dondo
03-06-2011, 06:23 PM
Winterhawks Freeze Giants
Vancouver 0 Portland 5
The Giants lost more than just the game last night, as Brendan Gallagher was taken out with a questionable hit when a player leaving his feet caught him in the head with his shoulder. Gallagher spun off a defender and was caught unawares as Brendan Leipsic levelled him, throwing him up and into the boards as he came crashing to the ice, winding himself and more. They are saying that Gallagher has a concussion, but it is not clear how serious it is currently. He left the game early in the first, not to return. No call on the play, or on the wicked elbow by Wotherspoon a few minutes earlier. The refs seemed to see only white in this one and were incapable of seeing red, but that was not the case for the fans who got more and more frustrated with the bonus calls and gratuitous add-ons throughout the contest.
The Giants had early pressure, but could not register a shot as the Portland defensive shell was virtually impenetrable. The Winterhawks were getting pucks through on Segal, but not of the dangerous variety. After Gally went down the tone of the first changed and the Winterhawks began to really push back hard. The Giants had the effort, but not the results and despite playing a pretty determined first, ended up on the wrong side of the scoresheet as the Oregon team scored two late goals, one of which was a too easy tally on the PP. The goal went in off of David Musil, but it was the player who did not challenge the point that was really to blame. I also personally felt it was also a puck that Segal should have got, despite the deflection. There was one penalty called in the entire first period. A very marginal interference, as the refs let go a lot of suspect hits and checks. Nino Neiderreitter made it 3-0 on another PP chance in the second, which came out of another extra gratuitous call by the refs. Later in the period, Neil Manning, trying to clear the crease, made a blind back pass right onto Brad Ross’ stick and Ross made no mistake burying it. Ryan Johansen salted it in the third with a nice delay in the slot and then rifling the puck far-side through a wide open lane.
Rookie Watch: Sward saw a bit of ice-time, laid some nice checks and played a decent game at –1. Franson sat, Bellerive sat, Hart sat. Hodder was a –1 , not getting a whole lot of ice-time despite the Giants already being down Bestland who tweaked something in warm-up.
Fight Night: Lots of gloves flying, but a couple of crap zebras saw them as bonus roughings and not fights, despite both players dropping the gloves. The box score on WHL.ca is wrong actually as Andrej Stastny was given an instigator, 5, 10 and a game jostling with Matt Ius, late in the second. James Henry and Brad Ross, who was chirping all night long, decided to fight off of the face-off by hanging on for dear life and wrestling when he was taken to task for his mouthiness. The reaction was instantaneous as Henry lunged at Ross. Both players were given game-misconducts.
Zebra Cage: The Smiths, Colby and Pat called a suspect first in which they allowed a few dangerous plays to go by the way-side and then they went ape-**** stupid with a bunch of lop-sided calls. Redmond did deserve a double minor as he was trying to get revenge for the Gally hit on Leipsic, but the other bonus calls were not only bogus, but really stretching it with the mutual roughing going on - on both sides of the puck. One of which had the Giants goalie taken-out hard behind the net while playing the puck. There was a scrum and Musil was given a double minor for what I don’t know.
The Winterhawks out-shot the Giants 40 – 29, despite being knotted at 20 shots apiece at one time. The `Hawks went 2 for 6 on the PP, while the Giants were 0 for 3. The Giants played a couple of pretty hard periods, but did not put up much of a fight in the third as the skilled Portland D shut them down. Give full credit to Portland for the win, but I still think they were let off the hook for their suspect play far too much in this one as the smaller Giants were being man-handled and rag-dolled a bit too much for my liking. The Winterhawks are an excellent team that dismantled the Giants D and kept the home team`s shots away from their goalie. Keith Hamilton faced 29 shots, but was never forced to make a really huge save or really challenged, as the Portland work in front of their own net was excellent. Their offense were no slouches either and this could have been an even-more lopsided tilt if they buried all of their good chances.
The Giants PK allowed two goals and were usually not working hard enough challenging the shooter and frequently seen standing around. A good PK comes from tenacious hard work and from my perspective it does not come from putting players like Lamoureux and Redmond on the PK. With the loss of players in the third Henry being out for the game, Stastny with 17 minutes of penalties and Gally out since early in the first period; Hay played Redmond, Lamoureux and Sward a lot. Frankly Lammy and Redmond on one of our few late PPs made me grit my teeth. I should have seen a ton more Bennett and Rowinski playing with Sward and even more Nathan and Michael Burns, Martinook (who was getting his chances, but not able to really go for the net) and even Teal Burns, before Lammy and Redmond get ice-time. It may be just my own bias, but neither of those players work hard enough, or are dangerous enough to try to come back in a lop-sided game. I`d much rather see our hungry 16 year olds play, than these guys float.
The Giants take on the Americans for the second Sunday in a row at the Coliseum. Last Sunday the G`s faced a tired road weary American squad, who ran out of gas come the third period and took a shutout victory, but this time the Americans who have feasted on the Giants this season to the tune of 9-3, 9-1 games in Kennewick will be champing at the bit to get some payback. With Gally out I do not like our chances in this tilt. I hope the Giants find some life without Gallagher though and bring a smart (er) game to the arena and that Hay let`s some of our young guys play quality minutes and that he relegates the under-performing 18 year olds to fourth line duties. It will be a tough game, but I don`t believe that the Americans have Drew Owsley back yet, so they could pull off the upset. I hope they all are ready to win it for Gallagher. Puck drops at 5pm PST.
Three Stars
1. Nino Neiderreiter
2. Brad Ross
3. Ryan Johansen
Dondo`s Doghouse: Not enough from our journeymen 18 year olds and its getting frustrating seeing Hayzer play some of the 18s over the far hungrier, harder working younger players, PK stumbled, but had a couple of good kills, esp the first double minor faced by the Gs. More shots through and going to the net harder to either get the chance or draw the penalties would have helped, but the Portland squad wasn`t making that easy in the least.
Vancouver 0 Portland 5
The Giants lost more than just the game last night, as Brendan Gallagher was taken out with a questionable hit when a player leaving his feet caught him in the head with his shoulder. Gallagher spun off a defender and was caught unawares as Brendan Leipsic levelled him, throwing him up and into the boards as he came crashing to the ice, winding himself and more. They are saying that Gallagher has a concussion, but it is not clear how serious it is currently. He left the game early in the first, not to return. No call on the play, or on the wicked elbow by Wotherspoon a few minutes earlier. The refs seemed to see only white in this one and were incapable of seeing red, but that was not the case for the fans who got more and more frustrated with the bonus calls and gratuitous add-ons throughout the contest.
The Giants had early pressure, but could not register a shot as the Portland defensive shell was virtually impenetrable. The Winterhawks were getting pucks through on Segal, but not of the dangerous variety. After Gally went down the tone of the first changed and the Winterhawks began to really push back hard. The Giants had the effort, but not the results and despite playing a pretty determined first, ended up on the wrong side of the scoresheet as the Oregon team scored two late goals, one of which was a too easy tally on the PP. The goal went in off of David Musil, but it was the player who did not challenge the point that was really to blame. I also personally felt it was also a puck that Segal should have got, despite the deflection. There was one penalty called in the entire first period. A very marginal interference, as the refs let go a lot of suspect hits and checks. Nino Neiderreitter made it 3-0 on another PP chance in the second, which came out of another extra gratuitous call by the refs. Later in the period, Neil Manning, trying to clear the crease, made a blind back pass right onto Brad Ross’ stick and Ross made no mistake burying it. Ryan Johansen salted it in the third with a nice delay in the slot and then rifling the puck far-side through a wide open lane.
Rookie Watch: Sward saw a bit of ice-time, laid some nice checks and played a decent game at –1. Franson sat, Bellerive sat, Hart sat. Hodder was a –1 , not getting a whole lot of ice-time despite the Giants already being down Bestland who tweaked something in warm-up.
Fight Night: Lots of gloves flying, but a couple of crap zebras saw them as bonus roughings and not fights, despite both players dropping the gloves. The box score on WHL.ca is wrong actually as Andrej Stastny was given an instigator, 5, 10 and a game jostling with Matt Ius, late in the second. James Henry and Brad Ross, who was chirping all night long, decided to fight off of the face-off by hanging on for dear life and wrestling when he was taken to task for his mouthiness. The reaction was instantaneous as Henry lunged at Ross. Both players were given game-misconducts.
Zebra Cage: The Smiths, Colby and Pat called a suspect first in which they allowed a few dangerous plays to go by the way-side and then they went ape-**** stupid with a bunch of lop-sided calls. Redmond did deserve a double minor as he was trying to get revenge for the Gally hit on Leipsic, but the other bonus calls were not only bogus, but really stretching it with the mutual roughing going on - on both sides of the puck. One of which had the Giants goalie taken-out hard behind the net while playing the puck. There was a scrum and Musil was given a double minor for what I don’t know.
The Winterhawks out-shot the Giants 40 – 29, despite being knotted at 20 shots apiece at one time. The `Hawks went 2 for 6 on the PP, while the Giants were 0 for 3. The Giants played a couple of pretty hard periods, but did not put up much of a fight in the third as the skilled Portland D shut them down. Give full credit to Portland for the win, but I still think they were let off the hook for their suspect play far too much in this one as the smaller Giants were being man-handled and rag-dolled a bit too much for my liking. The Winterhawks are an excellent team that dismantled the Giants D and kept the home team`s shots away from their goalie. Keith Hamilton faced 29 shots, but was never forced to make a really huge save or really challenged, as the Portland work in front of their own net was excellent. Their offense were no slouches either and this could have been an even-more lopsided tilt if they buried all of their good chances.
The Giants PK allowed two goals and were usually not working hard enough challenging the shooter and frequently seen standing around. A good PK comes from tenacious hard work and from my perspective it does not come from putting players like Lamoureux and Redmond on the PK. With the loss of players in the third Henry being out for the game, Stastny with 17 minutes of penalties and Gally out since early in the first period; Hay played Redmond, Lamoureux and Sward a lot. Frankly Lammy and Redmond on one of our few late PPs made me grit my teeth. I should have seen a ton more Bennett and Rowinski playing with Sward and even more Nathan and Michael Burns, Martinook (who was getting his chances, but not able to really go for the net) and even Teal Burns, before Lammy and Redmond get ice-time. It may be just my own bias, but neither of those players work hard enough, or are dangerous enough to try to come back in a lop-sided game. I`d much rather see our hungry 16 year olds play, than these guys float.
The Giants take on the Americans for the second Sunday in a row at the Coliseum. Last Sunday the G`s faced a tired road weary American squad, who ran out of gas come the third period and took a shutout victory, but this time the Americans who have feasted on the Giants this season to the tune of 9-3, 9-1 games in Kennewick will be champing at the bit to get some payback. With Gally out I do not like our chances in this tilt. I hope the Giants find some life without Gallagher though and bring a smart (er) game to the arena and that Hay let`s some of our young guys play quality minutes and that he relegates the under-performing 18 year olds to fourth line duties. It will be a tough game, but I don`t believe that the Americans have Drew Owsley back yet, so they could pull off the upset. I hope they all are ready to win it for Gallagher. Puck drops at 5pm PST.
Three Stars
1. Nino Neiderreiter
2. Brad Ross
3. Ryan Johansen
Dondo`s Doghouse: Not enough from our journeymen 18 year olds and its getting frustrating seeing Hayzer play some of the 18s over the far hungrier, harder working younger players, PK stumbled, but had a couple of good kills, esp the first double minor faced by the Gs. More shots through and going to the net harder to either get the chance or draw the penalties would have helped, but the Portland squad wasn`t making that easy in the least.