Game 48-Giants 3 at Hitmen 6

[Hitmen1]

Its late, but better late than never. I made the trip down the highway last night so I could watch the 2 best teams in the league play.

In the first, the Hitmen did score on a broken play on a blast by Paul Postma. The Hitmen thought they scored again shortly after that but they play continued and the Giants ended up scoring before the refs could discuss the Hitmen play. Eight seconds after the Giants scored, they scored again to take the lead. If the refs were questioning whether or not the whistle blew before the puck went in, I am not sure why it took so long to call the goal. The 2nd was a fairly even period with Hitmen scoring twice and the Giants once to have a 3-3 tie headed to the 3rd. You just knew the Hitmen were going to come out hard and they did but the Giants just didn't respond or push back. I was disappointed in both the goalies last night. Neither one of them made a big save of their teams.

[dondo]

Here's how I saw it in case you are curious.

The Hitmen's other 'goal' in the first was crossbar and off the back of Sexsmith and out, it was immediately waived off at the time, and by looking at the replay it doesn't appear to cross the line.

Great win by the Hitmen, disappointed my team didn't show up in the third when they really needed to.

Hitmen Snipe Giants 6-3 (http://www.vancouvergiantshq.com/January_16_HitmenbkSnipebkGiants_270.html)

[Hitmen1]

I am curious about one thing. I really like how the Giants play this aggressive triangle as the opposition comes out of their own zone. Is this something the Giants play regularly or is it something they have watched from the Hitmen. I really noticed it in the first 2 periods but not so much in the third.

As for the goal, we never did get a replay of it until the first intermission and of course by then it really didn't matter.

[dondo]

we usually have much better support from our D with some of those breakouts. I have to say that I was disappointed that our defense didn't show up for most of the night. Which is odd, because they are usually our most reliable element.

We often play with some pressure on the other guys as they come out of their zone, so I think what you are calling the aggressive triangle is something we do regularly. At their best at least one forechecker would be in there hassling the puck-carrier forcing turnovers. I prefer when we send two in deep and make the other team work to get the puck out of their zone.

There was way too much dumping in by my squad last night and I don't like seeing that. I felt one of the things that Calary did that we could have capitalised on was to give us that space to claim their zone carrying the puck, but as I watched we just went for multiple dump-ins that were useless, because we weren't hungry enough last night to get the puck.

re goal: I figured as much I was simply trying to clarify what happened from my point of view.

Regardless it was pretty good tilt, usually these two teams play each other even tighter, so as much as I don't mind the loss (I don't like it either)--- cause someone's gotta lose every game -- the final score is still irritating me today.