dondo
01-08-2012, 02:21 AM
Giants Thump Winterhawks
Vancouver 8 Portland 4
It was Guy LaFleur night at the Coliseum tonight, but everyone there seemed more interested in seeing the return of Brendan Gallagher and they were not disappointed. Welcome back Gallagher. Seven points, a hat-trick and 4 assists coming back from the World Juniors with a perpetual smile on his face every shift, literally laughing in the face of hulking defensemen like Wotherspoon. He’s happy to be back and we are very happy to see him back. The Winterhawks are always a dangerous team with a very mobile defense who have a green light on offense as well a frightening transition game that can easily burn the unwary. Add-in the skill they have on their top lines and they can be a handful even on off-nights. Tonight they out shot the G’s but it was the home team that consistently found twine, despite battling some suspect officiating. Adam Morrison was (and had to be) very good between the pipes making timely saves to keep his team’s momentum rolling. Both teams had their special teams working and with 3 PP goals for each squad the man-advantage became a deadly gamble. Chucky had four helpers on the night and looked overjoyed to see his line-mate back. The WJHC returnees all looked pretty solid out there.
Nathan Burns opened the scoring taking a sweet feed from Gallagher, from behind the goal-line. Gallagher muscled the puck down low and crisply found Burns waiting in the slot. Burns made no mistake rippling the twine behind Mac Carruth. Gallagher added a PP marker a couple of minutes later, driving to the net and stuffing the puck in short-side. Neil Manning and Marek Tvrdon were assist beneficiaries. Portland made a late PP click reducing the lead to one. In the second Brett Kulak found the net in the first minute of the middle frame. Austin Vetterl and Taylor Makin with the helpers. Gally capitalised on yet another PP chance picking the far side with a low hard shot. Henry and Manning with the assists. Wes Vannieuwenhuizen scored his second WHL career goal pinching down the slot, and pounding the puck past Brendan Burke who had replaced Carruth between the pipes. Henry and Gally got the other points. A PP in the third allowed the Winterhawks to find twine. Gallagher responded with a PP marker of his own, scoring the hat-trick in the process. Henry and Cain Franson were in on the goal. Portland struck again just before the mid-way mark of the period. Tvrdon re-established the lead 6 minutes later, roofing the puck from the open side. Some great work by Gally and Henry caught the Winterhawks scrambling in their own end, leaving Tvrdon wide-open. Martinook put home a SH’d marker with time ticking down, assisted by Gallagher who forced the puck in the Winterhawk zone. Portland scored a late PP marker, but that was as close as they would get.
Rookie Watch: Kulak (17) his third goal of the season and a decent game on the back-end. Sward (17) centring the third line with Vetterl (17) and Burns. The line was even on the night, but gave some good minutes and set-up great shifts by the top two lines. Cooke (17) had some decent fourth line shifts, back from injury. Ast (16) playing fourth line minutes, but still not afraid of laying the body. Orban (17) a few more minutes. I actually watched him more and liked what I saw. Good positioning and some decent passing.
Fight Night: Only one fight coming out of a scrum. Wes Vann v Seth Swenson. Vannieuwenhuizen took Swenson to task and fed him fists, picked him up and fed him some more. It was kind of an important moment as the Portland squad had gotten quite chippy.
Zebra Cage: Brett Montsion and Trevor Hanson, stunk up the joint with some very weak calls early on and then just bad calls later. I found that although it seemed the Portland boys were instigating most of the tussles and scrums, that it was frequently the Giants who came out short-handed. Portland also took quite a few cheap shots that were let go by the way-side. They missed a lot and made a few invisible calls out of no-where, lacked any and all consistency and seemed to grant PPs out of thin air. Seriously crappy game management and it threatened to ruin a pretty good tilt. They both need to get off the crack. D-
The Winterhawks out shot the home town boys 44-35. The Portland squad went 3 for 9 on their PP chances, while the Giants were 3 for 5. Morrison was one of our best penalty killers as he turned aside some quality chances in clutch moments of the game. The Giants PP actually looked dangerous. After Wednesday nights PP fail, the boys were moving the puck quickly and well, cycling through the zone, getting shots through and screening the goalie, but mostly due to Gallagher’s effort they were trying to score going to the net and not relying on patience to pull them through. The PK looked pretty good too, challenging the point and forcing the puck carrier to make that perfect pass, but when it’s the Winterhawks you won’t keep them off of the scoresheet forever as they are capable of making that perfect pass. It was feisty tilt, with more than a few scrums and neither team backing down. The pure tenacity of Gallagher as he dragged his team grinning into the fray was a treat to watch. It was clear he was brimming with confidence after almost dragging the Canadian team to what would have been a come-back of the ages in the semi-final tilt versus Russia and his contributions in winning the bronze.
The G’s have a day off before prepping for Prince George on Tuesday. Hay said he forced Gally to have a day off today, but he was still at the rink champing at the bit to get on the ice. The Giants need to make sure they take care of the Cougars before focusing on what will prove to be a tough tilt on Friday versus the Tri-City Americans - a team that always challenges the G-Men. The puck drops on Tuesday at 7pm PST.
Three Stars
1. Brendan Gallagher
2. James Henry
3. Adam Morrison
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to .. Gally of course. What didn’t he do well tonight? 7 points, a +3 making those around him better, playing hard every shift and grinning like an idiot the whole night and loving it.
Vancouver 8 Portland 4
It was Guy LaFleur night at the Coliseum tonight, but everyone there seemed more interested in seeing the return of Brendan Gallagher and they were not disappointed. Welcome back Gallagher. Seven points, a hat-trick and 4 assists coming back from the World Juniors with a perpetual smile on his face every shift, literally laughing in the face of hulking defensemen like Wotherspoon. He’s happy to be back and we are very happy to see him back. The Winterhawks are always a dangerous team with a very mobile defense who have a green light on offense as well a frightening transition game that can easily burn the unwary. Add-in the skill they have on their top lines and they can be a handful even on off-nights. Tonight they out shot the G’s but it was the home team that consistently found twine, despite battling some suspect officiating. Adam Morrison was (and had to be) very good between the pipes making timely saves to keep his team’s momentum rolling. Both teams had their special teams working and with 3 PP goals for each squad the man-advantage became a deadly gamble. Chucky had four helpers on the night and looked overjoyed to see his line-mate back. The WJHC returnees all looked pretty solid out there.
Nathan Burns opened the scoring taking a sweet feed from Gallagher, from behind the goal-line. Gallagher muscled the puck down low and crisply found Burns waiting in the slot. Burns made no mistake rippling the twine behind Mac Carruth. Gallagher added a PP marker a couple of minutes later, driving to the net and stuffing the puck in short-side. Neil Manning and Marek Tvrdon were assist beneficiaries. Portland made a late PP click reducing the lead to one. In the second Brett Kulak found the net in the first minute of the middle frame. Austin Vetterl and Taylor Makin with the helpers. Gally capitalised on yet another PP chance picking the far side with a low hard shot. Henry and Manning with the assists. Wes Vannieuwenhuizen scored his second WHL career goal pinching down the slot, and pounding the puck past Brendan Burke who had replaced Carruth between the pipes. Henry and Gally got the other points. A PP in the third allowed the Winterhawks to find twine. Gallagher responded with a PP marker of his own, scoring the hat-trick in the process. Henry and Cain Franson were in on the goal. Portland struck again just before the mid-way mark of the period. Tvrdon re-established the lead 6 minutes later, roofing the puck from the open side. Some great work by Gally and Henry caught the Winterhawks scrambling in their own end, leaving Tvrdon wide-open. Martinook put home a SH’d marker with time ticking down, assisted by Gallagher who forced the puck in the Winterhawk zone. Portland scored a late PP marker, but that was as close as they would get.
Rookie Watch: Kulak (17) his third goal of the season and a decent game on the back-end. Sward (17) centring the third line with Vetterl (17) and Burns. The line was even on the night, but gave some good minutes and set-up great shifts by the top two lines. Cooke (17) had some decent fourth line shifts, back from injury. Ast (16) playing fourth line minutes, but still not afraid of laying the body. Orban (17) a few more minutes. I actually watched him more and liked what I saw. Good positioning and some decent passing.
Fight Night: Only one fight coming out of a scrum. Wes Vann v Seth Swenson. Vannieuwenhuizen took Swenson to task and fed him fists, picked him up and fed him some more. It was kind of an important moment as the Portland squad had gotten quite chippy.
Zebra Cage: Brett Montsion and Trevor Hanson, stunk up the joint with some very weak calls early on and then just bad calls later. I found that although it seemed the Portland boys were instigating most of the tussles and scrums, that it was frequently the Giants who came out short-handed. Portland also took quite a few cheap shots that were let go by the way-side. They missed a lot and made a few invisible calls out of no-where, lacked any and all consistency and seemed to grant PPs out of thin air. Seriously crappy game management and it threatened to ruin a pretty good tilt. They both need to get off the crack. D-
The Winterhawks out shot the home town boys 44-35. The Portland squad went 3 for 9 on their PP chances, while the Giants were 3 for 5. Morrison was one of our best penalty killers as he turned aside some quality chances in clutch moments of the game. The Giants PP actually looked dangerous. After Wednesday nights PP fail, the boys were moving the puck quickly and well, cycling through the zone, getting shots through and screening the goalie, but mostly due to Gallagher’s effort they were trying to score going to the net and not relying on patience to pull them through. The PK looked pretty good too, challenging the point and forcing the puck carrier to make that perfect pass, but when it’s the Winterhawks you won’t keep them off of the scoresheet forever as they are capable of making that perfect pass. It was feisty tilt, with more than a few scrums and neither team backing down. The pure tenacity of Gallagher as he dragged his team grinning into the fray was a treat to watch. It was clear he was brimming with confidence after almost dragging the Canadian team to what would have been a come-back of the ages in the semi-final tilt versus Russia and his contributions in winning the bronze.
The G’s have a day off before prepping for Prince George on Tuesday. Hay said he forced Gally to have a day off today, but he was still at the rink champing at the bit to get on the ice. The Giants need to make sure they take care of the Cougars before focusing on what will prove to be a tough tilt on Friday versus the Tri-City Americans - a team that always challenges the G-Men. The puck drops on Tuesday at 7pm PST.
Three Stars
1. Brendan Gallagher
2. James Henry
3. Adam Morrison
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to .. Gally of course. What didn’t he do well tonight? 7 points, a +3 making those around him better, playing hard every shift and grinning like an idiot the whole night and loving it.