dondo
03-01-2009, 11:16 PM
Sexsmith should be kissing his red iron tonight as the Bruins hit three posts and a crossbar. Not the best outing for the 'tender, but he made a couple of late third period stops that would have been game savers had the game been closer at that time. He was positionally solid tonight, but the Bruins could have had a couple of more if the puck was a few inches one way or the other. The thing is they didn't an they don't seem to playing the Giants. Eventually the Giants luck will turn a bit versus the Bruins but not this season, except for maybe one game. The adage is true though - good to be lucky, lucky to be good. Teams usually make their own luck and the Giants seem to generate that kind of karma with their work ethic on and off the ice.
Gallagher and Barnett had good nights as the two 16 year olds give us a nice taste of what they'll be bringing next year and I like it. Craig Cunningham is turning into a real power performer, showing up every night, every shift and showing the boys how its done. After taking 57 games to score his first goal in the WHL, he's on pace for 30 or more this season getting his 28th tonight. A true Don Hay player Richie, as some of us call him (you can figure out why), practices hard, is a team player and gives his all every time he's on the ice.
Nick Ross had a good puck moving night, Regner was force out there. Only two minuses in the line-up. Rodgers with a -2, and Kennedy with a -1. Apparently Kennedy actually threw them with Bhungal, mutual short rabbit punches, but better than his patent pending hug and duck technique.
here's how I heard it:
Giants Gut Bruins
Vancouver 6 Chilliwack 2
Don Robinson
The Giants brought a pretty disciplined game to Chilliwack, but weren’t willing to get pushed around. The game saw a bunch of fights, again from unlikely sources. The only real heavy weight tilt was Bhungal versus Kennedy where both players threw short rapid rabbit punches at one another. Hardly a titanic tilt. Bhungal was more interested in picking on diminutive but resilient forward Brendan Gallagher most of the night. After an initial flurry, the first was fairly evenly played as the Giants were feeling out holes in the Bruins line-up. Evander Kane opened the scoring on the PP, 1:37 into the game. Casey Pierro-Zabotel got the puck to Nick Ross who made a brilliant pass to set-up Kane. Kane made no mistake putting it past Mark Friesen. The Bruins tied it up just over a minute later as rookie Blair Wentworth put the rebound past Sexsmith. The Giants opened up a can of whuup-ass in the second though, scoring 4 unanswered goals off some great work from their depth players. Brent Regner notched his 14th of the year, taking a feed from Gallagher and putting it past Friesen. It looked to be Gally’s goal, but Regner got the credit. Ross fed the puck up to Kudrna with a great breakout pass.
Craig Cunningham made it 3-1 when he stripped the puck and went in alone beating Friesen. A couple of minutes later Cunningham set-up Regner for his second of the night. Regner wired a rocket past Friesen chasing him from the net, making way for Lucas Gore. Gore didn’t fair much better as Gallagher finally got his goal on the PP. James Wright set-up the 16 yr old for his 8th of the season. Pierro-Zabotel and Neil Manning combined to set-up Bronson Maschmeyer for his first goal of his WHL career. Maschy has been stepping his game up since the start of the season and lately has been unlucky not to get a tally. Not tonight. Ryan Howse got the Bruins a nice goal short-handed, picking off a loose puck when the D got sloppy and taking it in for a breakaway goal on Sexsmith. The third had some fisticuffs. James Wright and Brandon Manning dropped the mitts off the face-off to open the final frame. According to the broadcast Wright dominated getting huge rights in and beating Manning into submission. Kane and Carter Berg dropped their gloves mid-way through the period. An even bout with Carter getting the slim nod.
The Giants went 2 for 4 on their PP, while holding the Bruins to 0 for 4. The G-Men out shot the Bruins 39-21, taking their 7th victory in 8 games versus their valley rivals. The two teams are done for the season and will have to continue their rivalry in the fall. The Giants completed an 8 games in 10 days stretch where they came out with a 6-2 record sweeping the weekend, shutting out the Tips twice and beating the Bruins home and away. They have a couple of days off before they take on a Pickardless (out with a concussion – caused by a gutless Ryan Letts' cheapshot) Tri-City team on Wednesday. They then have a much anticipated tilt on Friday versus the Calgary Hitmen for regular season league champions bragging rights. No rest for the wicked as they take on The Rockets the next night in Kelowna and Kamloops back at the Coliseum on Sunday the 8th. These next games will test the Giants and give them a yardstick for how they stack up versus their playoff rivals. After running the table for five games versus Kelowna the Giants have dropped the last two and want to get back on that winning roll versus the Okanagan squad. The puck drops at 7pm PST on Wednesday the 4th.
Three Stars
1) Brent Regner
2) Craig Cunningham
3) Ryan Howse
Gallagher and Barnett had good nights as the two 16 year olds give us a nice taste of what they'll be bringing next year and I like it. Craig Cunningham is turning into a real power performer, showing up every night, every shift and showing the boys how its done. After taking 57 games to score his first goal in the WHL, he's on pace for 30 or more this season getting his 28th tonight. A true Don Hay player Richie, as some of us call him (you can figure out why), practices hard, is a team player and gives his all every time he's on the ice.
Nick Ross had a good puck moving night, Regner was force out there. Only two minuses in the line-up. Rodgers with a -2, and Kennedy with a -1. Apparently Kennedy actually threw them with Bhungal, mutual short rabbit punches, but better than his patent pending hug and duck technique.
here's how I heard it:
Giants Gut Bruins
Vancouver 6 Chilliwack 2
Don Robinson
The Giants brought a pretty disciplined game to Chilliwack, but weren’t willing to get pushed around. The game saw a bunch of fights, again from unlikely sources. The only real heavy weight tilt was Bhungal versus Kennedy where both players threw short rapid rabbit punches at one another. Hardly a titanic tilt. Bhungal was more interested in picking on diminutive but resilient forward Brendan Gallagher most of the night. After an initial flurry, the first was fairly evenly played as the Giants were feeling out holes in the Bruins line-up. Evander Kane opened the scoring on the PP, 1:37 into the game. Casey Pierro-Zabotel got the puck to Nick Ross who made a brilliant pass to set-up Kane. Kane made no mistake putting it past Mark Friesen. The Bruins tied it up just over a minute later as rookie Blair Wentworth put the rebound past Sexsmith. The Giants opened up a can of whuup-ass in the second though, scoring 4 unanswered goals off some great work from their depth players. Brent Regner notched his 14th of the year, taking a feed from Gallagher and putting it past Friesen. It looked to be Gally’s goal, but Regner got the credit. Ross fed the puck up to Kudrna with a great breakout pass.
Craig Cunningham made it 3-1 when he stripped the puck and went in alone beating Friesen. A couple of minutes later Cunningham set-up Regner for his second of the night. Regner wired a rocket past Friesen chasing him from the net, making way for Lucas Gore. Gore didn’t fair much better as Gallagher finally got his goal on the PP. James Wright set-up the 16 yr old for his 8th of the season. Pierro-Zabotel and Neil Manning combined to set-up Bronson Maschmeyer for his first goal of his WHL career. Maschy has been stepping his game up since the start of the season and lately has been unlucky not to get a tally. Not tonight. Ryan Howse got the Bruins a nice goal short-handed, picking off a loose puck when the D got sloppy and taking it in for a breakaway goal on Sexsmith. The third had some fisticuffs. James Wright and Brandon Manning dropped the mitts off the face-off to open the final frame. According to the broadcast Wright dominated getting huge rights in and beating Manning into submission. Kane and Carter Berg dropped their gloves mid-way through the period. An even bout with Carter getting the slim nod.
The Giants went 2 for 4 on their PP, while holding the Bruins to 0 for 4. The G-Men out shot the Bruins 39-21, taking their 7th victory in 8 games versus their valley rivals. The two teams are done for the season and will have to continue their rivalry in the fall. The Giants completed an 8 games in 10 days stretch where they came out with a 6-2 record sweeping the weekend, shutting out the Tips twice and beating the Bruins home and away. They have a couple of days off before they take on a Pickardless (out with a concussion – caused by a gutless Ryan Letts' cheapshot) Tri-City team on Wednesday. They then have a much anticipated tilt on Friday versus the Calgary Hitmen for regular season league champions bragging rights. No rest for the wicked as they take on The Rockets the next night in Kelowna and Kamloops back at the Coliseum on Sunday the 8th. These next games will test the Giants and give them a yardstick for how they stack up versus their playoff rivals. After running the table for five games versus Kelowna the Giants have dropped the last two and want to get back on that winning roll versus the Okanagan squad. The puck drops at 7pm PST on Wednesday the 4th.
Three Stars
1) Brent Regner
2) Craig Cunningham
3) Ryan Howse