dondo
12-15-2008, 12:31 AM
If it wasn't for Kevin Armstrong this one's over in the first. As it was it took 'til the second for the Giants to pad a comfortable lead. Dominant performance from pole to pole. the Cougars tried to cover the points, the puck went down low, cheated down the point shots found their way through. They were completely dismantled in this one.
All of the Giants showed up to including Nolan Toigo who I was concerned would be out of game shape, but he made some nice smart plays with the puck
Bouma was racing around trying to get hits, while Schira was simply leveling Cougars at all ends of the ice. Blum was set-up machine tonight, doing a lot of the work setting up CPZ and Basford with his usual brilliant work. Barnett had some good shifts, Cunningham, Piluso and Hnery had some good shifts. Gallagher was in there and Wright and Fisenko were unlucky not to find better chances. Regner was quiet +5 on the night.
Great great effort by what had to be a bit of tired team after the long snowy bus trip from Kennewick last night. Getting that win would have made the trip a bit more bearable I suppose, but still long and not on good roads.
Jerseys off the backs was good promo with a few of the local puck bunnies getting some views of the boys in their shoulder pads. Despite the dominance the game was pretty good in terms of hits and energy and although not the best hockey I have ever witnessed, it wasn't a snoozer either.
here's how I saw it from the corner:
Giants Crush Cats
Vancouver 6 Prince George 0
Don Robinson
The Giants held their first “jersey off of our backs” promotion tonight as the players shed their jerseys to give to fans at the end of the game, signing the sweaters and taking a picture with the winners. The Giants came out hard in the first and peppered Kevin Armstrong with shots. The over-age Cougar tender did his level best to keep his team in the game with some brilliant stops early on, but as the game progressed the Giants finally solved the tender as fatigue kicked in. Armstrong was frequently left high and dry by his defensive corps, but more often than not made the big stop despite being left alone. His slide across the crease on the Giants first PP to turn away what should have been a sure goal was indicative of the kind of game he was prepared to play. Adam Basford quieted his detractors tonight with a three goal bulge, going hard to the net and benefiting from some very good feeds. The knock on Adam has been his inconsistency from game to game, sitting back after a good game, possibly thinking it will come easily. The hope is that the 19 yr old forward will finally realize that it takes effort game in and game out and every shift to get the kind of success he had tonight. He was missing some hits early on in the game and I was concerned he’d be putting in another so-so game, but connecting with Jon Blum twice and Brendan Gallagher once going hard to the net, he earned the hard hat from his fellow players for his work in the game.
The Giants only had one goal in the first period, thanks to the exceptional net-minding of Armstrong who was turning away stellar chances for the majority of the opening frame. It took a short-handed breakaway goal by Casey Pierro-Zabotel to open the door on the Cougar tender. Jon Blum stripped the puck in his zone and fed the puck to Mike Piluso who found CPZ creeping up ice. The goal was originally unassisted as it looked more like a Cougar turnover, but upon review the Cougar player did not touch the puck and a nice pass by Piluso sprung CPZ loose. CPZ beat out the defender down the ice and snapped the puck at the net missing short-side. The puck caromed off the end boards and back out the other side. CPZ had the presence of mind to keep his focus, gather in the puck and put it past Armstrong for the Giants first goal of the game.
The Giants padded that lead at 12:45 of the second when Jon Blum, who had a great night tonight, stripped the puck off of a Cougar forward and turned it around in the Cat’s zone. Blum held onto the puck making a perfect cross-crease saucer pass onto Basford’s stick. Basford kept his focus and put it past Armstrong. Pierro-Zabotel got his second of the game ripping the puck past Armstrong from the right face-off dot, over his glove hand and off the centre iron bouncing out the other side. Brent Regner and Andrej Kudrna made some great plays to get the puck to CPZ, for the assists. Craig Schira was having a hell of a night as well as he did not count on the score-sheet, but had at least five big hits in the game as he was rubbing out Cougars all over the ice. The second saw a bunch of scrums after hits and a few almost fights the refs would have been better off standing back letting the boys throw them. The officiating was very well-balanced tonight and if there is one quibble I had was that they didn’t allow a couple of fights to take place, that should have.
The Giants potted three in the third, against a tired and struggling Cougar squad, who were playing their third in three nights. Armstrong tried valiantly to keep his team in the game, but in the end the forecheck pressure of the Giants was too over-whelming. The Cougar defenders gave up on some plays too easily and two of the Giants goals came off of second and third efforts by Giants players. Basford scored his second going to the net again and putting yet another Blum pass behind Armstrong. Basford’s momentum forced the puck and the goalie past his own goal-line and the red light did not go on, but the ref standing right there signalled an emphatic goal. Nunn got the other helper on the play. Then some poor communication by the Cougar defenders not warning their goalie, combined with a determined effort by Mike Piluso, resulted in the another Giants tally. Armstrong was holding the puck behind his net and Piluso came up from behind and stripped Armstrong of the puck flipping it out to Craig Cunningham who was waiting on the doorstep. Basford completed his hat-trick off of a tenacious feed from Gallagher. The Cougar defenders rubbed out Gallagher along the end boards and forgot about the diminutive forward thinking him down and out. Gallagher bounced back up stripped the two Cougars of the puck behind the net and spun flipping the pass out front to Basford. Once again with the puck on his stick Basford made no mistake bulging the twine. I don’t think the fans thought it was his third goal as the hat-trick was ignored until it went up on the board. I have to admit that I thought that that was his second goal as well, not third.
The goal was a short-handed tally as the Giants book-ended shorties to open and close the game. Both coming at about the 13:00 mark of their respective periods. The Giants worked hard from the drop of the puck after having a very long bus trip back from Kennewick Washington driving on bad roads, weather-wise, and arriving home around 5:30 in the morning. The fatigue didn’t show as everyone showed up to play today. Its pretty amazing seeing a team with their kind of record not taking a game like this lightly and instead being ready from the opening face-off to compete and pay the price, doing the little things to get the dominant victory. Without Armstrong between the pipes, who faced 53 shots and at least 10 prime scoring chances, the Cougars would have easily been down double-digits.
The Giants went 0 for 4 on the PP, while holding the Cougars to 0 for 3, on two of those the Giants scored short-handed tallies. With those numbers the Cougars might have been better off giving the Giants a few more PP opportunities and waiving their right to their own PPs. The Giants dominated, out-shooting the Cats 53-14. Jamie Tucker quietly got his third shut-out in 12 starts (opening his WHL career with goose-eggs in his first three games.). The best Cougar chance was an almost breakaway that a lesser defenseman either would have taken a penalty on, or not caught up. Blum did neither, catching up from behind he patiently paced the streaking Cougar forward and when the forward made his move, Blum leaned out and slapped the puck off his stick. Blum did not lose his balance and timed the defensive play perfectly to thwart the Cats from breaking the young goalie’s shut out. I was a bit surprised when Blum who had three points, a +4 on the night and was rock solid at all ends of the ice was not awarded a star. There almost needed to be four or five stars given tonight, as Armstrong (despite allowing six goals) had a night which should have made a difference had any of his team mates showed up to play, and Schira who got the nod over Blum had a great night defensively as well. My picks would have been Blum, CPZ and Basford, with honourable mentions to Schira and Armstrong. It was one of those nights.
The Giants have their last game before the Christmas break on Tuesday when the Swift Current Broncos come to town. The Broncos are having a pretty good season so far, but the Giants have been handling the Eastern teams very well this season and the Broncos will have to have Travis Yonkman standing on his head and all their other cylinders clicking to defeat the determined Giants in their own building. The puck drops at 7pm.
Three Stars
1) Adam Basford
2) Casey Pierro-Zabotel
3) Craig Schira
All of the Giants showed up to including Nolan Toigo who I was concerned would be out of game shape, but he made some nice smart plays with the puck
Bouma was racing around trying to get hits, while Schira was simply leveling Cougars at all ends of the ice. Blum was set-up machine tonight, doing a lot of the work setting up CPZ and Basford with his usual brilliant work. Barnett had some good shifts, Cunningham, Piluso and Hnery had some good shifts. Gallagher was in there and Wright and Fisenko were unlucky not to find better chances. Regner was quiet +5 on the night.
Great great effort by what had to be a bit of tired team after the long snowy bus trip from Kennewick last night. Getting that win would have made the trip a bit more bearable I suppose, but still long and not on good roads.
Jerseys off the backs was good promo with a few of the local puck bunnies getting some views of the boys in their shoulder pads. Despite the dominance the game was pretty good in terms of hits and energy and although not the best hockey I have ever witnessed, it wasn't a snoozer either.
here's how I saw it from the corner:
Giants Crush Cats
Vancouver 6 Prince George 0
Don Robinson
The Giants held their first “jersey off of our backs” promotion tonight as the players shed their jerseys to give to fans at the end of the game, signing the sweaters and taking a picture with the winners. The Giants came out hard in the first and peppered Kevin Armstrong with shots. The over-age Cougar tender did his level best to keep his team in the game with some brilliant stops early on, but as the game progressed the Giants finally solved the tender as fatigue kicked in. Armstrong was frequently left high and dry by his defensive corps, but more often than not made the big stop despite being left alone. His slide across the crease on the Giants first PP to turn away what should have been a sure goal was indicative of the kind of game he was prepared to play. Adam Basford quieted his detractors tonight with a three goal bulge, going hard to the net and benefiting from some very good feeds. The knock on Adam has been his inconsistency from game to game, sitting back after a good game, possibly thinking it will come easily. The hope is that the 19 yr old forward will finally realize that it takes effort game in and game out and every shift to get the kind of success he had tonight. He was missing some hits early on in the game and I was concerned he’d be putting in another so-so game, but connecting with Jon Blum twice and Brendan Gallagher once going hard to the net, he earned the hard hat from his fellow players for his work in the game.
The Giants only had one goal in the first period, thanks to the exceptional net-minding of Armstrong who was turning away stellar chances for the majority of the opening frame. It took a short-handed breakaway goal by Casey Pierro-Zabotel to open the door on the Cougar tender. Jon Blum stripped the puck in his zone and fed the puck to Mike Piluso who found CPZ creeping up ice. The goal was originally unassisted as it looked more like a Cougar turnover, but upon review the Cougar player did not touch the puck and a nice pass by Piluso sprung CPZ loose. CPZ beat out the defender down the ice and snapped the puck at the net missing short-side. The puck caromed off the end boards and back out the other side. CPZ had the presence of mind to keep his focus, gather in the puck and put it past Armstrong for the Giants first goal of the game.
The Giants padded that lead at 12:45 of the second when Jon Blum, who had a great night tonight, stripped the puck off of a Cougar forward and turned it around in the Cat’s zone. Blum held onto the puck making a perfect cross-crease saucer pass onto Basford’s stick. Basford kept his focus and put it past Armstrong. Pierro-Zabotel got his second of the game ripping the puck past Armstrong from the right face-off dot, over his glove hand and off the centre iron bouncing out the other side. Brent Regner and Andrej Kudrna made some great plays to get the puck to CPZ, for the assists. Craig Schira was having a hell of a night as well as he did not count on the score-sheet, but had at least five big hits in the game as he was rubbing out Cougars all over the ice. The second saw a bunch of scrums after hits and a few almost fights the refs would have been better off standing back letting the boys throw them. The officiating was very well-balanced tonight and if there is one quibble I had was that they didn’t allow a couple of fights to take place, that should have.
The Giants potted three in the third, against a tired and struggling Cougar squad, who were playing their third in three nights. Armstrong tried valiantly to keep his team in the game, but in the end the forecheck pressure of the Giants was too over-whelming. The Cougar defenders gave up on some plays too easily and two of the Giants goals came off of second and third efforts by Giants players. Basford scored his second going to the net again and putting yet another Blum pass behind Armstrong. Basford’s momentum forced the puck and the goalie past his own goal-line and the red light did not go on, but the ref standing right there signalled an emphatic goal. Nunn got the other helper on the play. Then some poor communication by the Cougar defenders not warning their goalie, combined with a determined effort by Mike Piluso, resulted in the another Giants tally. Armstrong was holding the puck behind his net and Piluso came up from behind and stripped Armstrong of the puck flipping it out to Craig Cunningham who was waiting on the doorstep. Basford completed his hat-trick off of a tenacious feed from Gallagher. The Cougar defenders rubbed out Gallagher along the end boards and forgot about the diminutive forward thinking him down and out. Gallagher bounced back up stripped the two Cougars of the puck behind the net and spun flipping the pass out front to Basford. Once again with the puck on his stick Basford made no mistake bulging the twine. I don’t think the fans thought it was his third goal as the hat-trick was ignored until it went up on the board. I have to admit that I thought that that was his second goal as well, not third.
The goal was a short-handed tally as the Giants book-ended shorties to open and close the game. Both coming at about the 13:00 mark of their respective periods. The Giants worked hard from the drop of the puck after having a very long bus trip back from Kennewick Washington driving on bad roads, weather-wise, and arriving home around 5:30 in the morning. The fatigue didn’t show as everyone showed up to play today. Its pretty amazing seeing a team with their kind of record not taking a game like this lightly and instead being ready from the opening face-off to compete and pay the price, doing the little things to get the dominant victory. Without Armstrong between the pipes, who faced 53 shots and at least 10 prime scoring chances, the Cougars would have easily been down double-digits.
The Giants went 0 for 4 on the PP, while holding the Cougars to 0 for 3, on two of those the Giants scored short-handed tallies. With those numbers the Cougars might have been better off giving the Giants a few more PP opportunities and waiving their right to their own PPs. The Giants dominated, out-shooting the Cats 53-14. Jamie Tucker quietly got his third shut-out in 12 starts (opening his WHL career with goose-eggs in his first three games.). The best Cougar chance was an almost breakaway that a lesser defenseman either would have taken a penalty on, or not caught up. Blum did neither, catching up from behind he patiently paced the streaking Cougar forward and when the forward made his move, Blum leaned out and slapped the puck off his stick. Blum did not lose his balance and timed the defensive play perfectly to thwart the Cats from breaking the young goalie’s shut out. I was a bit surprised when Blum who had three points, a +4 on the night and was rock solid at all ends of the ice was not awarded a star. There almost needed to be four or five stars given tonight, as Armstrong (despite allowing six goals) had a night which should have made a difference had any of his team mates showed up to play, and Schira who got the nod over Blum had a great night defensively as well. My picks would have been Blum, CPZ and Basford, with honourable mentions to Schira and Armstrong. It was one of those nights.
The Giants have their last game before the Christmas break on Tuesday when the Swift Current Broncos come to town. The Broncos are having a pretty good season so far, but the Giants have been handling the Eastern teams very well this season and the Broncos will have to have Travis Yonkman standing on his head and all their other cylinders clicking to defeat the determined Giants in their own building. The puck drops at 7pm.
Three Stars
1) Adam Basford
2) Casey Pierro-Zabotel
3) Craig Schira