dondo
11-14-2011, 01:07 AM
Giants Escape Cats
Vancouver 4 Prince George 3 SO
One of those games the Giants probably didn’t deserve to win, playing ugly hockey for the majority of the game versus a back-up goaltender and what should be a fatigued team. Two unassisted tallies against, which means more bad give-aways and another SH goal given up playing with dumb passes around the offensive blue-line. Credit the boys for actually showing up sometime in this game, but really they floated through most of it and allowed the lesser skilled Cougars to hang around, tie the game in the second with the aforementioned SH goal, that came on the heels of a fantastic Cain Franson breakaway chance (one of their best in the game) in which Franson was unable to tickle the twine, and force the Giants to dig deep for the come-back. Tvrdon opened the scoring in the first and the Giants tried to guard that lead for far too long allowing a team far below in the standings to hang around. The Cougars scored a couple of goals early in the third to get a 3-1 lead, but the Giants managed to come back and eke out a couple of goals to get the tie a point and eventually the win in the shootout with the only goal coming off of the stick of Henry. Morrison held the fort in the glorified skill competition to get the Giants the two points.
Marek Tvrdon opened the scoring in the first, off of a great feed from James Henry. The Cougars scored a SH’d goal in the second after the Giants coughed up the puck at the blue-line, getting caught using those dangerous soft passes. Any team watching video on the Giants before the game will see that not only as a big weakness, but a very, very predictable (and vulnerable) act. The Giants need to pass quicker and change it up more, or excellent teams will use that information to bury them behind us with great regularity. The Giants held on to the end of the second, giving up a late penalty, which bridged periods – something they did between the first and second as well. The Cougars scored a pretty nice PP marker and then scored a really bad, for Adam Morrison that is, unassisted goal off of the face-off, by someone scoring their first goal of the season. The Giants felt like they might not have the energy to come back in the game, but a good PP and a nice goal by Henry, off of some grinding work by Gallagher, by tipping a David Musil howitzer past Devon Fordyce gave them some momentum. Gallagher was the force from then on, putting together some hard working shifts, before burying the puck at 18:47 and tying the game. Tvrdon and Neil Manning got the helpers. OT solved nothing, so the teams went to a shoot-out where Henry who is money on the shoot-out this season was the only skater to score for either team. Henry is now 3 for 3 in the shootout and Don Hay is saying that he is patient and just knows where to pick the spot in the shootout.
Rookie Watch: Atwal (15/16) had some shifts in this one, was a minus. Kulak (17) had moments. Bellerive (17) didn’t seem to play a whole lot. Houck (16) didn’t get an assist on the opening goal, but his work lead to it. Sward (17) a slightly less scintillating game as last night, but had his moments as well. Bews (17) and Vetterl (17) were okay.
Fight Night: no fisticuffs
Zebra Cage: Pat Smith, another solo reffing effort and Smith was, in my not so humble opinion, crap. He allowed some dangerous plays to go unpunished, allowing a blatant spear by a goalie on Sward and watched as Gallagher got mugged in the crease with repeated hits in the third. I freely admit I don’t like Pat Smith as a ref and that opinion has not changed. I would also say the Giants dodged a couple of physical penalty bullets as well, so I suppose he was mostly consistent.
The Giants barely out-shot the Cougars in this one 33-29, managing double-digits each period, but not looking terribly dangerous most of the time. The G’s were 1 for 3 on the PP, scoring a timely man-advantage marker to claim back momentum in the third. The Cougars went 1 for 4 on the PP. The boys floated through a good deal of this game battling some very close-checking by the Cougars and as Hay said a 1-4-0 forecheck, which succeeded in clogging up the neutral zone, making for less than enjoyable hockey. The Giants can pat themselves on the back for their effort during the come-back, but they should never have allowed themselves to get into that position, playing soft and sloppy and not winning those clutch puck battles. Morrison was not at his best, but was good enough to give the boys a chance to get back into this one. The Giants needed their top players to step it up and eventually they did. Once fired up Henry and Gallagher were far more effective breaking the Cougars web of trappiness.
I suppose I should try to focus on the positives rather than pointing up the negatives, but I find it frustrating when the team plays this kind of game; they are capable of so much better. One thing the Giants historically have been are a hard-working team, who gut out most shifts, so for them to play a soft game against a tired team is disappointing. I do have to give them props for coming back the way they did and not giving in, but I still think that they could have brought that level of game a lot earlier. It is good to see that the boys are capable of this kind of come-back and that the team has lost a lot of that fragility with which they opened the season.
Don Hay and to a lesser degree Gallagher are in for a hectic week, heading out to the WHL component of the CHL Subway Series vs the Team Russia. Gallagher will wear the C for the game in Regina, while Quinton Howden will play captain in Moose Jaw. I don’t believe any other Giants players have been invited to participate in the series, despite Hay coaching the WHL side. The rest of the boys have some time off before taking on Victoria in Vancouver on Friday. The puck drops, as it usually does on Friday, at 7:30pm PST.
Three Stars:
1) James Henry
2) Spencer Asuchak
3) Brendan Gallagher
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Chucky.. he set-up the opening goal and made things happen when crunch time came, along with Gally.
Vancouver 4 Prince George 3 SO
One of those games the Giants probably didn’t deserve to win, playing ugly hockey for the majority of the game versus a back-up goaltender and what should be a fatigued team. Two unassisted tallies against, which means more bad give-aways and another SH goal given up playing with dumb passes around the offensive blue-line. Credit the boys for actually showing up sometime in this game, but really they floated through most of it and allowed the lesser skilled Cougars to hang around, tie the game in the second with the aforementioned SH goal, that came on the heels of a fantastic Cain Franson breakaway chance (one of their best in the game) in which Franson was unable to tickle the twine, and force the Giants to dig deep for the come-back. Tvrdon opened the scoring in the first and the Giants tried to guard that lead for far too long allowing a team far below in the standings to hang around. The Cougars scored a couple of goals early in the third to get a 3-1 lead, but the Giants managed to come back and eke out a couple of goals to get the tie a point and eventually the win in the shootout with the only goal coming off of the stick of Henry. Morrison held the fort in the glorified skill competition to get the Giants the two points.
Marek Tvrdon opened the scoring in the first, off of a great feed from James Henry. The Cougars scored a SH’d goal in the second after the Giants coughed up the puck at the blue-line, getting caught using those dangerous soft passes. Any team watching video on the Giants before the game will see that not only as a big weakness, but a very, very predictable (and vulnerable) act. The Giants need to pass quicker and change it up more, or excellent teams will use that information to bury them behind us with great regularity. The Giants held on to the end of the second, giving up a late penalty, which bridged periods – something they did between the first and second as well. The Cougars scored a pretty nice PP marker and then scored a really bad, for Adam Morrison that is, unassisted goal off of the face-off, by someone scoring their first goal of the season. The Giants felt like they might not have the energy to come back in the game, but a good PP and a nice goal by Henry, off of some grinding work by Gallagher, by tipping a David Musil howitzer past Devon Fordyce gave them some momentum. Gallagher was the force from then on, putting together some hard working shifts, before burying the puck at 18:47 and tying the game. Tvrdon and Neil Manning got the helpers. OT solved nothing, so the teams went to a shoot-out where Henry who is money on the shoot-out this season was the only skater to score for either team. Henry is now 3 for 3 in the shootout and Don Hay is saying that he is patient and just knows where to pick the spot in the shootout.
Rookie Watch: Atwal (15/16) had some shifts in this one, was a minus. Kulak (17) had moments. Bellerive (17) didn’t seem to play a whole lot. Houck (16) didn’t get an assist on the opening goal, but his work lead to it. Sward (17) a slightly less scintillating game as last night, but had his moments as well. Bews (17) and Vetterl (17) were okay.
Fight Night: no fisticuffs
Zebra Cage: Pat Smith, another solo reffing effort and Smith was, in my not so humble opinion, crap. He allowed some dangerous plays to go unpunished, allowing a blatant spear by a goalie on Sward and watched as Gallagher got mugged in the crease with repeated hits in the third. I freely admit I don’t like Pat Smith as a ref and that opinion has not changed. I would also say the Giants dodged a couple of physical penalty bullets as well, so I suppose he was mostly consistent.
The Giants barely out-shot the Cougars in this one 33-29, managing double-digits each period, but not looking terribly dangerous most of the time. The G’s were 1 for 3 on the PP, scoring a timely man-advantage marker to claim back momentum in the third. The Cougars went 1 for 4 on the PP. The boys floated through a good deal of this game battling some very close-checking by the Cougars and as Hay said a 1-4-0 forecheck, which succeeded in clogging up the neutral zone, making for less than enjoyable hockey. The Giants can pat themselves on the back for their effort during the come-back, but they should never have allowed themselves to get into that position, playing soft and sloppy and not winning those clutch puck battles. Morrison was not at his best, but was good enough to give the boys a chance to get back into this one. The Giants needed their top players to step it up and eventually they did. Once fired up Henry and Gallagher were far more effective breaking the Cougars web of trappiness.
I suppose I should try to focus on the positives rather than pointing up the negatives, but I find it frustrating when the team plays this kind of game; they are capable of so much better. One thing the Giants historically have been are a hard-working team, who gut out most shifts, so for them to play a soft game against a tired team is disappointing. I do have to give them props for coming back the way they did and not giving in, but I still think that they could have brought that level of game a lot earlier. It is good to see that the boys are capable of this kind of come-back and that the team has lost a lot of that fragility with which they opened the season.
Don Hay and to a lesser degree Gallagher are in for a hectic week, heading out to the WHL component of the CHL Subway Series vs the Team Russia. Gallagher will wear the C for the game in Regina, while Quinton Howden will play captain in Moose Jaw. I don’t believe any other Giants players have been invited to participate in the series, despite Hay coaching the WHL side. The rest of the boys have some time off before taking on Victoria in Vancouver on Friday. The puck drops, as it usually does on Friday, at 7:30pm PST.
Three Stars:
1) James Henry
2) Spencer Asuchak
3) Brendan Gallagher
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Chucky.. he set-up the opening goal and made things happen when crunch time came, along with Gally.