dondo
10-12-2008, 12:34 PM
really odd game, mindless zebras, slow start, no emotion, damn shoot-out
here's how I saw it from the corner
Raiders Snipe Giants
Vancouver 4 Prince Albert 5 OT/SO
Don Robinson
The visiting Prince Albert Raiders really had no business winning off of simply scoring on every real chance they got to tickle the twine and maybe one which wasn’t really even considered a scoring chance. Jamie Tucker got the nod in net, but might not see the back half of a back to back in the near future. Tucker’s stats took a big hit as he allowed two goals on two shots before being pulled. The first was what looked like a set play with the point man ripping a puck off the back-boards behind the net where the Raiders player tucked it into the open side off the carom. This was after the Giants started the game with two PPs, as the chippy Raider squad committed two blatant and dangerous boarding penalties in the first three minutes of the game. Garrett Zemlak who was a wall down low for the Raiders kept his team in the game weathering 44 shots to the Raiders 10, 11 if you count the shoot-out shot, which I don’t because the shoot-out should not be as far as I am concerned and no other stats count from the shoot-out so why should shots. The Giants did not allow one shot on their net in third, allowed 5 in the second and 4 in the first, but were down 4-1 going into the final frame. In fact, the home team was down 3-0 in the first after four shots. I’m not sure if that’s incredible luck on the Raiders part, really poor defending on the Giants part, or horrific goaltending, but the goals looked pretty good, the defending could have been better, but the Raiders were finding the twine with pretty much every good opportunity they had and other than Zemlak, that was the difference.
The Giants opened the game with two PPs, but were unable to solve Zemlak. Their puck-handling was a bit suspect at times, but credit the Raiders D for blocking shots and cutting off passing and shooting lanes. The G-Men looked like they may have celebrated a bit too much after Fridays game as they did not come out ready to play and compete, however after a tough OT loss in Chilliwack the night before, the Raiders did. Tucker was pulled after goals from Ryan McDonald and Justin Bernhardt, allowing two goals on two shots. Tyson Sexsmith didn’t fare much better as the first shot on him found the back of the net just a 1:48 after Tucker was pulled. Andy Smith cut through the slot and hand-cuffed Sexsmith with a quick wrister.
The zebras were simply awful on the night making wrong call after wrong call, watching blatant trips, and hooks and blithely ignoring them. There were also two shots which I could have sworn made it past the goal line which were not called goals. One Lance Bouma slid along the goal line and could have been a goal as Zemlak stretched back and grabbed it with his mitt covering the goal line, while the other was a rocket from the face-off dot and from my perspective hit inside the post high off the netting and bounced out. My position is in the corner with a crystal clear view of that part of the net and I was watching pretty closely during that play. I hate to sound like a whiner here, but I really think that the goal judge at that end of the ice had no clue what his job was and was incapable of actually pushing the right button. There were other incidents when a ref declared a goal but the goal light did not light up.
The Giants held the Raiders to five shots in the second, but continued to be thwarted when they got PP opportunities. They finally beat Zemlak on the PP when Brent Regner snuck down to the side of the net and put one past the stalwart net-minder. CPZ and Evander Kane garnered the assists. PA got that one back when Matt Robertson, off of a pretty damn soft call by the zebras, wired one from the point 10 minutes later on the PP to restore the Raiders three goal bulge. That pretty much killed the burgeoning energy in the room, forcing back the Giants push. The rest of the second was a similar script. Giants charge the zone, don’t get traffic right in Zemlak’s face, Zemlak makes the stop and kicks the rebound to the side boards. The Giants had some decent forays in the middle frame, but only managed the one PP marker. Shots were 22-9 after the second and the score was 4-1 for the team which had the nine shots. There was also not a lot of emotion on the ice, despite the Raiders acerbic mode of play. One of the more serious non-calls was on a semi-breakaway by Brendan Gallagher which was defused by a sharp clear elbow to the head. No call. That kind of chippy excessive play was going on all over the ice, but the refs decided that they were going to ignore that and instead call invisible hooks and trips where the only trip was a player stepping on the guys stick which still had its blade on the ice. Abysmal officiating, simply abysmal. Even the linesmen were making some head-shaking off-side calls.
The Giants came out in third ready to dominate and they did. James Wright lead the charge with two goals as the Giants out shot the Raiders 21-0 and out-worked them at all ends of the ice. The puck hunger which had been a integral part of their games leading up to this tilt and had been missing up until the third, was back and so was the traffic and charge to the net. James Wright got one early going to the net as Jonathon Blum and Brent Regner combined to get him the puck. The Giants capitalised again on a PP opportunity mid-period when Craig Schira blasted one through traffic high into the net, some excellent work along the boards by Mike Piluso and Garry Nunn made the goal possible. Wright squeaked another by less than a minute later as his shot from the slot hand-cuffed Zemlak and trickled across the goal line just before Zemlak was able to get his mitt on it. That tied the game and instead of pressing really hard it felt like the Giants eased up a bit after that and although they were still buzzing their intensity seemed to have faded a bit. Just my take on it.
The two teams went into OT and about two minutes into the extra frame James Henry dropped the gloves with Ryan Harrison after some jostling by the benches. Henry tuned up Harrison before both players went down to the ice and brought some emotion into the game too late. The Raiders were then tagged with a tripping call with 2:00 minutes left in OT. Unfortunately, Kane took a really dumb and unnecessary high-sticking penalty in the offensive zone 21 seconds into the advantage and pushed the game to three-on three pond hockey. Jonny Blum had some nice forays near the net three on three, but the game would go to a shoot-out. It took ten shooters to get a decision, but in the end the Raiders won a game they were hanging onto by their fingertips by the end and thanks to their goalie they come out with the two points. Sexsmith looked pretty ugly in the shoot-out I have to say and our shooters were a tad too cute, but Zemlak’s lightning quick glove robbed Kane of a sure goal as the top corner looked to be labelled.
Tucker allowed 2 on 2 and Sexsmith allowed 2 on 8. It was not a banner night for Giants ‘tenders as they both looked a bit lost out there and although most of the goals seemed pretty good, there is no way a team should lose a 5-4 decision out shooting their opponent 44-10. The Giants fought for a point and the chance to get two, but that level of intensity should have begun in the second and not waited until the third. Bronson Maschmeyer was –2 on the night and although he looked steady he was the only player to have a –2. Tucker will have to be brilliant in practice and work hard if he’s to get a start sooner rather than later. Part of it is a bit of bad luck, but two goals on two shots means you aren’t coming into the game focused and ready to compete and that’s something that Don Hay simply will not tolerate. The Giants got a bit too cute in the game, trying low percentage stretch passes and not having the drive they had in other games this season. Tonight goals were hard to come by early and I think that the Giants were getting a bit used to be able to score at will after their scoring streak at home and were a bit shocked that the pucks were not going in as easily as they had in recent games. Garrett Zemlak was virtually impenetrable down low and was quick to quell rebounds or clear them out of danger. He was the main reason the Raiders come out with the W, but not the only one.
The upside of this game is that the Giants learned what it takes to come back from a big deficit and the kind of effort required to solve an unsolvable goalie. Like the Kamloops game where they allowed a big lead to slip, this game will be a valuable learning experience and something that Hay can keep in his back pocket should another such situation arise throughout the season. Credit the G-Men for not giving up and coming up just short of the win, but they have to have the kind of intensity they had earlier in the contest and be ready to compete from the drop of the puck, not 10 or 12 minutes in. Quite often it is the Giants goalies that keep them in game’s like these when they come out of the gate staggering, but tonight it had to be the skaters who pulled up the whole team after gifting the Raiders a three goal cushion.
The Giants went 2 for 10 on the PP, while the Raiders were 2 for 7. The Giants out shot the Raiders 44-10 in the game, but Garrett Zemlak forced the home team to earn every goal. Zemlak got the first star after allowing four goals, but really there was no other Raider player who stood out more than the PA netminder. James Wright scored two on the night after being held off the score-sheet on Friday. The Giants complete their five game home stand versus the Everett Silvertips on Wednesday. The Tips have Beach back in their line-up and the acerbic forward scored two in his first game back with the WHL squad. The Giants will need to be better between the pipes, ready to go from the out-set and take the charge to the Tips net with intensity. The puck drops at the Coliseum at 700pm PST.
Three Stars
1) Garrett Zemlak
2) James Wright
3) Jonathon Blum
here's how I saw it from the corner
Raiders Snipe Giants
Vancouver 4 Prince Albert 5 OT/SO
Don Robinson
The visiting Prince Albert Raiders really had no business winning off of simply scoring on every real chance they got to tickle the twine and maybe one which wasn’t really even considered a scoring chance. Jamie Tucker got the nod in net, but might not see the back half of a back to back in the near future. Tucker’s stats took a big hit as he allowed two goals on two shots before being pulled. The first was what looked like a set play with the point man ripping a puck off the back-boards behind the net where the Raiders player tucked it into the open side off the carom. This was after the Giants started the game with two PPs, as the chippy Raider squad committed two blatant and dangerous boarding penalties in the first three minutes of the game. Garrett Zemlak who was a wall down low for the Raiders kept his team in the game weathering 44 shots to the Raiders 10, 11 if you count the shoot-out shot, which I don’t because the shoot-out should not be as far as I am concerned and no other stats count from the shoot-out so why should shots. The Giants did not allow one shot on their net in third, allowed 5 in the second and 4 in the first, but were down 4-1 going into the final frame. In fact, the home team was down 3-0 in the first after four shots. I’m not sure if that’s incredible luck on the Raiders part, really poor defending on the Giants part, or horrific goaltending, but the goals looked pretty good, the defending could have been better, but the Raiders were finding the twine with pretty much every good opportunity they had and other than Zemlak, that was the difference.
The Giants opened the game with two PPs, but were unable to solve Zemlak. Their puck-handling was a bit suspect at times, but credit the Raiders D for blocking shots and cutting off passing and shooting lanes. The G-Men looked like they may have celebrated a bit too much after Fridays game as they did not come out ready to play and compete, however after a tough OT loss in Chilliwack the night before, the Raiders did. Tucker was pulled after goals from Ryan McDonald and Justin Bernhardt, allowing two goals on two shots. Tyson Sexsmith didn’t fare much better as the first shot on him found the back of the net just a 1:48 after Tucker was pulled. Andy Smith cut through the slot and hand-cuffed Sexsmith with a quick wrister.
The zebras were simply awful on the night making wrong call after wrong call, watching blatant trips, and hooks and blithely ignoring them. There were also two shots which I could have sworn made it past the goal line which were not called goals. One Lance Bouma slid along the goal line and could have been a goal as Zemlak stretched back and grabbed it with his mitt covering the goal line, while the other was a rocket from the face-off dot and from my perspective hit inside the post high off the netting and bounced out. My position is in the corner with a crystal clear view of that part of the net and I was watching pretty closely during that play. I hate to sound like a whiner here, but I really think that the goal judge at that end of the ice had no clue what his job was and was incapable of actually pushing the right button. There were other incidents when a ref declared a goal but the goal light did not light up.
The Giants held the Raiders to five shots in the second, but continued to be thwarted when they got PP opportunities. They finally beat Zemlak on the PP when Brent Regner snuck down to the side of the net and put one past the stalwart net-minder. CPZ and Evander Kane garnered the assists. PA got that one back when Matt Robertson, off of a pretty damn soft call by the zebras, wired one from the point 10 minutes later on the PP to restore the Raiders three goal bulge. That pretty much killed the burgeoning energy in the room, forcing back the Giants push. The rest of the second was a similar script. Giants charge the zone, don’t get traffic right in Zemlak’s face, Zemlak makes the stop and kicks the rebound to the side boards. The Giants had some decent forays in the middle frame, but only managed the one PP marker. Shots were 22-9 after the second and the score was 4-1 for the team which had the nine shots. There was also not a lot of emotion on the ice, despite the Raiders acerbic mode of play. One of the more serious non-calls was on a semi-breakaway by Brendan Gallagher which was defused by a sharp clear elbow to the head. No call. That kind of chippy excessive play was going on all over the ice, but the refs decided that they were going to ignore that and instead call invisible hooks and trips where the only trip was a player stepping on the guys stick which still had its blade on the ice. Abysmal officiating, simply abysmal. Even the linesmen were making some head-shaking off-side calls.
The Giants came out in third ready to dominate and they did. James Wright lead the charge with two goals as the Giants out shot the Raiders 21-0 and out-worked them at all ends of the ice. The puck hunger which had been a integral part of their games leading up to this tilt and had been missing up until the third, was back and so was the traffic and charge to the net. James Wright got one early going to the net as Jonathon Blum and Brent Regner combined to get him the puck. The Giants capitalised again on a PP opportunity mid-period when Craig Schira blasted one through traffic high into the net, some excellent work along the boards by Mike Piluso and Garry Nunn made the goal possible. Wright squeaked another by less than a minute later as his shot from the slot hand-cuffed Zemlak and trickled across the goal line just before Zemlak was able to get his mitt on it. That tied the game and instead of pressing really hard it felt like the Giants eased up a bit after that and although they were still buzzing their intensity seemed to have faded a bit. Just my take on it.
The two teams went into OT and about two minutes into the extra frame James Henry dropped the gloves with Ryan Harrison after some jostling by the benches. Henry tuned up Harrison before both players went down to the ice and brought some emotion into the game too late. The Raiders were then tagged with a tripping call with 2:00 minutes left in OT. Unfortunately, Kane took a really dumb and unnecessary high-sticking penalty in the offensive zone 21 seconds into the advantage and pushed the game to three-on three pond hockey. Jonny Blum had some nice forays near the net three on three, but the game would go to a shoot-out. It took ten shooters to get a decision, but in the end the Raiders won a game they were hanging onto by their fingertips by the end and thanks to their goalie they come out with the two points. Sexsmith looked pretty ugly in the shoot-out I have to say and our shooters were a tad too cute, but Zemlak’s lightning quick glove robbed Kane of a sure goal as the top corner looked to be labelled.
Tucker allowed 2 on 2 and Sexsmith allowed 2 on 8. It was not a banner night for Giants ‘tenders as they both looked a bit lost out there and although most of the goals seemed pretty good, there is no way a team should lose a 5-4 decision out shooting their opponent 44-10. The Giants fought for a point and the chance to get two, but that level of intensity should have begun in the second and not waited until the third. Bronson Maschmeyer was –2 on the night and although he looked steady he was the only player to have a –2. Tucker will have to be brilliant in practice and work hard if he’s to get a start sooner rather than later. Part of it is a bit of bad luck, but two goals on two shots means you aren’t coming into the game focused and ready to compete and that’s something that Don Hay simply will not tolerate. The Giants got a bit too cute in the game, trying low percentage stretch passes and not having the drive they had in other games this season. Tonight goals were hard to come by early and I think that the Giants were getting a bit used to be able to score at will after their scoring streak at home and were a bit shocked that the pucks were not going in as easily as they had in recent games. Garrett Zemlak was virtually impenetrable down low and was quick to quell rebounds or clear them out of danger. He was the main reason the Raiders come out with the W, but not the only one.
The upside of this game is that the Giants learned what it takes to come back from a big deficit and the kind of effort required to solve an unsolvable goalie. Like the Kamloops game where they allowed a big lead to slip, this game will be a valuable learning experience and something that Hay can keep in his back pocket should another such situation arise throughout the season. Credit the G-Men for not giving up and coming up just short of the win, but they have to have the kind of intensity they had earlier in the contest and be ready to compete from the drop of the puck, not 10 or 12 minutes in. Quite often it is the Giants goalies that keep them in game’s like these when they come out of the gate staggering, but tonight it had to be the skaters who pulled up the whole team after gifting the Raiders a three goal cushion.
The Giants went 2 for 10 on the PP, while the Raiders were 2 for 7. The Giants out shot the Raiders 44-10 in the game, but Garrett Zemlak forced the home team to earn every goal. Zemlak got the first star after allowing four goals, but really there was no other Raider player who stood out more than the PA netminder. James Wright scored two on the night after being held off the score-sheet on Friday. The Giants complete their five game home stand versus the Everett Silvertips on Wednesday. The Tips have Beach back in their line-up and the acerbic forward scored two in his first game back with the WHL squad. The Giants will need to be better between the pipes, ready to go from the out-set and take the charge to the Tips net with intensity. The puck drops at the Coliseum at 700pm PST.
Three Stars
1) Garrett Zemlak
2) James Wright
3) Jonathon Blum