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Sput
10-05-2006, 09:23 AM
Swansons recap from http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/

Thursday, October 5, 2006



Colosal collapse
Cats blow late three-goal lead, lose in shootout

by JIM SWANSON Citizen Sports Editor

Well, that started with a bang, didn’t it?

Ended with a shot, too. A shootout shot.

The Vancouver Giants scored three power-play goals in the final five minutes of the third period Wednesday at CN Centre and then won hockey’s version of a free-throw shooting contest. That left the Prince George Cougars wondering how a late 4-1 lead equaled but one point in the standings, a 5-4 shootout final in Vancouver’s favour.

It was one of those nights the building’s name fit the Cougars' collapse — a sudden and unforeseen derailment.

"It’s probably good they won in a shootout — they played better than we did and they deserved the extra point, to be honest," said Cougars head coach Mike Vandekamp, steaming over the giveaways and soft plays made by his depleted defence corps. The APB is out for Ty Wishart and Jesse Dudas, the Cats' top injured rearguards, to make speedy recoveries.

"It would’ve been tough to sell it to our guys how much better we need to be if we had snuck two points out of that game," Vandekamp said. "We’re scrambly on the back end right now and they were coming at us in waves. We made soft play after soft play, and when you’re trapped in your own end that long eventually the penalty trouble is going to come just because of the territorial advantage they have.

"Our back end is not a pretty sight right now. I was happy with some of our D, but some of the other guys have to pick up the intensity level."

J.D. Watt’s shootout goal allowed the Giants, crowned Wednesday as the top-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League, to improve to 6-0-0-0, tops in the B.C. Division. It also gave Vancouver head coach Don Hay his 300th victory in a celebrated WHL career.

The Cougars, who surrendered 54 shots on goal, sit at 2-2-0-1. Real Cyr was looking frail after facing so much rubber in the Prince George nets, including 18 in the second and 21 in the third.

By comparison, Cyr’s counterpart, Tyson Sexsmith, allowed four goals on 17 shots on untilted ice.

"I’ve never faced more shots than that," said Cyr, who knows these games are important for him to secure the starting job.

"Vancouver always gets a lot of shots. They shoot from everywhere and run the net, that’s what they pride themselves on. It worked for them tonight."

Back to the opening faceoff.

It took all of two seconds for the Cougars and Giants to put their division rivalry on display, with flyweights Dana Tyrell and Garet Hunt, the Vancouver winger quickly becoming the most hated skater in the rival rinks, dropping lids and gloves and trading blows in a lengthy bout.

Then, it took all of 21 seconds after the scrap for the Cougars to show they planned to score not just with fists, but with goals. Brett Robertson deposited a juicy rebound for his fourth of the year after a cleaver bad-angle feed from Jared Walker.

Eric Hunter made it 2-0 Prince George on a power play, and Cyr was left to do the rest. Cody Franson of the Giants ended Cyr’s shutout bid toward the end of the second period, but what was set up as a one-goal battle through the third was eliminated when the Cougars got redirection goals from two defencemen — Lance Redden, with his first in the league, and Kalvin Sagert — to take that insurmountable 4-1 lead.

Some roadblock that was.

Kyle Lamb, one of four 20-year-olds still with the Giants, scored on his team’s 47th shot. After two more power-play goals, by Tim Kraus and Mario Bliznak, the defending WHL champs, this year’s Memorial Cup hosts, steered the game to a scoreless overtime period.

Nick Drazenovic, back from a rib injury with two assists, scored once in the shootout for the Cougars, but it wasn’t enough to counter goals by Franson and Watt.

"We never gave up – we kept working, and got rewarded for it," said Hay, who has coached Kamloops, Tri-City and Vancouver in the WHL, including two Memorial Cup wins with the Blazers.

"Cyr was really good. We weren’t getting a lot of second and third shots, and we wore him down. He deserves a lot of credit. It’s funny, we used to see it a lot in junior hockey where no lead was ever safe, but nowadays everyone seems able to shut the other team down and things like that don’t happen as much as it did in the past."

KITTY LITTER – Devin Setoguchi, added by the Cats on Wednesday, hopes to arrive in time to see Friday’s rematch between the Cougars and Giants. Because of a knee injury, don’t expect him to play until the following Friday when the Cats start a road trip in Medicine Hat... Power plays finished 3-9 for Vancouver and 2-5 for Prince George... Drazenovic played his first game of the season after missing four with a broken rib. He gave his coaches a scare when he was crunched into the boards in front of the Cougars bench in the third period, but remained in the game.

langdak
10-05-2006, 01:17 PM
I think Swanson may have jinx'd your Cougs.

In the 2nd intermission last night, the giants guys had Swanson on the radio doing an interview and they were talking about the game.

Swanson mentioned that the game started with a bang and would probably end with another bang, explaining the 2nd bang would be the Giants 24 game winning streak against WHL teams finally getting broken.

Just thought I would add that in there as probably most Cougar fans wouldnt have listened to the Giants radio PBP.

Cougar Guy
10-05-2006, 05:05 PM
Not surprising. I think many times Swanson speaks just to hear his own voice and writes just to read his own print :D

langdak
10-05-2006, 05:30 PM
Not surprising. I think many times Swanson speaks just to hear his own voice and writes just to read his own print :D


I think there are a lot of guys out there like him.

I am not passing judgement on the guy because last night was the first time i had ever heard him speak and i am not trying to open up a can of worms, but in my opinion he did sound a tad pompous.

I guess as long as those types of people figure they are good and have convinced themselves of that, thats all that counts. :D:D

KBF
10-05-2006, 05:31 PM
I think there are a lot of guys out there like him.

I am not passing judgement on the guy because last night was the first time i had ever heard him speak and i am not trying to open up a can of worms, but in my opinion he did sound a tad pompous.

I guess as long as those types of people figure they are good and have convinced themselves of that, thats all that counts. :D:D



Thats what I said, Swanson comes off as a idiot in his articles.