dondo
01-06-2013, 12:55 AM
Mason!... Mason!... Mason! :smash:
Oil Kings Grease Giants
Vancouver 0 Edmonton 5
It would be easy to say that the boys didn’t show up and had no effort, but that would be wrong. The Giants spent the majority of this game trying to stop the best PP in the league and were doing a very good job after allowing an early PP goal against. They did, however, have some very poor coverage in their own end and seemed to forget that you have to play defense all the time not just killing penalties. Riley Kieser had a strong game and was all over the ice, but he really doesn’t have the skill set to make it count enough and is currently on an 11 game scoreless streak. Mason Geertson showed some of the mean Mason (playing his former team with evidently a great deal to prove) and demolished one opponent in a fight and threw down a heated toe to toe poundfest with the same player later on. I would like to see more of this Mason showing up. I think he has been given advice not to be that guy and concentrate on the skill part, but really we need the edge that “that guy” brings. You can be skillful and vicious, you just have to pick your spots. Jared Rathjen in his first start as a Giant made his mistakes, but was left high and dry on a few of the Oil Kings goals.
The Oil Kings opened the scoring on their first PP of the game. The Giants played a gritty first period weathering penalty call after penalty call against them. The Edmonton squad found twine later in the second scoring just after killing the Giants first PP of the game coming 12 minutes into the second period. Once again the Giants held on as they were constantly in the box, but in the third they collapsed. I suppose all that penalty killing took it’s toll and the Giants lost sight of their own zone in the final frame allowing 3 goals against after playing a decent and at times very good game in the first 40 minutes. Rathjen can take some blame, but the boys simply did not do enough in their own end to keep the game close and although they had forays at the other end of the ice, Tristan Jarry was never forced to a make a game-saving stop. Credit the boys for playing to the end though, standing up for their teammates and holding on for as long as they did. If they had folded earlier and not been so good killing penalties this game could have been a double digit rout.
Team Notes: U17 boys will be in the line-up for Sunday’s game versus the Hitmen. Newest acquisitions Trzonkowski and Leone are still contributing their efforts to the team and do not look out of place or out of their depth. Trzonkowski in particular has been a pleasant surprise.
Fisticuffs: Lots and the Giants came out well on the majority. All in Period 3 - Mason Geertson v. Mitchell Moroz (round 1) Geertson wins this one laying some serious right hands in an extended bout, getting the take-down. Travis McEvoy v. Klarc Wilson.. while Geertson Moroz are fighting Wilson starts a fight with McEvoy. McEvoy hangs in there well and gets the eventual takedown. Wilson got tossed with a game misconduct. Jackson Houck v. Stephen Schmoorkoff - Houck goes to the aid of Kieser who was hit heavy along the boards. Houck and Schmoorkoff had a decent bout, good to see Houck standing up for his teammate. Geertson v. Moroz (round 2) This was a classic heavy weight toe-to-toe bout. Hammering each other with rights for ages with neither player going down. Huge hits connected, few misses and mutual pounding to an exhausted draw. Anyone who says fighting shouldn’t be in hockey has never seen one of these kinds of fights.
Zebra Cage: Tyler Adair and Clayton Hall. I always find these very lopsidedly called games to be suspect. Giving the best PP in the league that many chances on some very arbitrary calls seems a bit much, but then my bias and perennial back-monkey is reffing and it had to be better than some of those international refs during the world juniors, who don’t even seem to know what penalty they are calling until they make it up skating to the scorekeeper’s box. So completely inconsistent game to game and within the game itself. Soft as butter calls and yet missed high-sticks, cross-checks to the face, dangerous elbows, checking from behind but happy as clams to call slashing on a one-handed tap near the arm or charging for clean hard checks. Not one of those calls for charging they called fit any description of the penalty I know of, and yet they were very liberal calling it as their go-to stop gap infraction. Worst of the worst and it ruined more than a few games for me. Add-in the review board’s mindless interpretations and assumptions and you get a perfect storm of over-compensating incompetence meeting hand-wringing hypocrisy **rant done**
The Giants were out shot 33-24. They went 0 for 4 on the PP, while coughing up only 1 on the 8 chances given the home team. Kieser as mentioned was working his butt off tonight. Sward was a soft –3 on the evening. Kulak, Geetson and Morrison –2s with Orban and Wes Vann even. A bunch of minuses coming across the board, but mainly in the third period when it seemed the Giants had run out of steam. Never easy to take a shut-out against, but for 40 minutes there was some hope and then they didn’t really play for the final 20. They won the fight scorecard though and don’t seem to be a team depressed or even frustrated, just lacking some consistent skill and defensive effort and making rookie mistakes as re-building teams with 2 - 20s and 2 - 19s on their roster often do. They faced a top Eastern Conference team that will once again challenge for the right to be at the Memorial Cup and for two periods they were competitive. Jarry definitely not first star worthy. Second shut-out in a row for the Oil Kings with two different goalies.
Up Next: Tomorrow afternoon 4pm MST (3pm PST) in Calgary to face another top Central Division team in the form of the Calgary Hitmen. Lee should get the start coming off of a strong performance in U17 tourney. Refreshed Thomas Foster and Reid Zalitach should be able to take some of the load off in that game as well. Then Monday off and two games (Tues,Wed) before heading home for a tilt at the Coliseum where it doesn’t get any easier as they take on the Kelowna Rockets again.
Three Stars
1. Tristan Jarry
2. Dylan Wruck
3. Cody Corbett
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Mason Geertson – it’s my hardhat and I’ll give it to who I want. I love the two fights and him finding that emotion in his game. I am hoping this will be a turning point where he becomes very tough to play against a bit nasty and more effective merging the skill and the fear.
Oil Kings Grease Giants
Vancouver 0 Edmonton 5
It would be easy to say that the boys didn’t show up and had no effort, but that would be wrong. The Giants spent the majority of this game trying to stop the best PP in the league and were doing a very good job after allowing an early PP goal against. They did, however, have some very poor coverage in their own end and seemed to forget that you have to play defense all the time not just killing penalties. Riley Kieser had a strong game and was all over the ice, but he really doesn’t have the skill set to make it count enough and is currently on an 11 game scoreless streak. Mason Geertson showed some of the mean Mason (playing his former team with evidently a great deal to prove) and demolished one opponent in a fight and threw down a heated toe to toe poundfest with the same player later on. I would like to see more of this Mason showing up. I think he has been given advice not to be that guy and concentrate on the skill part, but really we need the edge that “that guy” brings. You can be skillful and vicious, you just have to pick your spots. Jared Rathjen in his first start as a Giant made his mistakes, but was left high and dry on a few of the Oil Kings goals.
The Oil Kings opened the scoring on their first PP of the game. The Giants played a gritty first period weathering penalty call after penalty call against them. The Edmonton squad found twine later in the second scoring just after killing the Giants first PP of the game coming 12 minutes into the second period. Once again the Giants held on as they were constantly in the box, but in the third they collapsed. I suppose all that penalty killing took it’s toll and the Giants lost sight of their own zone in the final frame allowing 3 goals against after playing a decent and at times very good game in the first 40 minutes. Rathjen can take some blame, but the boys simply did not do enough in their own end to keep the game close and although they had forays at the other end of the ice, Tristan Jarry was never forced to a make a game-saving stop. Credit the boys for playing to the end though, standing up for their teammates and holding on for as long as they did. If they had folded earlier and not been so good killing penalties this game could have been a double digit rout.
Team Notes: U17 boys will be in the line-up for Sunday’s game versus the Hitmen. Newest acquisitions Trzonkowski and Leone are still contributing their efforts to the team and do not look out of place or out of their depth. Trzonkowski in particular has been a pleasant surprise.
Fisticuffs: Lots and the Giants came out well on the majority. All in Period 3 - Mason Geertson v. Mitchell Moroz (round 1) Geertson wins this one laying some serious right hands in an extended bout, getting the take-down. Travis McEvoy v. Klarc Wilson.. while Geertson Moroz are fighting Wilson starts a fight with McEvoy. McEvoy hangs in there well and gets the eventual takedown. Wilson got tossed with a game misconduct. Jackson Houck v. Stephen Schmoorkoff - Houck goes to the aid of Kieser who was hit heavy along the boards. Houck and Schmoorkoff had a decent bout, good to see Houck standing up for his teammate. Geertson v. Moroz (round 2) This was a classic heavy weight toe-to-toe bout. Hammering each other with rights for ages with neither player going down. Huge hits connected, few misses and mutual pounding to an exhausted draw. Anyone who says fighting shouldn’t be in hockey has never seen one of these kinds of fights.
Zebra Cage: Tyler Adair and Clayton Hall. I always find these very lopsidedly called games to be suspect. Giving the best PP in the league that many chances on some very arbitrary calls seems a bit much, but then my bias and perennial back-monkey is reffing and it had to be better than some of those international refs during the world juniors, who don’t even seem to know what penalty they are calling until they make it up skating to the scorekeeper’s box. So completely inconsistent game to game and within the game itself. Soft as butter calls and yet missed high-sticks, cross-checks to the face, dangerous elbows, checking from behind but happy as clams to call slashing on a one-handed tap near the arm or charging for clean hard checks. Not one of those calls for charging they called fit any description of the penalty I know of, and yet they were very liberal calling it as their go-to stop gap infraction. Worst of the worst and it ruined more than a few games for me. Add-in the review board’s mindless interpretations and assumptions and you get a perfect storm of over-compensating incompetence meeting hand-wringing hypocrisy **rant done**
The Giants were out shot 33-24. They went 0 for 4 on the PP, while coughing up only 1 on the 8 chances given the home team. Kieser as mentioned was working his butt off tonight. Sward was a soft –3 on the evening. Kulak, Geetson and Morrison –2s with Orban and Wes Vann even. A bunch of minuses coming across the board, but mainly in the third period when it seemed the Giants had run out of steam. Never easy to take a shut-out against, but for 40 minutes there was some hope and then they didn’t really play for the final 20. They won the fight scorecard though and don’t seem to be a team depressed or even frustrated, just lacking some consistent skill and defensive effort and making rookie mistakes as re-building teams with 2 - 20s and 2 - 19s on their roster often do. They faced a top Eastern Conference team that will once again challenge for the right to be at the Memorial Cup and for two periods they were competitive. Jarry definitely not first star worthy. Second shut-out in a row for the Oil Kings with two different goalies.
Up Next: Tomorrow afternoon 4pm MST (3pm PST) in Calgary to face another top Central Division team in the form of the Calgary Hitmen. Lee should get the start coming off of a strong performance in U17 tourney. Refreshed Thomas Foster and Reid Zalitach should be able to take some of the load off in that game as well. Then Monday off and two games (Tues,Wed) before heading home for a tilt at the Coliseum where it doesn’t get any easier as they take on the Kelowna Rockets again.
Three Stars
1. Tristan Jarry
2. Dylan Wruck
3. Cody Corbett
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Mason Geertson – it’s my hardhat and I’ll give it to who I want. I love the two fights and him finding that emotion in his game. I am hoping this will be a turning point where he becomes very tough to play against a bit nasty and more effective merging the skill and the fear.