GM1: Warriors 1 @ Giants 5 May 5th

[Beaner]

After a week of waiting it finally arrived. A very spirited affair tonight as both teams traded hits and cheapshots, with Moose Jaw capitilizing early with a pretty goal, but after that marker for the rest of the night it was pretty much the Giants who took control. 5 unanswered goals, staked the Giants to the lead, and at about the midway point of the second the Giants slowed the game down and protected their lead. Moose Jaw had some very good quality chances int hegame, but when Slade wasn't there to make the save, the Giants D stepped in to clear the puck away from harm.

A very entertaining game tonight. Both teams looked a little nervous to start, but all in all a very good game.

NOTES
Slade and Perricone got the starts tonight.
Mikkelson (knee), Rutherford (shoulder), Repik (Head), Flatters and Dulle were the Giants scratches.
Czibre made his first start since game 2 of the PG series.
Boyd left the game after throwing a hit along the boards that he ended up getting the worst of.
Shots 29-27 Giants
PP Giants 2/8 MJ 0/9

GOALS
1. M.J Gillen, (7) (McArdle, Boyd), 2:49 Mcardle breaking in on the wing, drops the puck for Boyd, passes it back to McArdle deep, McArdle then passes it to Gillen going hard to the net, and he redirects it into the net.
1. VAN Brule, (12) , 9:24 4-3, Brule steals the puck at the Giants blue line and he goes in all alone. Heads right down the gut makes a move, Perricone goes down and Brule puts it up high. Scored as the penalty expired, thus no shg.
1. VAN Franson, (4) (Bartley, Albers), 9:52 Batley makes a nice pass to Franson going hard to the net and he chips it up and over Perricone.
1. VAN Brule, (13) (Albers, Bartley), 12:21 (PP) 5-3, the cross crease pass to Brule and he one times the shot high past a down goalie.
2. VAN Kraus, (4) (Lucic, Parker), 2:20 After a good cycle, Kraus comes off the boards, and goes to the middle, and fires a shot that just beats Periconne.
2. VAN Albers, (3) (Franson, Brule), 9:28 (PP) Albers from the high slot fires a shot that hits a couple MJ sticks and goes in high.

FISTICUFFS
None

EQUIPMENT PROBLEMS
Not sure if I got the right guy, but MJs' JOnes had the blade fall out of one of skates tonight. Took him a while to get back to the bench, it was pretty weird.

OFFICIATING
Meh Rehman again tonight, and I just dont understand how he got Ref of the year. a lot of cheap calls, especially early. A couple mysterious calls as well tonight. The one good thing he did manage to do was to keep the game form getting out of control, as there were a lot of cheapshots by both teams.

OVERALL
Well, being the first time we have seen Moose Jaw, I really thought their forwards are very good and skilled. The defence though looked very slow, and seemed to have a lot of problems moving the puck around. Perricone had an off night tonight, I have to think he is a lot better than whaat we saw tonight. He did have a lot of good saves, but he had a tendancy to go down right away and the Giants were just chipping pucks up and over his pads.

Giants played their typical game yet again, hard forecheck, nice puck movement from the D up to the forwards. The MJ forwards did manage to hem the Giants D in a few times, especially when the Giants were takig just a bit too long to move the puck up. Slade played very well tonight, most notabley robbing McArdle a couple times in close.

3 STARS
1. VAN - 17 Gilbert Brule
2. VAN - 3 Paul Albers
3. VAN - 37 Dustin Slade

CONGRATS
To Slade for setting the all-time shut-out streak in the playoffs. Well done Dustin, and all the Giants.

[Swando]

Well said Beaner, a good recap. Was so glad not to see "Savage" out there as the Ref.
I thot that the Boys did just what the scouting report on them said to---take advantage of a poor defence that can not move the puck forward The Giants forced them to make bad opening passes and then nothing materialized after that. Early on they did make and error and it cost them on the only goal-----hello wake up call-- not practise-- real time.
What a wake up call. Thank you Gilbert, Franson etc

[Knuckles Muldoon]

The boys were real good. But I have no doubt they can play even better. MJ came out looking very good, rolling a lot of quality forwards out every shift. I had a slightly uneasy feeling even before they scored the opening goal. But after the Giants killed off the 5 on 3 after it was 1-0, one deflected puck by Brule changed the whole game for good. I was surprised he wasn't caught on his breakaway. I don't think of GB as beeing a fast player flat-out, but more quick and strong on his edges. But he outraced three guys and buried it. And from then on it was the Giants' night. My favourite play of the night was Bartley's sublime little backhand flip pass to Franson for the second goal. A thing of beauty. The Giants are incredible front-runners right now. And last night they were unfazed by falling behind early, too. As long as the boys keep their feet moving against MJ's plodding defense, they should be in good shape. They'll get plenty of chances. And what can you say about the D? Awesome is only word that comes to mind. All three pairings look terrific. Franson-Albers are All-World right now. Fisty-Blum are great (Blum was playing out of his head last night, IMO) and Fester-Scharffie are just plain solid. Fester has been excellent all year long. This group is playing great and seemingly only getting better, not wearing down at all. Slade was terrific, as he faced more scoring opportunities than he did in the Everett games. BIG glove save in the 2nd, along with a desperation dive across the crease to stop another. He is ON. Hayzer has got everything going just the way he wants right now. Good game for the foot-soldiers, too. Thought Parker and Watt really looked good.
As for MJ, its good to finally get a good look at them. They've got a lot of dangerous forwards, but that group didn't look to have a particularly good game last night. And what's with McCardell? He was more interested in sticking guys and yapping than he was in playing. If he hasn't got more than that, he'll be a non-factor altogether. At least Brouwer was out there battling and getting chances, but Kenndall was non-existent. Only noticed after a while that Boyd was out of the line-up. Did he go out in the first period? Second? Just noticed he wasn't around after a while. Can't necessarily blame Perricone on many of the goals. Brule breakaway. Franson on the doorstep. Brule rocket on the PP. Kraus and Albers both screened. I didn't think he was as bad as some others thought. but he sure is big in the net. Fat is more like it.
Looking forward to the Bigboys taking charge of this thing tonight and stepping on the plane with 2 wins in their backpockets. :thumb:

[Beaner]

Boyd left the game about the middle of the second period.

He tried to throw a hit on someone, which he did, but he ended up getting the worst of it and went off to the bench slowly with what looked like a shoulder problem. The hit was near the Giants bench along the boards.

[dondo]

Knuckles: paragraphs are your friend.. :thumb: I love the points you make but sometimes get lost in the massive block of text.

Anyway as you said - that flip pass by Bartley after maintaining possession with a nifty spin move was pure gold. That's how you create chances and Mitch had more than few of those last night.

Blum had a great night and Franson and Albers (Fralbers as the post show guys called them when recapping the three stars), were a single unit always managing to find one another.

Moose Jaw goal was beauty and Slade really had no chance. I was impressed how the Giants didn't let it get to them and went back to playing their game.

Brule was unreal last night and proved how valuable he really is - but mostly how capable is at taking over the game and then being generous when he doesn't need to take that kind of charge. I think Columbus got a steal to pick him at 6... I would have taken Brule over Marc Staal any day any time.

I'm looking forward to more of the same tonight, but if we sit back for a moment it feels like Moose Jaw might make us pay. Slade made a couple of statement saves, one of which wasn't even going to hit the net but rippled throught the crowd like it would have. Two glove saves, one off of McArdle to maintain the PK perfection for the team, and a nice quick glove (that said MINE) as he snatched the puck out of the air. He had some luck but he played his usual solid self.

Perricone was beat high, low and sideways and I don't know if we'll get those kinds of opportunites tonight as we did last night. However our traffic in front of the net helped a lot and our puck hunger was superb. Let's keep it rolling boys.

[langdak]

Brule was unreal last night and proved how valuable he really is - but mostly how capable is at taking over the game and then being generous when he doesn't need to take that kind of charge. I think Columbus got a steal to pick him at 6... I would have taken Brule over Marc Staal any day any time.




I am beyond confused at what you mean here

first off, you cant compare Brule and Staal, one is a forward, one is a Dman

secondly, marc staal didnt get picked until #12 in the draft

:confused:

[dondo]

so am I apparently.. it was more from a point of of taking the best player available - hey I'm old my memory's going ;) :skeptical

I still think that Brule is a better all-around player than Ryan or Pouliot - how's that. Anyway, I was pretty sure that Montreal would have selcted him, but I guess Carey Price was too tempting.

ignore my exmples for they are bogus.. but i don't think its such a stretch to compare a forward and d-man early in the draft as usually it'll be a matter of drafting the best player regardless of position.

I'm going to take a mulligan on that part of the post :turkey: <-- moi

[langdak]

so am I apparently.. it was more from a point of of taking the best player available - hey I'm old my memory's going ;) :skeptical

I still think that Brule is a better all-around player than Ryan or Pouliot - how's that. Anyway, I was pretty sure that Montreal would have selcted him, but I guess Carey Price was too tempting.

ignore my exmples for they are bogus.. but i don't think its such a stretch to compare a forward and d-man early in the draft as usually it'll be a matter of drafting the best player regardless of position.

I'm going to take a mulligan on that part of the post :turkey: <-- moi

my personal opinion on drafting at the NHL level is unless you have cleaned house previously, you take what you need ie; dman, forward or goalie unless somebody comes along that you just cant pass up........like Crosby

[Knuckles Muldoon]

Knuckles: paragraphs are your friend.. :thumb: I love the points you make but sometimes get lost in the massive block of text.
Paragraphs are like beers and steaks. I like 'em big. :clown:

[dondo]

hmmm.. I think because its so far down the road you might not know what your needs are in the future (unless you can draft a player that can slot into your line-up right away), so personally I would say that I would take the best player regardless of position.

[dondo]

Paragraphs are like beers and steaks. I like 'em big. :clown:

lol .. okay .. :laugh: me too except for the paragraph part :thumb:

[langdak]

hmmm.. I think because its so far down the road you might not know what your needs are in the future (unless you can draft a player that can slot into your line-up right away), so personally I would say that I would take the best player regardless of position.

Personally i think that applies more to the 2nd round or further down the draft

The first round in my opinion is to draft players who can make a semi-immediate impact on your club

[dondo]

I agree for the top ten (if they can slot into your line-up right away, or maybe even one year away), but later in the first ropund I think you are expecting to find players that are contributers, but might still need a bit of development. But this can be argued back and forth, its a matter of preference I suppose.

Anyway the whole point was that Brule will be an effective player at all ends of the ice, has a wicked shot and is a team player and I think down the road he'll end up being the gem of the draft (other than Crosby of course), where-as Pouliot and Ryan might not bring all that to the table. But then again I am biased and haven't watched Ryan or Pouliot live much - except maybe during the Top prospects game (not sure if either of them were in the line-up) and it was Brule who shone that night, and McArdle funnily enough.