dondo
04-12-2008, 12:59 AM
All tied up. Not sure why Kane got a star tonight. He was markedly better than the first game at the Coliseum, but third star honours? I don't think so. I would have chosen Machacek -- who was laying it all out on the ice every shift, including a very dumb reactive pseudo head-butt when he was hauled down, but as I said to the guy next to me I'd rather take an equalising penalty off an emotionally driven move than a lazy one. Had they scored on it I might have a different opinion now. It was a dumb thing to do especially when he had already drawn the penalty, but I love the emotion from which came.
Second I would have given Bliznak, Cunningham, Regner or even CPZ the nod over Kane tonight. Apparently Hayzer threatened to sit Kane next game if he didn't up his game tonight and he did, so meh -- it's all good we earned a very emotional win.
Giants Trim Chiefs 3-1 - VGHQ (http://www.vancouvergiantshq.com/April_11_GiantsbkTrimbkChiefs_219.html)
Giants Trim Chiefs
Vancouver 3 Spokane 1
Don Robinson
Its now down to a best of three and there’s very little separating these two squads. Its almost heart and determination versus speed and skill, but that’s as if saying that Spokane has no heart and/or determination, but they have plenty of both. The Giants will need to be their very best to beat the Chiefs and they were that tonight. Even not taking off shifts and fighting for most every puck they still lost possession and allowed a couple of fairly clean breakaways, which is when their goalie stepped up and did his job. Tyson Sexsmith was excellent tonight and as usual Dustin Tokarski at the other end of the ice was rock solid as well. It’s a shame that one of these teams will not be continuing on past this round as they are in my estimation, with all due respect to Tri-Cities, the two most complete teams in the conference and neither is going to go down quietly. The Giants have Hay in their corner and Memorial Cup experience and the Chiefs have blinding speed throughout the line-up and are always moving like sharks in deep water. The Giants have some serious adversity here and need to win tomorrow’s game to gain the advantage going back to Spokane. An advantage they’ll desperately need.
The Chiefs opened the scoring early in the first off of what appeared to be a pretty basic attempt to put the puck to the point on the offensive side of the ice for the Giants. The puck missed the Giants and Mitch Wahl had it up to Tyler Johnson in a blink. Johnson took it into the zone along the right boards, throwing it to the front of the net after protecting the puck from the Giants defender who was all over him. Levko Koper went to the net and being hassled by a Giants player managed to tip the puck five-hole on Sexy. Thankfully the Giants tied up the game late in the opening frame, just as the fans were starting to bite their nails and grit their teeth. Michal Repik got the puck back to Craig Schira at the point. Schira passed it down the Mario Bliznak who got off a quick shot. Bliznak circled the net and gathered in the rebound flipping it in short side high on Tokarski. It was a great second effort and hunger for the puck the Giants didn’t have in their first home game. It tied the game going into the first intermission and levelled the ice, if not tilting it slightly in the G-Men’s favour.
The second was a much better period for the home team as they stepped it up a notch and did not give an inch, while still pressing back trying to find a seam to slip it past Tokarski. They came in the Chiefs zone in waves and had bump up shifts which lead to the next group trying to outdo the previous line. Just past the mid-way point Jonathon Blum wired one from the point through traffic. A puck which looked to be tipped, but in the end was awarded to the defenseman and must have caromed in off a defender. The Giants did not nurse that lead by sitting back but kept the pressure on the puck and Chiefs’ players. They had to do that. A missed gap or open seam and this team can turn it around and put it in the back of your net. They are that quick and that stealthy. Like sharks they circle with their killer’s eyes glued to the biscuit and they find the loose pucks very quickly. That one goal lead held until with seconds ticking down the Giants scored one of the most satisfying empty net goals I have ever witnessed. The Chiefs had pulled their goalie and were in the Giants zone and the G-Men failed to clear a few times, but did not give up on battling for the puck. Finally Craig Cunningham pulled it out of the scrum and fed it to Machacek who had the briefest window to throw it down the ice finding the back of the wide open cage to uproarious applause from the 8,999 fans in the building.
The fans were a big factor tonight as they cheered on the Giants not just for goals, but good energetic PKs and great shifts where they got solid chances. The barn was filled with real hockey fans and not a bunch of bandwagon canuckle rejects who wouldn’t know real hockey it came up, bought them dinner, took them home and bit them on the butt. And make no mistake this was real hockey. Two teams fighting it out, battling with respect but intensity and for the most part were allowed to play. I was personally not a huge fan of the refs tonight, (and I wasn’t alone) but in the end it was a decently balanced game with some consistency and that’s all you can hope for in these games.
The Giants had puck support coming out of their zone and through the neutral zone tonight and it made all the difference. They turned over pucks in the mid-ice area much less and were more ready to make the turn and back-check effectively. They had heart and grit and battled hard all night and every player knew that they could not give up an inch. That’s how you win those one goal games and that’s how they won this one. One of the more important changes they made was hitting for a purpose as opposed to just for hitting sake and that was a big difference in their ability to react to when the puck went where they didn’t expect. They earned that win and any other wins they get in this series are not going to be handed to them, they are going to have to fight for them tool, nail, puck, stick and glove.
The home team finally got some pucks through the net in numbers and out-shot their opponent 38-30 and that also helped them gain the advantage in the offensive zone. Those shots came from working to fight for the seams and they cannot (yes I know I sound like a broken record here—or rather these days it would be a skipping CD I guess, or a beatbox DJ – trippin’ ) allow themselves to stop skating or sit back or they will get burned. Once again neither squad were able to bulge the twine with the man-advantage even though the Chiefs had a very brief 5 on 3 opportunity. The Giants went 0 for 3 and the Chiefs 0 for 4. The difference tonight was that the Giants did not blithely squander their PPs and looked dangerous for all three of them. The Chiefs though, are a solid defending team as well as an offensive one, they block shots and use their sticks to their best advantage and it takes a bunch of effort and bit of luck to find the seams through traffic.
The two teams are back at it tomorrow night and it should be a battle as both try to gain the upper-hand going back to Spokane for the last two. The Giants are a good home team, but seem to play a simpler game on the road and are very successful doing it so the prospect of them playing the last two in Spoke doesn’t frighten me, but they could really use the advantage as you aren’t going to catch the Chiefs two nights in a row at home. They need to make that not necessary and instead win two in their home barn and need to win tomorrow night to make that happen. The puck drops at 7:00pm at the Coliseum for Game 5. I’d get a ticket if you don’t have one. These two teams are incredibly fun to watch.
Three Stars
1. Jonathon Blum
2. Tyson Sexsmith
3. Evander Kane
Second I would have given Bliznak, Cunningham, Regner or even CPZ the nod over Kane tonight. Apparently Hayzer threatened to sit Kane next game if he didn't up his game tonight and he did, so meh -- it's all good we earned a very emotional win.
Giants Trim Chiefs 3-1 - VGHQ (http://www.vancouvergiantshq.com/April_11_GiantsbkTrimbkChiefs_219.html)
Giants Trim Chiefs
Vancouver 3 Spokane 1
Don Robinson
Its now down to a best of three and there’s very little separating these two squads. Its almost heart and determination versus speed and skill, but that’s as if saying that Spokane has no heart and/or determination, but they have plenty of both. The Giants will need to be their very best to beat the Chiefs and they were that tonight. Even not taking off shifts and fighting for most every puck they still lost possession and allowed a couple of fairly clean breakaways, which is when their goalie stepped up and did his job. Tyson Sexsmith was excellent tonight and as usual Dustin Tokarski at the other end of the ice was rock solid as well. It’s a shame that one of these teams will not be continuing on past this round as they are in my estimation, with all due respect to Tri-Cities, the two most complete teams in the conference and neither is going to go down quietly. The Giants have Hay in their corner and Memorial Cup experience and the Chiefs have blinding speed throughout the line-up and are always moving like sharks in deep water. The Giants have some serious adversity here and need to win tomorrow’s game to gain the advantage going back to Spokane. An advantage they’ll desperately need.
The Chiefs opened the scoring early in the first off of what appeared to be a pretty basic attempt to put the puck to the point on the offensive side of the ice for the Giants. The puck missed the Giants and Mitch Wahl had it up to Tyler Johnson in a blink. Johnson took it into the zone along the right boards, throwing it to the front of the net after protecting the puck from the Giants defender who was all over him. Levko Koper went to the net and being hassled by a Giants player managed to tip the puck five-hole on Sexy. Thankfully the Giants tied up the game late in the opening frame, just as the fans were starting to bite their nails and grit their teeth. Michal Repik got the puck back to Craig Schira at the point. Schira passed it down the Mario Bliznak who got off a quick shot. Bliznak circled the net and gathered in the rebound flipping it in short side high on Tokarski. It was a great second effort and hunger for the puck the Giants didn’t have in their first home game. It tied the game going into the first intermission and levelled the ice, if not tilting it slightly in the G-Men’s favour.
The second was a much better period for the home team as they stepped it up a notch and did not give an inch, while still pressing back trying to find a seam to slip it past Tokarski. They came in the Chiefs zone in waves and had bump up shifts which lead to the next group trying to outdo the previous line. Just past the mid-way point Jonathon Blum wired one from the point through traffic. A puck which looked to be tipped, but in the end was awarded to the defenseman and must have caromed in off a defender. The Giants did not nurse that lead by sitting back but kept the pressure on the puck and Chiefs’ players. They had to do that. A missed gap or open seam and this team can turn it around and put it in the back of your net. They are that quick and that stealthy. Like sharks they circle with their killer’s eyes glued to the biscuit and they find the loose pucks very quickly. That one goal lead held until with seconds ticking down the Giants scored one of the most satisfying empty net goals I have ever witnessed. The Chiefs had pulled their goalie and were in the Giants zone and the G-Men failed to clear a few times, but did not give up on battling for the puck. Finally Craig Cunningham pulled it out of the scrum and fed it to Machacek who had the briefest window to throw it down the ice finding the back of the wide open cage to uproarious applause from the 8,999 fans in the building.
The fans were a big factor tonight as they cheered on the Giants not just for goals, but good energetic PKs and great shifts where they got solid chances. The barn was filled with real hockey fans and not a bunch of bandwagon canuckle rejects who wouldn’t know real hockey it came up, bought them dinner, took them home and bit them on the butt. And make no mistake this was real hockey. Two teams fighting it out, battling with respect but intensity and for the most part were allowed to play. I was personally not a huge fan of the refs tonight, (and I wasn’t alone) but in the end it was a decently balanced game with some consistency and that’s all you can hope for in these games.
The Giants had puck support coming out of their zone and through the neutral zone tonight and it made all the difference. They turned over pucks in the mid-ice area much less and were more ready to make the turn and back-check effectively. They had heart and grit and battled hard all night and every player knew that they could not give up an inch. That’s how you win those one goal games and that’s how they won this one. One of the more important changes they made was hitting for a purpose as opposed to just for hitting sake and that was a big difference in their ability to react to when the puck went where they didn’t expect. They earned that win and any other wins they get in this series are not going to be handed to them, they are going to have to fight for them tool, nail, puck, stick and glove.
The home team finally got some pucks through the net in numbers and out-shot their opponent 38-30 and that also helped them gain the advantage in the offensive zone. Those shots came from working to fight for the seams and they cannot (yes I know I sound like a broken record here—or rather these days it would be a skipping CD I guess, or a beatbox DJ – trippin’ ) allow themselves to stop skating or sit back or they will get burned. Once again neither squad were able to bulge the twine with the man-advantage even though the Chiefs had a very brief 5 on 3 opportunity. The Giants went 0 for 3 and the Chiefs 0 for 4. The difference tonight was that the Giants did not blithely squander their PPs and looked dangerous for all three of them. The Chiefs though, are a solid defending team as well as an offensive one, they block shots and use their sticks to their best advantage and it takes a bunch of effort and bit of luck to find the seams through traffic.
The two teams are back at it tomorrow night and it should be a battle as both try to gain the upper-hand going back to Spokane for the last two. The Giants are a good home team, but seem to play a simpler game on the road and are very successful doing it so the prospect of them playing the last two in Spoke doesn’t frighten me, but they could really use the advantage as you aren’t going to catch the Chiefs two nights in a row at home. They need to make that not necessary and instead win two in their home barn and need to win tomorrow night to make that happen. The puck drops at 7:00pm at the Coliseum for Game 5. I’d get a ticket if you don’t have one. These two teams are incredibly fun to watch.
Three Stars
1. Jonathon Blum
2. Tyson Sexsmith
3. Evander Kane