dondo
11-02-2008, 12:46 AM
The Wheaties are a good team, lots of upside there. Great speed. The Giants kept up with them for the most part and if Sexy had been better tonight the score wouldn't have been so close.
I am really loving watching this team, even though I was not impressed with the slide, they have a lot of different looks and Hay has the luxury of bumping nearly every player to a better line if he shows he's really having a great night.
These are the kinds of teams that win clutch games and in the playoffs.
Congrats to Hayzer on his 400th win .. holy crap nice milestone!
Giants Check Wheaties
Vancouver 4 Brandon 3
Don Robinson
I must say I was quite disappointed that the Pacific Coliseum had no veterans selling poppies, this being the only home game before November 11th a near full house and the perfect opportunity for them to offer poppies to the crowd. Poor form, and poor planning in my mind a missed opportunity and a bit of a snub to those who gave their lives for us in both World Wars. Okay on to the game. Don Hay got his 400th win as a WHL coach tonight, but the boys kept him on pins needles, almost wasting a three goal lead in the process (twice). Eerily familiar to the Giants collapse last year at the Coliseum versus the Wheaties, allowing Brandon to score with 4 seconds left in the game and then score 39 seconds into OT. This time the Giants were able to hold them off, but leading 3-0 early in the third and winning a the game 4-3 is pretty damn unacceptable, especially versus a team playing four in three nights, at the end of a road trip and the Giants playing so well for the rest of the game. Credit Brandon for the come-back as they were full value for their burst of offense, but Sexsmith wears the goat horns for an absolutely awful give-away behind his own net when his defenseman was right there and would have had the puck. I watched Tyson leave his net and I got a sinking feeling. Evander Kane had a pretty good night, James Wright had an almost night where he had the effort for the most part, but couldn’t get the puck to settle down.
The two teams came out hard and fast and were hit for hit during the opening period, where referee Derek Herman let them play. The first whistle of the game came just shy of the seven minute mark as the teams rolled their lines and played end to end hockey with decent chances at both ends of the ice. Brandon’s Andrew Hayes was busier than Tyson Sexsmith, but by the end of the first the teams were still tied at zeros. Hayes was good early, but never really robbed any Giants players of quality shots in the opening frame.
Todd Kennedy and Darren Bestland dropped the gloves in the first – if you can call a very short wrestling match a fight and when Kennedy was down on the ice Bestland took a few extra shots before the linesmen broke them up. Bestland laid a bit of a questionable high hit in open ice and Kennedy took him to task for it. I applaud Kennedy for sticking up for his team-mate and managing not to get the instigator, but I still have yet to see this guy actually throw a good solid punch and his on-ice skills other than that have me questioning his worth to the team, but that might just be me. The Wheaties were cutting off passing lanes extremely well, intercepting the puck in the neutral zone with great regularity. Credit the Giants D for wheeling quickly and not allowing tough shots to get through. The teams were matched in speed and puck finesse and it would take something unpredicted to happen for either squad to break the ice.
Early in the second the Giants capitalised on just such a broken play. The Wheaties were clearing their zone when Jonathon Blum poke-checked the Brandon player off the puck at the red line just as the Wheat Kings were making a line change. Blum fed Craig Cunningham streaking into the Wheatie’s zone at speed with a soft tape to tape pass. Cunningham cut to the net and slid down the slot making what is rapidly becoming a patented inside out deke to the backhand and roofed it home. The goal came 50 seconds into the middle stanza and brought the crowd to their feet. It took a savvy defensive play by Blum to turn the tide of the game and break the ice on the night. The Giants weren’t done in the second as they tried what appeared to be a set play a few times before it finally clicked. Due to the traffic and shot blocking of the Wheat Kings, the Giants turned to the d-men deliberately missing the net to bank it off the end boards. It worked at 8:32 of the second when Garry Nunn fed Mike Berube at the point. Berube wired the biscuit hard off the boards and Kane who was left alone at the side of the net capitalised as the rebound caromed back out to the open side. That was all for the second in terms of scoring as both teams were still playing some solid two-way hockey for the most part. The Giants out shot the Wheat Kings by a large margin in the second and needed those shots and bit of luck to get the goals.
Early in the third a bad give-away by Hayes gave the Giants a seemingly insurmountable lead as the Brandon ‘tender put the puck up ice and right onto Mike Piluso’s stick. Piluso made no error burying the puck. The goal came short handed and was unassisted. After that it felt as if the Giants would cruise, but Brandon as tired a team as they must have been were not a team to fold. Kelly McCrimmon would not allow that kind of hockey no matter what the excuse. Colby Robak, a sniper from the blue-line scored his sixth of the season (in 15 games) cutting across the slot and using his boys in front as a perfect screen ripping the puck past Sexsmith who probably didn’t even see the shot. The goal broke Sexsmith’s career record shut-out bid and made the goalie look a bit ordinary as he was not very good on the ensuing markers from the Manitoba visitors. The Giants got that one back though, restoring their three goal cushion. Neil Manning gained the zone and fed the puck to Kane. Kane blasted the puck low and hard off of Hayes pads. The rebound bounced out a good seven feet and Casey Pierro-Zabotel made no mistake burying the biscuit. It was smart shot on Kane’s part as he was trying to make it a tough shot to control and it was just that.
Around that time with about 11 minutes left in the game, some idiot decided he was going chant “warm up the bus” and it almost came back to haunt the Giants. What a good way to motivate the other guys. Not my favourite chant anyway, but anyone who does it with more than two minutes left in a game needs to be slapped hard, from my perspective. Not sure if the Wheaties heard the chant, but they upped their game around that time and their pressure caused Sexsmith to make a stupid blunder behind his own net. Sexsmith skated behind his net to gather the puck. His d-man was right there and Sexy should have bailed and got back into his crease, but instead he tried to lift the puck past Sanfred King along the boards even though the other side of the net was wide open. King found Mark Stone with a wide open 4 by 6 waiting to be filled and gave his team some life. The gap closed to two, off of a gift from their own goalie the Giants got a bit scrambly. Down by two with the goalie pulled the Wheaties pressed hard in the Giants end of the ice. They managed to find a seam and got a hard shot on Sexsmith. Tyson let out a juicy rebound and overager Andrew Clark found the five-hole. For the boys who were around last year the deja-vu must have been eerie. The Wheaties made a hell of an effort to get the tying marker and when Kane missed an empty net from centre-ice I began to get a sinking feeling. Thankfully the boys held them off to give Hay his 400th win and goat horns to Sexsmith who was not good tonight, allowing three goals on about 15 shots.
The WHL site has ground to halt tonight so I don’t have exact numbers in terms of shots on goal and other specific stats, but neither squad scored on the PP, the Giants managed a SH goal, which came out of a four on four opportunity turning to a Brandon PP just before the goal. I know Tyson faced no more than 17 shots and the last time I looked with time ticking down it read 15 shots. The Giants shot totals were over 40 and could have been 50 by the end as they had 19 shots in the second period alone. Not a great way to win a game. Thankful for the win, but not playing the full bolt almost cost them a game against a team that did virtually the same thing to the home boys last season. Leading 3-0 in the third and squeaking out a 4-3 win is really not an acceptable way to finish especially allowing less than 20 shots on goal.
The boys need to find the character to make sure teams with this much talent do not get back into games like these and shut them down when they are up. That said, the Wheaties should have given up, but they didn’t. They played hard to the end and even though I thought there was more than a little grabbing by them in the neutral zone, which could have been called, none of it was really of the blatant variety so I guess I have to give kudos to Herman for continuing to let them play. The Giants didn’t sit back per-se, but they did allow a few more seams than they had all game and that was all it took for the Wheat Kings to make things happen. Brayden Schenn was held off the score sheet tonight. The third line of James Henry Lance Bouma and Craig Cunningham had a great night tonight and were a force every time they stepped over the boards. I have to say that Bronson Maschmeyer, who I have criticised in the past had a very good game, made some very smart plays and got pretty close to scoring his first WHL goal. He and Berube held fort at their end of the ice and both were pluses in the game.
The Giants have some time off before they head up to PG for back to back’s versus the Cougars and visit Chilliwack and Kelowna mid-week before returning to the Coliseum for their next home game on November 14th. They are now 12-0-0-3 and still do not have a regulation loss. Kane extended his point scoring streak to 12 games now and hopes to add to that next weekend in Prince George. The puck drops in PG on Friday Nov 7th at 7:00pm PST.
Three Stars
1) Evander Kane
2) Craig Cunningham
3) Colby Robak
I am really loving watching this team, even though I was not impressed with the slide, they have a lot of different looks and Hay has the luxury of bumping nearly every player to a better line if he shows he's really having a great night.
These are the kinds of teams that win clutch games and in the playoffs.
Congrats to Hayzer on his 400th win .. holy crap nice milestone!
Giants Check Wheaties
Vancouver 4 Brandon 3
Don Robinson
I must say I was quite disappointed that the Pacific Coliseum had no veterans selling poppies, this being the only home game before November 11th a near full house and the perfect opportunity for them to offer poppies to the crowd. Poor form, and poor planning in my mind a missed opportunity and a bit of a snub to those who gave their lives for us in both World Wars. Okay on to the game. Don Hay got his 400th win as a WHL coach tonight, but the boys kept him on pins needles, almost wasting a three goal lead in the process (twice). Eerily familiar to the Giants collapse last year at the Coliseum versus the Wheaties, allowing Brandon to score with 4 seconds left in the game and then score 39 seconds into OT. This time the Giants were able to hold them off, but leading 3-0 early in the third and winning a the game 4-3 is pretty damn unacceptable, especially versus a team playing four in three nights, at the end of a road trip and the Giants playing so well for the rest of the game. Credit Brandon for the come-back as they were full value for their burst of offense, but Sexsmith wears the goat horns for an absolutely awful give-away behind his own net when his defenseman was right there and would have had the puck. I watched Tyson leave his net and I got a sinking feeling. Evander Kane had a pretty good night, James Wright had an almost night where he had the effort for the most part, but couldn’t get the puck to settle down.
The two teams came out hard and fast and were hit for hit during the opening period, where referee Derek Herman let them play. The first whistle of the game came just shy of the seven minute mark as the teams rolled their lines and played end to end hockey with decent chances at both ends of the ice. Brandon’s Andrew Hayes was busier than Tyson Sexsmith, but by the end of the first the teams were still tied at zeros. Hayes was good early, but never really robbed any Giants players of quality shots in the opening frame.
Todd Kennedy and Darren Bestland dropped the gloves in the first – if you can call a very short wrestling match a fight and when Kennedy was down on the ice Bestland took a few extra shots before the linesmen broke them up. Bestland laid a bit of a questionable high hit in open ice and Kennedy took him to task for it. I applaud Kennedy for sticking up for his team-mate and managing not to get the instigator, but I still have yet to see this guy actually throw a good solid punch and his on-ice skills other than that have me questioning his worth to the team, but that might just be me. The Wheaties were cutting off passing lanes extremely well, intercepting the puck in the neutral zone with great regularity. Credit the Giants D for wheeling quickly and not allowing tough shots to get through. The teams were matched in speed and puck finesse and it would take something unpredicted to happen for either squad to break the ice.
Early in the second the Giants capitalised on just such a broken play. The Wheaties were clearing their zone when Jonathon Blum poke-checked the Brandon player off the puck at the red line just as the Wheat Kings were making a line change. Blum fed Craig Cunningham streaking into the Wheatie’s zone at speed with a soft tape to tape pass. Cunningham cut to the net and slid down the slot making what is rapidly becoming a patented inside out deke to the backhand and roofed it home. The goal came 50 seconds into the middle stanza and brought the crowd to their feet. It took a savvy defensive play by Blum to turn the tide of the game and break the ice on the night. The Giants weren’t done in the second as they tried what appeared to be a set play a few times before it finally clicked. Due to the traffic and shot blocking of the Wheat Kings, the Giants turned to the d-men deliberately missing the net to bank it off the end boards. It worked at 8:32 of the second when Garry Nunn fed Mike Berube at the point. Berube wired the biscuit hard off the boards and Kane who was left alone at the side of the net capitalised as the rebound caromed back out to the open side. That was all for the second in terms of scoring as both teams were still playing some solid two-way hockey for the most part. The Giants out shot the Wheat Kings by a large margin in the second and needed those shots and bit of luck to get the goals.
Early in the third a bad give-away by Hayes gave the Giants a seemingly insurmountable lead as the Brandon ‘tender put the puck up ice and right onto Mike Piluso’s stick. Piluso made no error burying the puck. The goal came short handed and was unassisted. After that it felt as if the Giants would cruise, but Brandon as tired a team as they must have been were not a team to fold. Kelly McCrimmon would not allow that kind of hockey no matter what the excuse. Colby Robak, a sniper from the blue-line scored his sixth of the season (in 15 games) cutting across the slot and using his boys in front as a perfect screen ripping the puck past Sexsmith who probably didn’t even see the shot. The goal broke Sexsmith’s career record shut-out bid and made the goalie look a bit ordinary as he was not very good on the ensuing markers from the Manitoba visitors. The Giants got that one back though, restoring their three goal cushion. Neil Manning gained the zone and fed the puck to Kane. Kane blasted the puck low and hard off of Hayes pads. The rebound bounced out a good seven feet and Casey Pierro-Zabotel made no mistake burying the biscuit. It was smart shot on Kane’s part as he was trying to make it a tough shot to control and it was just that.
Around that time with about 11 minutes left in the game, some idiot decided he was going chant “warm up the bus” and it almost came back to haunt the Giants. What a good way to motivate the other guys. Not my favourite chant anyway, but anyone who does it with more than two minutes left in a game needs to be slapped hard, from my perspective. Not sure if the Wheaties heard the chant, but they upped their game around that time and their pressure caused Sexsmith to make a stupid blunder behind his own net. Sexsmith skated behind his net to gather the puck. His d-man was right there and Sexy should have bailed and got back into his crease, but instead he tried to lift the puck past Sanfred King along the boards even though the other side of the net was wide open. King found Mark Stone with a wide open 4 by 6 waiting to be filled and gave his team some life. The gap closed to two, off of a gift from their own goalie the Giants got a bit scrambly. Down by two with the goalie pulled the Wheaties pressed hard in the Giants end of the ice. They managed to find a seam and got a hard shot on Sexsmith. Tyson let out a juicy rebound and overager Andrew Clark found the five-hole. For the boys who were around last year the deja-vu must have been eerie. The Wheaties made a hell of an effort to get the tying marker and when Kane missed an empty net from centre-ice I began to get a sinking feeling. Thankfully the boys held them off to give Hay his 400th win and goat horns to Sexsmith who was not good tonight, allowing three goals on about 15 shots.
The WHL site has ground to halt tonight so I don’t have exact numbers in terms of shots on goal and other specific stats, but neither squad scored on the PP, the Giants managed a SH goal, which came out of a four on four opportunity turning to a Brandon PP just before the goal. I know Tyson faced no more than 17 shots and the last time I looked with time ticking down it read 15 shots. The Giants shot totals were over 40 and could have been 50 by the end as they had 19 shots in the second period alone. Not a great way to win a game. Thankful for the win, but not playing the full bolt almost cost them a game against a team that did virtually the same thing to the home boys last season. Leading 3-0 in the third and squeaking out a 4-3 win is really not an acceptable way to finish especially allowing less than 20 shots on goal.
The boys need to find the character to make sure teams with this much talent do not get back into games like these and shut them down when they are up. That said, the Wheaties should have given up, but they didn’t. They played hard to the end and even though I thought there was more than a little grabbing by them in the neutral zone, which could have been called, none of it was really of the blatant variety so I guess I have to give kudos to Herman for continuing to let them play. The Giants didn’t sit back per-se, but they did allow a few more seams than they had all game and that was all it took for the Wheat Kings to make things happen. Brayden Schenn was held off the score sheet tonight. The third line of James Henry Lance Bouma and Craig Cunningham had a great night tonight and were a force every time they stepped over the boards. I have to say that Bronson Maschmeyer, who I have criticised in the past had a very good game, made some very smart plays and got pretty close to scoring his first WHL goal. He and Berube held fort at their end of the ice and both were pluses in the game.
The Giants have some time off before they head up to PG for back to back’s versus the Cougars and visit Chilliwack and Kelowna mid-week before returning to the Coliseum for their next home game on November 14th. They are now 12-0-0-3 and still do not have a regulation loss. Kane extended his point scoring streak to 12 games now and hopes to add to that next weekend in Prince George. The puck drops in PG on Friday Nov 7th at 7:00pm PST.
Three Stars
1) Evander Kane
2) Craig Cunningham
3) Colby Robak