GAME 4 Giants 3 @ Cougars 2 (OT) Mar.29

[Beaner]

Well that was more like it. A very entertaining hockey game tonight from PG as the Cougars did a good job bouncing back from the horrible effort they put forth the night before. Giants held the edge in offensive zone pressure and time of possesion, but the Cougars were a lot better in the offensive zone and did a nice job of getting some quality scoring chances on the Giants. Cougars still have not been able to get their PP going getting another donut tonight, but they did get a SHG tonight. Great efforts from both sides, game could have gone either way tonight, but the Giants come out ahead.

NOTES
Bowles and Slade get the starts again.
Mikkelson (Knee), Czibre, Rutherford (Shoulder), Dulle, and Flatters were the Giants scratches.
Zimmer was out for the Cougars serving his one game suspension.
Shots 40-22 Giants
PP Giants 1/6 Cougars 0/4

GOALS
1. P.G Gardner, (1) , 7:50 Bad turnover by Fistric as he passes up the middle from the half boards right onto the stick of Gardner, and Gardner walks in uses blum as a screen and he wires it past Slade.
1. VAN Bartley, (1) (Machacek, Albers), 11:21 (PP) 5-4, Albers shot, rebound out to Machacek, he shots another save and bartley gets the rebound and puts it up and over a down and out Bowles.
3. P.G Hunter, (2) (Patterson, Cooper), 6:45 (SH) 4-5, 3 Giants get caught at the Cougar blueline and the puck goes by them, Hunter goes in on the 2-1, looks at his wingman cuts to the middle and puts the puck thru the Dman and thru Slade 5-hole.
3. VAN Brule, (3) (Machacek), 10:14 Good forecheck down low by the Giants, Machacek gets the puck behind the net, and he does the wrap around rebound comes out to Brule all alone on the opposite side and he fires it home top shelf.
OT. VAN Brule, (4) (Bartley, Franson), 16:16 Franson from behind his net waits, and waits, and waits, sends the pass up to Bartley outside the zone thru the middle, Bartley taps it over to Brule, Brule cuts into the zone, and Brule fires a huge slapshot past the PG defender and right thru Bowles 5-hole.

FISTICUFFS
None

OFFICIATING
Pat Smith got the call tonight, thought he did a pretty good job tonight, as he did let a lot go, but he did call a few of the really obvious ones. Thought both Goalies took a dive on their respective interference calls, but meh. There were quite a few calls that could have been called on both sides tonight, but for the most part not a bad job.

INTERNET FEED
Just for NWBruin, I'm still sick so watched at home. ;). But the happy news is, the webcast tonight was the SHAW feed. Yipee!! I didnt have to listen to the PG radio guys which was a pleasant change. Got replays and the whole nine yards. As to the Bill Commentary a bit too much pro-Giant IMO, would have been nice if he could have talked a bit more about the Cougars than he did.

OVERALL
Well I had a feeling the Cougars would bounce back and use the Zimmer suspension for inspiration, and they did. A much better effort from the Cougars on the attack, and they once again did a great job of keeping the Giants to the outside with their shots. The Cougar PP has to be a concern for them, they really are not generating a lot on it. They did get a couple scoring chances, but overall the PP is really struggling. Bowles played great once again, made a couple of very nice saves, and was solid except for maybe the OT goal.

Giants had good cycle and started to wear the Cougars down I thought, which led to a lot of pressure for the Giants in the third. They did have good attack, but a couple bad turnovers and the Cougars do seem to capitalize. Forecheck was very good for the Giants, they fought thru the clutch and grab of the Cougars and did not quit when down twice in the game. PP looked good again tonight, but the Cougars PK was much better.

Anyway very entertaining game, enjoyed it very much, and hope that we get the same kind of Hockey, down in Vancouver on Saturday.

3 Stars
1. VAN - 17 Gilbert Brule
2. VAN - 15 Spencer Machacek
3. P.G - 20 Eric Hunter

[Knuckles Muldoon]

Entertaining game all around. But I have to say that I didn't necessarily think it was a very well-played game. So many turnovers and weak plays with the puck, particularly by the Giants. Tremendous game by Machacek, who was out there working his can off from start to finish. Thought the Cougars played well, but were still outshot 40-22. The Giants talent and footspeed are evident every night as PG struggles to keep up. Although PG is a bigger team, the Giants are winning so many battles along the boards. If the Giants had been sharper with the puck, they could have wrapped this one up much earlier. Fisty continues to struggle with the puck. The giveaway on the first PG goal was horrific. He's doing the job okay around our net, but his play with the puck is playing havoc with my blood pressure. Another strong game by Cody, who has just been at the top of his game in all 4 games. I have to think the boys will be ALL BUSINESS on Saturday as they try to avoid any more bus trips to PG. I'm sure Hayzer will be impressing the need to wrap this up in game 5 and there's no need to think it won't happen as long as the boys are focused. Good job, lads!

[Swando]

As usual a fine review. I think the Giants had more counter flow on turnovers and loose pucks over game 2 or 1 if that is what you were comparing it too. In game 5 on Saturday I know PG will be coming out in the defensive mode but I think only 3/4 will buy into it and they need 100%
Giants in 5

[Swando]

Knuckles: if you watched the feed from Shaw then you should have heard the PBP guys saying that PG has had less that 15 quality chances in 3 games and I'd add only 3 or 4 for tonight. Vancouver has the ability with it's coaching staff and scouting reports to change and make a new game plan. ie Franson to Brule's PP goal on Tuesday. Previously we hammered the puck at the net and hoped for the best. The Giants tonight played an almost perfect game (except Fistric dodo and Albers hit in the face) BUT they controlled the game 90% of the time. Cougars were and are hanging on!!!
i think that Vancouver has had it's scare in this round. If the counter chances were numerous, and the power play goals against was a concern... a different story.

[Redwic]

Very hard-fought & well-earned victory last night. Vancouver looks poised to close out this series very soon.

[TheBrass]

Counting the hours til Saturday night, the best April fool I can think of is Devin Featherstone and the rest of the Cougs facing a bus ride home with no more hockey to look forward to. :evil:

Ok, I'm bad for saying that, but this team has me so excited to be a fan.

GO GIANTS GO :thumb:

[GF71]

All hail the hockey god known as Gilbert Brule! Especially you KBF! ahahahaha

Brutla reffing last night going both ways. It almost made me wish Derek Herman was doing the game. ALMOST. :)

[dondo]

there's a difference between letting the players play and losing the whistle. I think that Smith was too stingy with the whistle tongiht and then would call some odd ones out of the blue. That out and out headlock Walker had on Kraus, hauling him to the ice and ending up with both sticks not being a call is insulting enough, but to call Kraus for the interference after being steer-wrestled to the ice was just ridiculous.

The problem i see, with "just letting them play" is that the Cougars are far more clutchy and grabby than the GMen, therefore putting the whistle in the pocket benefits their style of the play. I mean the two players hooking Garet together not being a penalty pfft. One of the first shifts of the game the Cougar player hooking Brule all the way through the neutral zone? equally pfft.

However I love how the Giants fought through that kind of play and ended up getting shots on the net from the slot. It is playoff hockey. They began to play like the Cats later and then got called on the same things the other guys were doing and not getting called (a bump from behind is a crosscheck? after letting out and out tackles go?), but w/e I'd be pretty pissed right now had we not won, esp spotting them a goal.

Great work by Spence and Gilbert tonight though, they didn't quit.

Saturday should be a great game

[Swando]

Except for The Rockets and Tigers no other team can cycle the puck like the Giants. It's a pleasure to watch any of these guys do it and still most often ending with a scoring opportunity of drawing penalty. It also wears the other team down.

[Knuckles Muldoon]

Knuckles: if you watched the feed from Shaw then you should have heard the PBP guys saying that PG has had less that 15 quality chances in 3 games and I'd add only 3 or 4 for tonight. Vancouver has the ability with it's coaching staff and scouting reports to change and make a new game plan. ie Franson to Brule's PP goal on Tuesday. Previously we hammered the puck at the net and hoped for the best. The Giants tonight played an almost perfect game (except Fistric dodo and Albers hit in the face) BUT they controlled the game 90% of the time. Cougars were and are hanging on!!!
i think that Vancouver has had it's scare in this round. If the counter chances were numerous, and the power play goals against was a concern... a different story.
I'll break it down further. Positionally, the Giants have been excellent throughout the series, no problem there. But the play with the puck in game 4 was less than stellar. I thought there were too many times where they didn't make the proper plays with the puck, particularly at the PG blueline. IF the Giants had been more alert in this area, this game would never been close to seeing overtime. Territorially, the Giants dominated the game, but could have put the hammer down with more intelligent play with the puck. I'm certainly not criticizing the boys whatsoever. But as the playoffs go along, they'll need to clean this part of their game up somewhat. I know they can and expect they will.

[dondo]

yeah knuckles I agree with that assessment I felt that we were giving up possession of the puck too easily at times dumping it in without chasing hard, or dumping it when we had room to carry it in. Especially on the PP. We helped the Cougars kill a few of our PPs by not taking care of the puck.