dondo
10-02-2010, 12:11 AM
Giants Kill Cougars
Vancouver 5 Prince George 3 EN
The Giants were forced to rely heavily on their PK tonight, taking some poor penalties and then having many, many foisted upon them due to sheer and pure incompetence by the officials on the night. Brett Montsion and Andy Thiessen should turn in their whistles and rip the orange stripe off of their sleeves as they put together an absolutely criminal fiasco on the ice at the CN Centre. They were biased, inconsistent and careless. They did not call the dives or the interference, they called soft trips, one of which was a player stepping on a stick falling down and in the process drawing a penalty. Multiple 5 on 3’s were gifted to the home team for next to nothing. Late in the game Giants players were hauled down from behind (notably a couple of times), creating great scoring chances due to the infraction and the whistles stayed in the pocket. I don’t think it’s too extreme to say Montsion and Thiessen should be completely ashamed of their performance. I freely admit to personally having a bias against WHL refs in general, but I defy anyone to say they called a balanced game. The Cougars had 12 PP chances to the visitors 4.
Craig Cunningham scored two in the first period, pushing his goals to 3 early on in the season. The Giants allowed a late one against in the last minute of the period due to a poor defensive breakdown. James Henry got one back with a SH tally in the second. The Cougars got that one back on the PP, scoring their only PP goal of the game despite getting six straight chances in the middle frame with many of them over-lapping into 5 on 3 advantages. Three 5 on 3 chances to be more specific. They had another PP goal that was waived off due to goalie interference. The Giants had a goal of their own waived off as well, due to the same infraction. It would have been a hat trick goal for Cunningham. Henry scored 1:11 into the third. PG responded the next shift with one of their own. The Giants battled the refs and PG pressure for the rest of the third, finally getting an EN goal by Brendan Gallagher and with it the win.
Blake Orban, Dalton Sward and Matt Bellerive were the rookies tonight. Orban got an assist and held his own nicely in a fight with Fraser. The 16 yr old D-man was contributing all over the ice and his assist came off of some saavy cycling beyond his young years. At this point I’ll take Kulak and Orban and get rid of Reum and one other if they are going to play like this. Sward had an assist on the same play as Orban, playing with Cunner. Bellerive was most noted as the guy who sat in the box for the Giants two, too many men, bench minors.
Mark Segal put together a stellar performance tonight, stoning the Cougars frequently on the doorstep during their many, many PP chances. He was very solid down low and got beat by good shots. The Giants were also better at back-checking and clearing loose pucks from in front of their net, than they had been in the past few games. The G’s were still very guilty of lazy and sloppy give-aways though and their failure to clear their zone of the puck consistently, made their lives more difficult than it needed to be. Luke Fenske sacrificed his body several times, laying down to block shots. Some of the Giants best scoring chances came while they were short-handed. The PK tonight seemed to focus them though and the fact they were on the penalty kill for extended periods of time made that tendency much more evident.
The Giants were out-shot by the Cougars 32-27, mostly due to the G-Men getting a paltry 3 shots on goal in the second period. The Giants went 0 for 4 on the PP, while the Cougars went 1 for 12. The two teams clash again tomorrow night, back at the CN Centre, a venue in which the Giants have now won 11 straight games including playoffs. A record harkening back to 2007. I suspect the two jokes in the orange stripes will be back on the ice, but hopefully the league will have ripped them both new ones and that they will be severely reprimanded for complete failure of their duties. When the refs become the story of the game, it was a very poorly called game. I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen tomorrow night and that they let the boys play and at the very least call the game consistently.
Three Stars
1. Craig Cunningham
2. Martin Marincin
3. James Henry
Vancouver 5 Prince George 3 EN
The Giants were forced to rely heavily on their PK tonight, taking some poor penalties and then having many, many foisted upon them due to sheer and pure incompetence by the officials on the night. Brett Montsion and Andy Thiessen should turn in their whistles and rip the orange stripe off of their sleeves as they put together an absolutely criminal fiasco on the ice at the CN Centre. They were biased, inconsistent and careless. They did not call the dives or the interference, they called soft trips, one of which was a player stepping on a stick falling down and in the process drawing a penalty. Multiple 5 on 3’s were gifted to the home team for next to nothing. Late in the game Giants players were hauled down from behind (notably a couple of times), creating great scoring chances due to the infraction and the whistles stayed in the pocket. I don’t think it’s too extreme to say Montsion and Thiessen should be completely ashamed of their performance. I freely admit to personally having a bias against WHL refs in general, but I defy anyone to say they called a balanced game. The Cougars had 12 PP chances to the visitors 4.
Craig Cunningham scored two in the first period, pushing his goals to 3 early on in the season. The Giants allowed a late one against in the last minute of the period due to a poor defensive breakdown. James Henry got one back with a SH tally in the second. The Cougars got that one back on the PP, scoring their only PP goal of the game despite getting six straight chances in the middle frame with many of them over-lapping into 5 on 3 advantages. Three 5 on 3 chances to be more specific. They had another PP goal that was waived off due to goalie interference. The Giants had a goal of their own waived off as well, due to the same infraction. It would have been a hat trick goal for Cunningham. Henry scored 1:11 into the third. PG responded the next shift with one of their own. The Giants battled the refs and PG pressure for the rest of the third, finally getting an EN goal by Brendan Gallagher and with it the win.
Blake Orban, Dalton Sward and Matt Bellerive were the rookies tonight. Orban got an assist and held his own nicely in a fight with Fraser. The 16 yr old D-man was contributing all over the ice and his assist came off of some saavy cycling beyond his young years. At this point I’ll take Kulak and Orban and get rid of Reum and one other if they are going to play like this. Sward had an assist on the same play as Orban, playing with Cunner. Bellerive was most noted as the guy who sat in the box for the Giants two, too many men, bench minors.
Mark Segal put together a stellar performance tonight, stoning the Cougars frequently on the doorstep during their many, many PP chances. He was very solid down low and got beat by good shots. The Giants were also better at back-checking and clearing loose pucks from in front of their net, than they had been in the past few games. The G’s were still very guilty of lazy and sloppy give-aways though and their failure to clear their zone of the puck consistently, made their lives more difficult than it needed to be. Luke Fenske sacrificed his body several times, laying down to block shots. Some of the Giants best scoring chances came while they were short-handed. The PK tonight seemed to focus them though and the fact they were on the penalty kill for extended periods of time made that tendency much more evident.
The Giants were out-shot by the Cougars 32-27, mostly due to the G-Men getting a paltry 3 shots on goal in the second period. The Giants went 0 for 4 on the PP, while the Cougars went 1 for 12. The two teams clash again tomorrow night, back at the CN Centre, a venue in which the Giants have now won 11 straight games including playoffs. A record harkening back to 2007. I suspect the two jokes in the orange stripes will be back on the ice, but hopefully the league will have ripped them both new ones and that they will be severely reprimanded for complete failure of their duties. When the refs become the story of the game, it was a very poorly called game. I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen tomorrow night and that they let the boys play and at the very least call the game consistently.
Three Stars
1. Craig Cunningham
2. Martin Marincin
3. James Henry