dondo
10-24-2008, 11:14 PM
Listened to this one on the radio, mostly, sounded like a pretty lively game, but other than the first 7 minutes the game was mostly Giants.
Contributions from throughout the line-up is flummoxing the Giant's opponents so far this season and despite a couple of poor slides, the Giants still remain undefeated in regulation with all three of their losses coming in the shoot out, on which the Giants are 0 for 3. They would be wise to work on that aspect of their game, even though there are no shoot-outs in the playoffs which is always where the Giants focus their sights and efforts.
Giants Arrest Rebels
Vancouver 6 Red Deer 3
Don Robinson
The Rebels came out early with two unanswered goals. Don Hay calls a time-out and less than 30 seconds later Brent Regner tickles the twine. At one point the Rebels lead the Giants 9-1 in shots on goal, very unusual stats for the G-Men who pride themselves on out-shooting their opponent at home and on the road. The Giants add two more before the end of the period, one of which is a short-handed tally by Craig Cunningham. Morgan Clark opened the game between the pipes for the Rebels and allowed 3 goals on 7 shots, before being pulled in favour of Darcy Kuemper who ended the game with 27 saves, a number not reflected on the WHL site, but as it is written on the official scoresheet. A couple of good fights in the game and some decent emotion on the ice tonight. The Rebels have a few great weapons in their line-up and the line of Landon Ferraro, Cass Mappin and Carter Smith, along with Brennan Wray makes the team a bit dangerous to play against as they capitalise on mistakes very quickly. The Giants gut out a win after being down early and they can thank their defensive corps for stepping up their game, pinching well and forcing the Rebels to make plays quicker than they would like. The puck movement from the blue-liners was a huge boost as they were instrumental in keeping the Red Deer players chasing out of their comfort zone.
The Rebels opened the scoring 4:30 into the first. Landon Ferraro scored, assisted by Smith and Mappin. They padded that lead on their first PP opportunity, a careless hooking penalty by Evander Kane, as Cass Mappin garnered his second point scoring off of a feed from Gross and Wray. Don Hay gathered his boys for a meeting taking a time-out after the goal and turned the game around. Brent Regner scored quickly, less than thirty seconds later, closing the gap to one. Garry Nunn, who was flying tonight and earned first star honours from the Red Deer folks, assisted on the play. Cunningham took advantage at the tail end of four on four, with the Rebels just getting their fifth man back on the ice. Converting a Schira shot at the net and scoring his second game in a row, this time short-handed.
The Giants completed the comeback and took the lead off of a goal by defenseman Neil Manning, being set up by CPZ and Brendan Gallagher. A couple of minutes after that Kane and Ferraro dropped the mitts. Pretty evenly matched and similar types of players the fight was mostly a draw with Kane getting the nominal take-down. The Giants ended up out shooting the Rebels 13-9 after being down 9-1 in shots when Hay used his timeout at 7:12 of the opening frame. Holding the Red Deer squad to zero shots for the remainder of the period and putting 12 of their own on the net. Morgan Clark lasted 14:25, before being pulled in favour of Kuemper.
In the second the Giants scored two while the Rebels managed one of their own. Early in the second Mike Piluso scored his 7th of the season off of the usual suspects, Kane and Pierro-Zabotel. The assist extended Kane’s point scoring streak to 9 games. Mikhail Fisenko scored on the PP a bit later, putting home a nice feed from Cunningham, with Schira getting the other helper. The goal was Fisenko’s fourth of the season as he put away the first two in Edmonton on Wednesday night. Mappin got one of those back off of Ferraro and Polak, when the Giants misplayed the puck. More fisticuffs early in the second did not swing the game the Rebels way as former Rebel Mike Berube dropped the mitts with skilled tough guy Cody Esposito. Both combatants got shots in there, but in the end there was no clear winner. Berube got the takedown, but the bout was a pretty even toe to toe battle.
The Giants salted away the game early in the third off of a fortunate goal by Garry Nunn who had some luck after all of his hard work in this game. Andrej Kudrna, who was a healthy scratch versus Edmonton, fired the puck at the net and the biscuit went in off of Nunn’s skate. Nunn was in the right place in front of the net, but it was more luck than design which got him the marker. Neil Manning was awarded the other helper. Originally the goal was scored unassisted, but that was changed later in the game. A few late penalties made it interesting, but the Giants had the game in hand by the second minute of the third and unlike their two poor slides versus Kelowna and Everett where they let two goal leads slip, they shut the door, laid out the body blocking a ton of shots and kept their focus for the rest of the period.
The Giants went 1 for 5 on the PP and the Rebels have Kuemeper to thank that that stat remained as such. The Giants have been averaging a goal this season for every three PP chances and still lead the league in the category. The G-Men allowed 1 for 4 on the PP by the Rebels. The shots were 37-26 in favour of the Giants by the end of the game. Jonathon Blum and Brent Regner were their usual solid selves on the blue-line locking down their end of the ice when it really mattered and taking the Giants offense to another level with their savvy timely pinches. The top line looked good, but it was the other guys who brought the offense tonight. Sexsmith had to be good late in the game as the Rebels pressed the attacking zone.
The Giants take on a well-rested Lethbridge Hurricane team in Lethbridge tomorrow night. The ‘Canes are 7-1 at home this season and will prove to be a challenge to the road warriors. It’s likely that Jamie Tucker will get the start being a back to back game. Tucker’s last start was a whole lot uglier than he would have liked when he allowed two goals on two shots before being pulled. Despite that anomaly, Tucker boasts two strong shut-outs so far this season, some good numbers and beat out last years back-up Kraymer Barnstable for the regular back-up position behind Sexsmith. The Giants will need to play a full sixty and will not be able to get away with granting their opponent a lead as the Hurricanes are deep and talented team who can bring a complex attack to the fore. The puck drops in Lethbridge at 7:00 pm local time (MST), and can be heard on AM CISL 650 at 6:00pm PST, pre-game show starts a half an hour before puck drop.
Three Stars
1) Garry Nunn
2) Cass Mappin
3) Brent Regner
Contributions from throughout the line-up is flummoxing the Giant's opponents so far this season and despite a couple of poor slides, the Giants still remain undefeated in regulation with all three of their losses coming in the shoot out, on which the Giants are 0 for 3. They would be wise to work on that aspect of their game, even though there are no shoot-outs in the playoffs which is always where the Giants focus their sights and efforts.
Giants Arrest Rebels
Vancouver 6 Red Deer 3
Don Robinson
The Rebels came out early with two unanswered goals. Don Hay calls a time-out and less than 30 seconds later Brent Regner tickles the twine. At one point the Rebels lead the Giants 9-1 in shots on goal, very unusual stats for the G-Men who pride themselves on out-shooting their opponent at home and on the road. The Giants add two more before the end of the period, one of which is a short-handed tally by Craig Cunningham. Morgan Clark opened the game between the pipes for the Rebels and allowed 3 goals on 7 shots, before being pulled in favour of Darcy Kuemper who ended the game with 27 saves, a number not reflected on the WHL site, but as it is written on the official scoresheet. A couple of good fights in the game and some decent emotion on the ice tonight. The Rebels have a few great weapons in their line-up and the line of Landon Ferraro, Cass Mappin and Carter Smith, along with Brennan Wray makes the team a bit dangerous to play against as they capitalise on mistakes very quickly. The Giants gut out a win after being down early and they can thank their defensive corps for stepping up their game, pinching well and forcing the Rebels to make plays quicker than they would like. The puck movement from the blue-liners was a huge boost as they were instrumental in keeping the Red Deer players chasing out of their comfort zone.
The Rebels opened the scoring 4:30 into the first. Landon Ferraro scored, assisted by Smith and Mappin. They padded that lead on their first PP opportunity, a careless hooking penalty by Evander Kane, as Cass Mappin garnered his second point scoring off of a feed from Gross and Wray. Don Hay gathered his boys for a meeting taking a time-out after the goal and turned the game around. Brent Regner scored quickly, less than thirty seconds later, closing the gap to one. Garry Nunn, who was flying tonight and earned first star honours from the Red Deer folks, assisted on the play. Cunningham took advantage at the tail end of four on four, with the Rebels just getting their fifth man back on the ice. Converting a Schira shot at the net and scoring his second game in a row, this time short-handed.
The Giants completed the comeback and took the lead off of a goal by defenseman Neil Manning, being set up by CPZ and Brendan Gallagher. A couple of minutes after that Kane and Ferraro dropped the mitts. Pretty evenly matched and similar types of players the fight was mostly a draw with Kane getting the nominal take-down. The Giants ended up out shooting the Rebels 13-9 after being down 9-1 in shots when Hay used his timeout at 7:12 of the opening frame. Holding the Red Deer squad to zero shots for the remainder of the period and putting 12 of their own on the net. Morgan Clark lasted 14:25, before being pulled in favour of Kuemper.
In the second the Giants scored two while the Rebels managed one of their own. Early in the second Mike Piluso scored his 7th of the season off of the usual suspects, Kane and Pierro-Zabotel. The assist extended Kane’s point scoring streak to 9 games. Mikhail Fisenko scored on the PP a bit later, putting home a nice feed from Cunningham, with Schira getting the other helper. The goal was Fisenko’s fourth of the season as he put away the first two in Edmonton on Wednesday night. Mappin got one of those back off of Ferraro and Polak, when the Giants misplayed the puck. More fisticuffs early in the second did not swing the game the Rebels way as former Rebel Mike Berube dropped the mitts with skilled tough guy Cody Esposito. Both combatants got shots in there, but in the end there was no clear winner. Berube got the takedown, but the bout was a pretty even toe to toe battle.
The Giants salted away the game early in the third off of a fortunate goal by Garry Nunn who had some luck after all of his hard work in this game. Andrej Kudrna, who was a healthy scratch versus Edmonton, fired the puck at the net and the biscuit went in off of Nunn’s skate. Nunn was in the right place in front of the net, but it was more luck than design which got him the marker. Neil Manning was awarded the other helper. Originally the goal was scored unassisted, but that was changed later in the game. A few late penalties made it interesting, but the Giants had the game in hand by the second minute of the third and unlike their two poor slides versus Kelowna and Everett where they let two goal leads slip, they shut the door, laid out the body blocking a ton of shots and kept their focus for the rest of the period.
The Giants went 1 for 5 on the PP and the Rebels have Kuemeper to thank that that stat remained as such. The Giants have been averaging a goal this season for every three PP chances and still lead the league in the category. The G-Men allowed 1 for 4 on the PP by the Rebels. The shots were 37-26 in favour of the Giants by the end of the game. Jonathon Blum and Brent Regner were their usual solid selves on the blue-line locking down their end of the ice when it really mattered and taking the Giants offense to another level with their savvy timely pinches. The top line looked good, but it was the other guys who brought the offense tonight. Sexsmith had to be good late in the game as the Rebels pressed the attacking zone.
The Giants take on a well-rested Lethbridge Hurricane team in Lethbridge tomorrow night. The ‘Canes are 7-1 at home this season and will prove to be a challenge to the road warriors. It’s likely that Jamie Tucker will get the start being a back to back game. Tucker’s last start was a whole lot uglier than he would have liked when he allowed two goals on two shots before being pulled. Despite that anomaly, Tucker boasts two strong shut-outs so far this season, some good numbers and beat out last years back-up Kraymer Barnstable for the regular back-up position behind Sexsmith. The Giants will need to play a full sixty and will not be able to get away with granting their opponent a lead as the Hurricanes are deep and talented team who can bring a complex attack to the fore. The puck drops in Lethbridge at 7:00 pm local time (MST), and can be heard on AM CISL 650 at 6:00pm PST, pre-game show starts a half an hour before puck drop.
Three Stars
1) Garry Nunn
2) Cass Mappin
3) Brent Regner