dondo
03-25-2009, 12:12 AM
The Giants squeaked out a win tonight going up 3-0 in the series. Curiously enough all of the games for teams up 2-0 their series going into their opponent's rink went into OT and all of them won their games to go up 3-0. Kelowna is now 3-0 in their series as is Brandon.
The Cougars brought a much better game to the ice tonight and pressed hard in the offensive zone. They were winning a lot of the puck battles and when the going got tough Armstrong was there to turn away a ton of chances.
Nunn was out of the line-up for some sort of disciplinary issue with the team, so Rodgers was in and he coughed up the puck with great regularity. I would preferred to see Barnett or Scheidl get the nod, but then I am not a fan of Alex. He's too soft player for my liking and is always being bumped off the puck. Oddly enough he was playing with Fisenko tonight and Fisenko had a pretty good night.
here's how I heard it:
Round 1 Game 3:
Giants Nip Cats
Vancouver 3 Prince George 2 OT
Don Robinson
The Giants managed to get by the Cougars in the extra session after playing sub-par hockey for the first two periods. The Cougars came out hard supported by a small but faithfully vocal fan base, of 2384. They managed to push the Giants to the outside. They focused on taking Lance Bouma out of the game with big hits and getting many more shots through on Tyson Sexsmith. Sexsmith allowed a couple of softies, but made up for them by stealing two sure goals in the second and holding his team in the game until they could get their feet really moving. Kevin Armstrong shone in the third and through most of OT, stymieing the Giants frequently. The G-Men lacked finish tonight as they missed the net on high shots and wide shots and weren’t getting traffic in front of Armstrong. They were also losing the hustle race to loose pucks most of the night as well. The small gathering of Cougar fans were treated to some pretty good hockey tonight, but no fisticuffs. The Prince George crew managed to keep themselves out of the box tonight and it helped them bring a much better game. The zebras pretty much pocketed the whistles in the third, which was not lacking in intensity. Neither team were able to capitalise on their PP chances.
Tyler Halliday opened the scoring for the home team off a good pass by Dallas Jackson, slipping the puck five-hole on Sexsmith. Jackson was +2 on the night and the only other plus on the team was Poulter. Evander Kane got that one back early in the second, off of Craig Schira and James Wright. Nolan Toigo made it 2-1 off of a gritty goal, set-up by Jonny Blum and Mischa Fisenko, muscling it past Armstrong. The Cougars would tie it up when Brian Matte snuck it past Sexsmith. Despite being out shot in the second the Giants had their most productive period if not their best in terms of chances. The visitors came out hard in the third and were determined to get the go-ahead goal past Armstrong, but Kevin wasn’t budging as he turned aside 15 shots while his team was just trying to hold on. The Giants upped that ante in the OT bringing wave after wave into the PG zone. They were forced to kill two penalties in the extra frame before Craig Cunningham, as he did this exact date last year versus the Bruins, scored the OT winner. The only difference is that Cunningham scored that marker in triple OT.
The Giants were 0 for 4 on the PP, while the Cats went 0 for 7. Seemed a bit lop-sided to me considering the Cougars were dragging down players and running interference with no calls in the third period. The shots were 52-33 in favour of the visitors, with the home squad out shooting the Giants in the middle frame. Armstrong deserved his star tonight as he kept his team in the game as long as he could, forcing OT. The Giants didn’t work hard enough tonight for my liking and did not take their game down the gut the way they did in Vancouver. They were getting out-worked a bit and out-hustled at times and versus this team that’s something that’s just not acceptable. Sorry Cougar fans, but your team is simply not that good. Some great flashes and Armstrong always makes a game of it even if he’s getting shredded he stops far more than another goalie might. Cepek and Connolly have been mostly held off the score-sheet although Connolly got an assist on the Matte goal.
The Giants would do well to return the game they had in Vancouver and not give these guys any respect, take the game right to the Cougars and force them to take penalties off of the Giants hard work. The G-Men need to get traffic to the net and make sure Armstrong does not see the shots. He was a rebound machine tonight and a few more low shots into his pads and traffic could have caused him much more grief than was caused tonight. The Cougars will have to bring the same intensity tomorrow night to try and force a Game 5 back in Vancouver. The puck drops at the CN Center at 7pm PDT.
Three Stars
1) Kevin Armstrong
2) James Wright
3) Brian Matte
The Cougars brought a much better game to the ice tonight and pressed hard in the offensive zone. They were winning a lot of the puck battles and when the going got tough Armstrong was there to turn away a ton of chances.
Nunn was out of the line-up for some sort of disciplinary issue with the team, so Rodgers was in and he coughed up the puck with great regularity. I would preferred to see Barnett or Scheidl get the nod, but then I am not a fan of Alex. He's too soft player for my liking and is always being bumped off the puck. Oddly enough he was playing with Fisenko tonight and Fisenko had a pretty good night.
here's how I heard it:
Round 1 Game 3:
Giants Nip Cats
Vancouver 3 Prince George 2 OT
Don Robinson
The Giants managed to get by the Cougars in the extra session after playing sub-par hockey for the first two periods. The Cougars came out hard supported by a small but faithfully vocal fan base, of 2384. They managed to push the Giants to the outside. They focused on taking Lance Bouma out of the game with big hits and getting many more shots through on Tyson Sexsmith. Sexsmith allowed a couple of softies, but made up for them by stealing two sure goals in the second and holding his team in the game until they could get their feet really moving. Kevin Armstrong shone in the third and through most of OT, stymieing the Giants frequently. The G-Men lacked finish tonight as they missed the net on high shots and wide shots and weren’t getting traffic in front of Armstrong. They were also losing the hustle race to loose pucks most of the night as well. The small gathering of Cougar fans were treated to some pretty good hockey tonight, but no fisticuffs. The Prince George crew managed to keep themselves out of the box tonight and it helped them bring a much better game. The zebras pretty much pocketed the whistles in the third, which was not lacking in intensity. Neither team were able to capitalise on their PP chances.
Tyler Halliday opened the scoring for the home team off a good pass by Dallas Jackson, slipping the puck five-hole on Sexsmith. Jackson was +2 on the night and the only other plus on the team was Poulter. Evander Kane got that one back early in the second, off of Craig Schira and James Wright. Nolan Toigo made it 2-1 off of a gritty goal, set-up by Jonny Blum and Mischa Fisenko, muscling it past Armstrong. The Cougars would tie it up when Brian Matte snuck it past Sexsmith. Despite being out shot in the second the Giants had their most productive period if not their best in terms of chances. The visitors came out hard in the third and were determined to get the go-ahead goal past Armstrong, but Kevin wasn’t budging as he turned aside 15 shots while his team was just trying to hold on. The Giants upped that ante in the OT bringing wave after wave into the PG zone. They were forced to kill two penalties in the extra frame before Craig Cunningham, as he did this exact date last year versus the Bruins, scored the OT winner. The only difference is that Cunningham scored that marker in triple OT.
The Giants were 0 for 4 on the PP, while the Cats went 0 for 7. Seemed a bit lop-sided to me considering the Cougars were dragging down players and running interference with no calls in the third period. The shots were 52-33 in favour of the visitors, with the home squad out shooting the Giants in the middle frame. Armstrong deserved his star tonight as he kept his team in the game as long as he could, forcing OT. The Giants didn’t work hard enough tonight for my liking and did not take their game down the gut the way they did in Vancouver. They were getting out-worked a bit and out-hustled at times and versus this team that’s something that’s just not acceptable. Sorry Cougar fans, but your team is simply not that good. Some great flashes and Armstrong always makes a game of it even if he’s getting shredded he stops far more than another goalie might. Cepek and Connolly have been mostly held off the score-sheet although Connolly got an assist on the Matte goal.
The Giants would do well to return the game they had in Vancouver and not give these guys any respect, take the game right to the Cougars and force them to take penalties off of the Giants hard work. The G-Men need to get traffic to the net and make sure Armstrong does not see the shots. He was a rebound machine tonight and a few more low shots into his pads and traffic could have caused him much more grief than was caused tonight. The Cougars will have to bring the same intensity tomorrow night to try and force a Game 5 back in Vancouver. The puck drops at the CN Center at 7pm PDT.
Three Stars
1) Kevin Armstrong
2) James Wright
3) Brian Matte