dondo
10-05-2008, 03:19 PM
couldn't access site on Friday night..
holy crap -- men among boys and Seattle has some pretty big boys
how I saw it from the corner.
Giants Embarrass T-Birds
Vancouver 10 T-Birds 2
Don Robinson
The Vancouver Giants took on the only team in the dub currently winless, The Seattle Thunderbirds. The T-Birds are lacking players like Bud Holloway and Thomas Hickey from their line-up, but tonight they looked like a bunch of hard-working yet completely out-matched Junior B players. The Giants got the lead early and never gave it up, scoring three in the first, four in the second and rounding it off with three in the third while giving up a couple of softies in the final frame. Only Czech power-forward Andrej Kudrna got more than one goal and he managed the hat trick and four points. The other goals were spread throughout the lines and the line-up. Berube, Nunn, Basford, CPZ, Henry, Kane and Wright all buried the puck tonight. The win gives the Giants an almost perfect record with the single loss being a shootout loss to the Kamloops Blazers in a game they let slip after leading it handily early on. That’s a game that Don Hay will be using as an example throughout the season to remind the boys to play the full sixty, no matter what the score. The home team literally skated rings around the Birds, thriving off of some excellent puck moving from their defensive corps. It was no contest.
Mike Berube opened the scoring cheating into the zone down the seam and putting it convincingly past Calvin Pickard, 12:15 into the first. On the second PP unit Andrej Kudrna came out of the corner and snapped the puck at the net from the goal line. The puck trickled past Pickard putting the G-Men up by two. Late in the first, again on the PP, Garry Nunn found the twine, being assisted by Basford and Blum. Basford’s great cross-ice pass made it easy for Nunn to put it into the net. The T-Birds got out-worked throughout the game, being last to loose pucks and not fighting hard enough for the puck at times. The Giants used their blazing speed, something which could not be said about them last year and could have been the key component of their down-fall to the eventual Memorial Cup Champions, Spokane Chiefs, to keep the Seattle players scrambling. Sexsmith had to stop just one shot in the period as the Giants out shot the Birds 15-1.
The Giants continued to roll, striking again early in the middle frame. 17 yr old Kudrna, who is NHL draft eligible at the end of this season, scored his second of the game off of some good work by Henry and going to the net, something the Czech forward did all night long. Adam Basford scored a couple of minutes later, off of more excellent puck moving from James Wright and Nunn. CPZ hit the score sheet when Mike Piluso worked it out of the corner and got it to Evander Kane behind the net. Kane made a bullet pass to CPZ out in the slot, and Casey made no mistake rippling the twine. James Henry rounded out the scoring with his first of the season off of a beautiful pass from Andrej Kudrna who was seeing the ice extremely well and contributing at all ends of the rink, and Brendan Gallagher who had a couple of near misses for goals himself tonight. The tally came at 19:18 of the second and was the Giants seventh goal of the night. The T-Birds managed only 4 shots in the middle stanza.
Rob Sumner allowed his young ‘tender to finish out the period, but regular starter Jacob DeSerres was between the pipes to start the third. De Serres has had a hard time of it so far this season and sports a WHL worst GAA of 6.19 and tonight didn’t help his stats any as he allowed three goals against of his own. Very early in the third, Tyson Sexsmith cleared the puck to Berube who found a streaking Evander Kane down the wing. Kane came into the zone, on the left side, cut right through the face-off circle, but instead of taking the shot from there he dragged the puck over into the sweet spot and lit up the top corner. It was the first shot on DeSerres and the goalie really had no chance. Beautiful goal from a very special player. Damn this kid’s going to fun to watch this year as he also had a couple great driving to the net rushes which came close to padding his stats. David Richard finally solved Sexsmith with a goal mouth flip shot which trickled over top of Sexsmith’s stick in a save he should have had. The goal was scored four on four. Less than a minute later the Giants replied with a short-handed goal. Pierro-Zabotel found Kudrna going to the net and Kudrna showed what skilled hands he has pounding it past DeSerres for his hat-trick goal which garnered a single hat thrown onto the ice. Mid third, James Wright capitalised on a give-away in the neutral zone and turned the puck around down the ice. Coming in with a full head of steam and a defenseman breathing down his back, Wright showed why he is such a highly touted prospect. Wright gave a head fake which probably still has Deserres looking that way and calmly slipped the puck back to his forehand and past Deserres’ pad, for a fine unassisted tally. The T-Birds managed one more off a late PP which should never have been a power play, as the hit which landed Bouma in the box was not in any way charging. I think the refs were just making sure the game didn’t get out of hand. Anyway, Sena Acolatse floated a shot through a screen and beat Sexsmith on yet another shot he probably should have had.
Anybody who believes the crap Gary Bettman is spouting needs to see a game like this. Neither team really gave-up, although the Giants actually did back off in the third and began to try some fancy stuff, but the T-Birds, despite being badly out-played, hung in there and tried hard to stay in the game. There was no sulking on the T-Bird bench, but there was no passion either and I think that might have been where they had their downfall. Bettman stands by the myth that more scoring makes for more exciting hockey and although it was great watching the lines gel and the players making some brilliant moves, in the end it was an okay game. All those goals didn’t make the game better and at times as a hard-core fan I began to feel a bit embarrassed at the thrashing we were handing these guys. Parity and passion makes for exceptional hockey in my mind and tonight we had one great team playing a very solid game, but very few fireworks. Lance Bouma laid the body fairly well tonight and even his misses were rattling the glass, but other than that it was pure skill game. Entertaining on one level, but lacking on another. Watching a blow-out as the home team crowd is fun, but thrilling and heart-stopping hockey? Nah.
The Giants went 2 for 6 with the man-advantage, while holding their opponent to 1 for 6. They out shot the visitors 36-13. The reffing was fair to middling, but there were a few missed calls and whole lot of soft ones. The Giants go at it again tomorrow night when they take on the Portland Winterhawks, a team they blanked 5-0 earlier this season. By all accounts it could be a carbon copy of tonight, but the Winterhawks are more apt to throw them and mix it up should the game slide away from them. Puck drops at 7pm PST at the Coliseum for the second of five straight at home.
Three Stars
1) Andrej Kudrna
2) James Henry
3) Adam Basford
holy crap -- men among boys and Seattle has some pretty big boys
how I saw it from the corner.
Giants Embarrass T-Birds
Vancouver 10 T-Birds 2
Don Robinson
The Vancouver Giants took on the only team in the dub currently winless, The Seattle Thunderbirds. The T-Birds are lacking players like Bud Holloway and Thomas Hickey from their line-up, but tonight they looked like a bunch of hard-working yet completely out-matched Junior B players. The Giants got the lead early and never gave it up, scoring three in the first, four in the second and rounding it off with three in the third while giving up a couple of softies in the final frame. Only Czech power-forward Andrej Kudrna got more than one goal and he managed the hat trick and four points. The other goals were spread throughout the lines and the line-up. Berube, Nunn, Basford, CPZ, Henry, Kane and Wright all buried the puck tonight. The win gives the Giants an almost perfect record with the single loss being a shootout loss to the Kamloops Blazers in a game they let slip after leading it handily early on. That’s a game that Don Hay will be using as an example throughout the season to remind the boys to play the full sixty, no matter what the score. The home team literally skated rings around the Birds, thriving off of some excellent puck moving from their defensive corps. It was no contest.
Mike Berube opened the scoring cheating into the zone down the seam and putting it convincingly past Calvin Pickard, 12:15 into the first. On the second PP unit Andrej Kudrna came out of the corner and snapped the puck at the net from the goal line. The puck trickled past Pickard putting the G-Men up by two. Late in the first, again on the PP, Garry Nunn found the twine, being assisted by Basford and Blum. Basford’s great cross-ice pass made it easy for Nunn to put it into the net. The T-Birds got out-worked throughout the game, being last to loose pucks and not fighting hard enough for the puck at times. The Giants used their blazing speed, something which could not be said about them last year and could have been the key component of their down-fall to the eventual Memorial Cup Champions, Spokane Chiefs, to keep the Seattle players scrambling. Sexsmith had to stop just one shot in the period as the Giants out shot the Birds 15-1.
The Giants continued to roll, striking again early in the middle frame. 17 yr old Kudrna, who is NHL draft eligible at the end of this season, scored his second of the game off of some good work by Henry and going to the net, something the Czech forward did all night long. Adam Basford scored a couple of minutes later, off of more excellent puck moving from James Wright and Nunn. CPZ hit the score sheet when Mike Piluso worked it out of the corner and got it to Evander Kane behind the net. Kane made a bullet pass to CPZ out in the slot, and Casey made no mistake rippling the twine. James Henry rounded out the scoring with his first of the season off of a beautiful pass from Andrej Kudrna who was seeing the ice extremely well and contributing at all ends of the rink, and Brendan Gallagher who had a couple of near misses for goals himself tonight. The tally came at 19:18 of the second and was the Giants seventh goal of the night. The T-Birds managed only 4 shots in the middle stanza.
Rob Sumner allowed his young ‘tender to finish out the period, but regular starter Jacob DeSerres was between the pipes to start the third. De Serres has had a hard time of it so far this season and sports a WHL worst GAA of 6.19 and tonight didn’t help his stats any as he allowed three goals against of his own. Very early in the third, Tyson Sexsmith cleared the puck to Berube who found a streaking Evander Kane down the wing. Kane came into the zone, on the left side, cut right through the face-off circle, but instead of taking the shot from there he dragged the puck over into the sweet spot and lit up the top corner. It was the first shot on DeSerres and the goalie really had no chance. Beautiful goal from a very special player. Damn this kid’s going to fun to watch this year as he also had a couple great driving to the net rushes which came close to padding his stats. David Richard finally solved Sexsmith with a goal mouth flip shot which trickled over top of Sexsmith’s stick in a save he should have had. The goal was scored four on four. Less than a minute later the Giants replied with a short-handed goal. Pierro-Zabotel found Kudrna going to the net and Kudrna showed what skilled hands he has pounding it past DeSerres for his hat-trick goal which garnered a single hat thrown onto the ice. Mid third, James Wright capitalised on a give-away in the neutral zone and turned the puck around down the ice. Coming in with a full head of steam and a defenseman breathing down his back, Wright showed why he is such a highly touted prospect. Wright gave a head fake which probably still has Deserres looking that way and calmly slipped the puck back to his forehand and past Deserres’ pad, for a fine unassisted tally. The T-Birds managed one more off a late PP which should never have been a power play, as the hit which landed Bouma in the box was not in any way charging. I think the refs were just making sure the game didn’t get out of hand. Anyway, Sena Acolatse floated a shot through a screen and beat Sexsmith on yet another shot he probably should have had.
Anybody who believes the crap Gary Bettman is spouting needs to see a game like this. Neither team really gave-up, although the Giants actually did back off in the third and began to try some fancy stuff, but the T-Birds, despite being badly out-played, hung in there and tried hard to stay in the game. There was no sulking on the T-Bird bench, but there was no passion either and I think that might have been where they had their downfall. Bettman stands by the myth that more scoring makes for more exciting hockey and although it was great watching the lines gel and the players making some brilliant moves, in the end it was an okay game. All those goals didn’t make the game better and at times as a hard-core fan I began to feel a bit embarrassed at the thrashing we were handing these guys. Parity and passion makes for exceptional hockey in my mind and tonight we had one great team playing a very solid game, but very few fireworks. Lance Bouma laid the body fairly well tonight and even his misses were rattling the glass, but other than that it was pure skill game. Entertaining on one level, but lacking on another. Watching a blow-out as the home team crowd is fun, but thrilling and heart-stopping hockey? Nah.
The Giants went 2 for 6 with the man-advantage, while holding their opponent to 1 for 6. They out shot the visitors 36-13. The reffing was fair to middling, but there were a few missed calls and whole lot of soft ones. The Giants go at it again tomorrow night when they take on the Portland Winterhawks, a team they blanked 5-0 earlier this season. By all accounts it could be a carbon copy of tonight, but the Winterhawks are more apt to throw them and mix it up should the game slide away from them. Puck drops at 7pm PST at the Coliseum for the second of five straight at home.
Three Stars
1) Andrej Kudrna
2) James Henry
3) Adam Basford