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Sput
10-14-2006, 10:42 AM
Courtesy of: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/

Saturday, October 14, 2006
Cyr shines in win against Tigers
Citizen staff

Real Cyr proved he’s ready to be the No. 1 goaltender for the Prince George Cougars.

Cyr, thrust into the job after the team released Scott Bowles on Thursday to get down to the roster limit of three overagers, was at times spectacular during a 3-2 Friday night road victory against the Medicine Hat Tigers. Cyr, 19, faced 40 shots and allowed just the two goals. He was picked as the game’s first star.

“I was obviously impressed with Real,” said Cougars head coach Mike Vandekamp. “I think everybody fought hard (but) you need goaltending to win on the road too. He did his job.

“He’s a better goaltender when he’s calm in his net and he didn’t get too scrambly. You didn’t see him leave his net a lot to play pucks.

“He stuck to his net, he was good in tight on the scramble situations — he took away the bottom (of the net). He made about five really big saves and that’s kind of obviously the difference between winning and losing.”

Just one example of Cyr’s Friday night brilliance came moments after Prince George forward Dana Tyrell had scored to give the Cats a 2-1 lead mid-way through the second period. With Tyler Swystun breaking in on him, Cyr flashed his glove to take away a goal from the Tigers’ forward, who came into the game 11th in league scoring with four goals and 11 points in eight games.

Swystun was a first-round draft pick of the Cougars in 2003 but never played a game for Prince George. Instead, the Airdrie, Alta., native chose to play in the Alberta Junior Hockey League with the Camrose Kodiaks and then accepted a scholarship at the University of Michigan. At the end of August, the Cougars sent Swystun’s playing rights to the Tigers, in exchange for 20-year-old forward Brett Robertson.

Eric Hunter opened the scoring for the Cougars at the 5:25 mark of the first period while on a power play. Hunter’s goal was his third of the season, assisted by Ty Wishart and Devin Setoguchi. For Setoguchi, the helper was his first point as a Cougar.

Derek Dorsett tied the game for the Tigers later in the first, set up by former Prince George Spruce Kings forward Chris Stevens.

Tyrell’s goal, his second of the year, was the only one of the middle frame.

In the third, with 10:40 gone, Jared Walker connected for his fourth goal of the season. Walker finished off a two-on-one break with Nick Drazenovic, who also helped out on Tyrell’s goal. Kris Russell completed the scoring for the Tigers just 33 seconds after the Walker shot found the mark behind Tigers’ netminder Matt Keetley. Russell’s shot was a soft one from his spot on the blueline, but, after that, Cyr made a few more big stops to preserve the victory.

On the night, the Cougars were outshot 40-26. Prince George was 1-for-6 on the power play and held Medicine Hat scoreless on six man-advantage opportunities.

The win for the Cougars, now 3-4-0-1 on the season, came after four consecutive home-ice setbacks. The Tigers, meanwhile, dropped to 6-3-0-0. The game was the first of a six-game road trip for the Cougars. Tonight, they face off against the Lethbridge Hurricanes and, on Sunday, they skate against the Kootenay Ice.

n The Cougars played Friday night without the services of four injured players. Chris Vanduynhoven (hand, one week), Jesse Dudas (hand, two weeks), Dan Gendur (ankle, two weeks) and Vladimir Mihalik (shoulder, one week) all missed the game.

Sput
10-14-2006, 10:58 AM
Two things come to mind after listening to the game last night. First...it sounded like the forwards were coming back hard and helping out the defense a lot more than they were before. It seemed like a team effort out there, and maybe now the guys will settle down and play as a team. The second thing is the play of Cyr. I hope the kid makes Swanson eat his words. In an editorial yesterday he basically said that Cyr wasn't going to be the go to guy, that the team wouldn't go anywhere simply based o the fact that Real doesn't have any playoff experience. If the team settles down and plays infront of Cyr, he will make the big stops when he has to. MH's second goal aside, it sounded like he played an awsome game.

Hopefully someone from the Hat can help me out here. How did the Hunter, Setoguchi, Robertson line look? Was it as good as the pbp guy made it sound? The way the lines were laid out last night, Mike seems to have found some chemistry with his forwards, and got some good matchups as well as spreading the scoring potential out more.

Game one of a tough road trip is over, and I can only hope the guys got their differences figured out and are going to play like a team from now on. It would be great to come home 4 and 2, or even 5 and 1 on this six game trip.

PGFlyfisher
10-14-2006, 04:08 PM
We listened to the game last night as well. Sure sounded like Cyr stole the show. He was, IMO, solely the difference. Could have been a nasty loss in a big way as MH had a ton of shots, which many sounded like quality chances.

If the boys are going to keep allowing 40+ shots against every game, they had better start finding a way to start putting up 40+ themselves. I don' t believe any goalie in the Dub, no matter how good, can take those numbers game in and game out.

On the bright side, it sounded like the boys played a little more like a team. Hopefully they can build on this win ( fortunate as it was) and start gaining a little more confidence.

CatFan
10-14-2006, 04:30 PM
The Setoguchi line was very good, but on the whole it looks like the Cougars have great team speed. They could probably use some work defensively, but still a very good road effort. Cyr was great, and probably was the main difference. But to be fair I thought the Tigers should have buried some of their chances, and their timing was off. The Cougars were also all blocking shots, and taking the body making it tough on our smaller forwards.

puckcollector
10-15-2006, 12:17 AM
Courtesy of: http://www.medicinehatnews.com/

Cyr the Real deal
By COLLIN GALLANT
Oct 14, 2006, 23:34


Real Cyr didn’t have to be spectacular, but he was solid enough to help his Prince George Cougars down the Medicine Hat Tigers 3-2 at The Arena Friday night.
The Cougars goaltender had a solid outing making 38 saves in his team’s victory. The Victoire, Sask. product was quick to credit his defencemen and forwards for limiting the number of real good chances the home side had before a sellout crowd of 4,006 fans.
“They were keeping them to the outside,” said Cyr, whose team has a 4-4 record in their last eight visits to The Arena. “I was trying to keep my rebounds in front of me close or in the corners.
“I felt pretty good right off the bat. I was into it early. Things just started going my way.
“They have a skilled team. I had help from a couple of goalposts.”
Even though his team came out on the wrong end of the scoreboard, Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins felt his team had a lot of positives as they outshot the Cougars 40-26. He believes his team did show a lot of fight in a game that saw only a combined 12 power-play chances with a one-referee system.
“We had lots of chances to score,” said Desjardins. “When something bad happened, we came back with a good shift.
“We have to come out with good things before bad things happen.”
Prince George drew first blood in Friday’s contest on their first power play. Cougars captain Eric Hunter potted a rebound from a point shot by defenceman Ty Wishart for his third goal of the year.
The Tigers tied the game about four minutes later with a goal by right-winger Derek Dorsett.
Cougars 17-year-old left-winger Dana Tyrell scored the only goal in the second period to give his squad a 2-1 edge.
Medicine Hat did have a great chance to tie the game on a power play opportunity about three minutes past the midpoint in the middle frame. Rookie Tigers centre Tyler Swystun had the puck sliding towards his stick during a net scramble on a power play. He had an open net to shoot into and Cyr was down and out of the play. Cougars defenceman Curtis Patterson cross-checked Swystun before he could shoot. Patterson was penalized, but the Cougars killed the penalty to keep the edge.
Situations like that added to a frustrating offensive night for the Tigers.
“It feels pretty bad right now,” said Tigers forward Darren Helm. “To say everyone is pretty disappointed is an understatement.
“We have to start burying our chances, when we have opportunities.”
The Cougars went up 3-1 at the 10:40 mark of the third, when centre Jared Walker converted a great pass from linemate Nick Drazenovic on a 2-on-1 break.
The Tigers did try to rally. Captain Kris Russell scored about a minute later. Late in the frame, Dorsett had a breakaway chance, but Cyr swallowed up the shot.
The Cougars, who ended a four-game losing skid, tightened up defensively in the game’s final five minutes and their defence delivered some hard hits to both Dorsett and Tigers overage left-winger Chris Stevens. Both had to be iced down after the game.
“They definitely played a little bit better in the last five minutes defensively,” said Helm. “There is not much more to say about that.”