the last minutes of the game it looked like the Giants were sucking wind out there and had cement in their skates. After watching the kind of fight that the Hitmen and Broncos had in their game last night going full-on into double OT with a shortened bench, the Giants response tonight really made me sick.
If the system isn’t working and the other guys have figured it out then you need to do something ELSE. Sadly the home team seemed to have no interest in getting back into this one and it was eerily similar to the way they folded after tying game two in Spokane, and then getting scored upon due to a misplay in their end of the ice. I really hope that now they are facing a little adversity versus a team who can shut down their system that they have a few more rabbits up their sleeve, otherwise they won’t make it past this round. Because the rest of the third was in my mind an embarrassment and the boys need to be ashamed for how they reacted to being down one freaking goal. I expect a hell of a lot more heart out of this squad than we got and it frustrates me seeing what we got.
I really would have loved to blame the refs for this one but although it was Kirk and Raphael (usually a disastrous mix) they were mostly harmless. Neither team’s PP looked even moderately dangerous tonight, anyway. I would have loved to blame the young guys in the line-up, but both 16 yr old d-man insert Bronson Maschmeyer (with several quality shifts in the second period), and Adam Basford in for Chris Cloud took care of the puck and their own end tonight and Basford had some decent jump with Henry and Hunt and Mike Piluso got a goal playing with Blizzy and Repik. The reality is that Spokane is a team that will capitalise when you make mistakes and it doesn’t take much. Neither goalie had to be stellar either although both were pretty solid, other than maybe Sexy’s failure to squeeze the pads a bit tighter, but to be blunt the d-men should have recognized the possibility of that happening instead of staring at the sky while the Chief player slipped it in, cleared the puck from their crease. Hopefully it’s a learning experience for them.
The Giants out shot the Chiefs by a mere one shot, 25-24 and that’s really unlike them – except it seems against this team where they currently are averaging 22 shots per game, when they usually have upwards of 40. Credit the Chiefs though, as they had quick sticks, were willing to lay their body down to block shots and were very good on the back-check. The Giants were 0 for 3 on the PP, while the Chiefs went 0 for 4 and even though both team’s PPs were in the top of the league this season the man advantage has really not been a factor so far. The Giants were hitting a lot, but more so after the player had played the puck and several Giants put themselves out of position by laying the body. Don’t get me wrong I love hitting, but they need to pick their spots better and hit for a purpose and not just because. The Chiefs are very quick at moving the puck and the Giants need to get on them quicker and with support if they hope to tie the series on Friday. The puck drops at the Coliseum for game four at 7:30pm on Friday April 11th.
Three Stars
1. David Rutherford
2. Spencer Machacek
3. Ondrej Roman
Chiefs Edge Giants - VGHQ (http://www.vancouvergiantshq.com/April_9_ChiefsbkEdgebkGiants_218.html)
Chiefs Edge Giants
Vancouver 2 Spokane 3
Don Robinson
It was pretty tight battle tonight for both squads, but in the end the Giants did not have the stamina to keep it up the whole game, which frankly surprised me. The Giants kept to their system for the majority of the game, but it failed to give them what they needed when they were required to step it up and come from behind. The Chiefs used their speed and excellent stick work to their best advantage and in the end were able to capitalise on some gaffes by the Giants, which proved to be the difference in the game. Most disappointing to me though was when the Giants came out hard in the third, had some great momentum off of some intense work and hard checks, but then the Chiefs scored and the whole Giants squad sagged - playing lifeless hockey for the rest of period. Seemingly not even trying to get back into the game and spending the remainder of the third playing a system Spokane was shutting down and sending in one forechecker, sitting back in their 1-2-2 defensive system instead of going for the win. Needless to say this tactic played into Spokane’s hands and the Giants ran themselves out of time, not even trying to draw penalties with some hard work in the offensive zone.
The first goal has become quite important in this series and is very important for Spokane. Spokane opened the scoring in the second after a scoreless first, off of a very poor defensive play by the G-Men in their own zone. Two checkers went to take the body on David Rutherford and Ondrej Roman went to the net all alone, took the pass from Rudy and flipped it past Tyson Sexsmith on the doorstep. Dumb, dumb, dumb play. Just over a minute later with the teams skating four a side, Brent Regner got the puck up to Spencer Machacek who went in on a perfect 2 on 1 with CPZ. Machacek held onto the puck down the right wing keeping it away from the Chiefs defender and drifted the puck across the slot to a wide open CPZ. Dustin Tokarski had no chance. Rutherford and Roman hooked up for another tally when RJ LaRochelle made a blind back pass around his net up the boards and it was picked off by Roman waiting along the side boards completely open. Roman took the shot and Rudy tipped it puck past Sexsmith with nice deflection.
The Giants would get that back with a bit of help from a Spokane defender driving back to his net and some great traffic in the crease from Mario Bliznak. The Spoke player backed Bliznak into Tokarski who was unable to stop Mike Piluso’s shot from the face-off dot off of a rebound in front of the Chief netminder. Some nice work by Michal Repik and Bliznak got the puck to the net and Bliznak went right to the blue-paint for the screen. It’s a shame they didn’t have that kind of drive to the net for the rest of the game. The first minutes of the third belonged to the Giants as they had bump shift after bump up shift keeping the pressure on and seemed to be pushing Spokane back a bit. The Chiefs managed to change that momentum off of a weakish goal coming from some sharp awareness by Tyler Johnson. Levko Koper wristed the puck five-hole from the face off dot with no real traffic and Sexsmith (who should have had the puck easily) caught most of the puck, but not quite enough as the biscuit trickled through his pads and sat just shy of the goal line. With two Giants defenders standing right there, neither player recognized the loose puck and Johnson slipped in and tapped it past the goal line.
From then on it was all Chiefs as the Giants not only sagged but backtracked with a good 14 minutes still left in the final frame. To be frank I did not think that this team could be that fragile, but instead they went back to doggedly playing their system, neglecting the fact that they had to score to still be in the game. As I said before they sent in one forechecker for most of the period and it sucked. They’d dump and sort of chase, they lacked puck support and although individuals tried to step it up, they lost all of their team cohesiveness and it was their undoing. By the last minutes of the game it looked like the Giants were sucking wind out there and had cement in their skates. After watching the kind of fight that the Hitmen and Broncos had in their game last night going full-on into double OT with a shortened bench, the Giants response tonight really made me sick.
If the system isn’t working and the other guys have figured it out then you need to do something ELSE. Sadly the home team seemed to have no interest in getting back into this one and it was eerily similar to the way they folded after tying game two in Spokane, and then getting scored upon due to a misplay in their end of the ice. I really hope that now they are facing a little adversity versus a team who can shut down their system that they have a few more rabbits up their sleeve, otherwise they won’t make it past this round. Because the rest of the third was in my mind an embarrassment and the boys need to be ashamed for how they reacted to being down one freaking goal. I expect a hell of a lot more heart out of this squad than we got and it frustrates me seeing what we got.
I really would have loved to blame the refs for this one but although it was Kirk and Raphael (usually a disastrous mix) they were mostly harmless. Neither team’s PP looked even moderately dangerous tonight, anyway. I would have loved to blame the young guys in the line-up, but both 16 yr old d-man insert Bronson Maschmeyer (with several quality shifts in the second period), and Adam Basford in for Chris Cloud took care of the puck and their own end tonight and Basford had some decent jump with Henry and Hunt and Mike Piluso got a goal playing with Blizzy and Repik. The reality is that Spokane is a team that will capitalise when you make mistakes and it doesn’t take much. Neither goalie had to be stellar either although both were pretty solid, other than maybe Sexy’s failure to squeeze the pads a bit tighter, but to be blunt the d-men should have recognized the possibility of that happening instead of staring at the sky while the Chief player slipped it in, cleared the puck from their crease. Hopefully it’s a learning experience for them.
The Giants out shot the Chiefs by a mere one shot, 25-24 and that’s really unlike them – except it seems against this team where they currently are averaging 22 shots per game, when they usually have upwards of 40. Credit the Chiefs though, as they had quick sticks, were willing to lay their body down to block shots and were very good on the back-check. The Giants were 0 for 3 on the PP, while the Chiefs went 0 for 4 and even though both team’s PPs were in the top of the league this season the man advantage has really not been a factor so far. The Giants were hitting a lot, but more so after the player had played the puck and several Giants put themselves out of position by laying the body. Don’t get me wrong I love hitting, but they need to pick their spots better and hit for a purpose and not just because. The Chiefs are very quick at moving the puck and the Giants need to get on them quicker and with support if they hope to tie the series on Friday. The puck drops at the Coliseum for game four at 7:30pm on Friday April 11th.
Three Stars
1. David Rutherford
2. Spencer Machacek
3. Ondrej Roman