Blades VS Wheatkings (3-2 Kings) game story

[Tidball]

Blades played flat footed for the first 50 minutes. However Blades were lucky to get a goal as Cameron was about to go off for a line change he decided to wrist shot it from the blue line.... Somehow it went in with no traffic at all. Brandon scored to tie it at 2. Then just a few seconds later they scored again with a 2 on 1..... Reaves pretty much ran into holtby shortly after directing a pass into the goal. They made it 3-1 with a juicy rebound goal. However the Blades made it interesting with Rastislav Konecny tucking one in form a nice pass by gillies form behind the net,..... so so game.

[howley]

Pregame -
Wasn't much of a pregame. I sat in my seat about 30 seconds before puck drop. I did realize a problem though. Somewhere in the city some wires must of got crossed and everyone thought that it was the playoffs. Nearly 6000 people out to the game tonight. I haven't seen the CUC that full George Strait. Good to see.

Scratches for the Blades
Panchyson - resting shoulder
Zahn - Back pain

Scratches for the Wheaties
N/A (cause I don't know)

1st Period
Nothing...the period was controlled by Brandon. Most of it was spent in the Neutral Zone or in the Blades end. At times Brandon just looked a few steps ahead on everything, winning virtually every battle, stealing the puck off of the stick, through it all they only recored 13 shots. The best chance came on a breakaway (Topilko I beleive...could be wrong). He made a nice move but Holtby won the battle kicking out his pad and making an extremely nice save, not to mention saving the rebound as well. Again...Holtby's quick and incredible positioning...(for the most part). I thought the Blades would be shooting from everywhere knowing it was Caligiuri's first career game. But there was nothing. Stat's sheet says 7 shots in the first. The statisticians were either drunk or giant homer's cause I have no idea where 7 shots came from. Most likely dump in's. He had no decent shots on him all period.

2nd period.
4 minutes in Cameron steps over the blue line and fires a slow wrister at the net. Zero traffic in front. Caligiuri went into the butterfly. From my angle it appeared the puck got caught in Caligiuri's pads. Then the fans behind the net start going crazy. GOAL CAMERON. First career whl goal. Very weak through the five hole. 1-0. The next few shots are crucial. 1 minute later Yeo picks up a cross checking minor. Should be 2-0 in the next few minutes. But wait...to score you have to shoot which the Blades failed to do in their first three powerplays.

The TSN Turning point
of the game came about half way through the 2nd with the Wheaties on the PK and caught in a bad line change Holtby hussles the puck up to the wheaties blue line to menei who comes in 2-0 with Mccrae. Mark Lewis is the first one off the bench busting his anus to get back into the play. Menei feels the pressure and chokes! TERRIBLY! Getting in way to deep and never getting a shot off. Andrew Clark picks it up and throws it ahead to Reaves who is now somehow coming down 2-1 one against the Blades (on the PP). Reaves obvioulsy watched some game tape on Holtby knowing if you want to score throw it high blocker. He does exactly that with a bullet shot. 1-1. Reaves shoulder looks ok. He had been invisible on the ice up until now.
1:30 seconds later Derlargo is streaking down the right wing with the puck. Reaves heads to the net and Derlargo throws a picture perfect pass onto Reaves stick for his second goal of the night and his season. Just like that 2 - 1
Credit Mark Lewis (great defensive game) with this momentum change.

Caligiuri made some nice saves in the second. Highlight save of the night for the rookie would have to be the point blank slap shot from Bohdan Visnak that Caligiuri got a piece of his glove on to save a sure goal and keep the Blades from extending their only lead of the night.

3rd
4 mins in the puck is thrown in front of the net. It bounces off a few bodies before settling at the side of the yawning cage for Derlargo to put home. Reaves and Kohn (another player with a great defensive game tonight). Reaves picks up his 3rd point on the night.

The game is nearly over and ppl are leaving their seats as Colton Gillies takes a tripping penalty with just over three minutes left in the game. His penalty is killed off and they have a PP or about 1 minute which they take full advantage of. A beautiful pass from behind the net right to Konecny who puts it just inside the post to make it 3-2 with 30 seconds left. To little to late as they say as the Blades did not produce a shot in the final 30 seconds and the Wheaties come out victorious.

Overall
Not a bad hockey game. Not physical at all. Wheat Kings are fast (compared to the Blades anyways). Holtby had some struggles handling the puck tonight (behind the net espescially) Overall he looked to be good though. Caligiuri had a solid WHL debut stopping 23 of 25. He wasn't tested to much but when he was he stood strong.

Blades standouts:
Macangus had to shifts in a row where he got levelled. 1 coming cross ice another one he wasn't tight along the boards. Both he bounced right up. Ryan Funk showed very good hustle tonight. The few mistakes he made he skated like mad to get back into the play and break it up. Brett Ward made a few mistakes. He could of prevented the second goal but live and learn. Konecny had an ok game and Macauley again played well. Cole, Logan looked good on D.

Wheaties standouts:
Well Reaves put up three points. So he obviously had a good game. I was impressed that Mark Louis was picked as third star as I think he was the best defenseman on the ice tonight. Burki showed why he'll be wearing an Av's jersey some day. Dittmer skated around a few guys and Simek made me say "wow" a couple of times.

Brandon should battle for first in the div. this year after watching them play tonight.

Done.

[GOBLADESGO#3 (among other aliases)]

Pregame -
Wasn't much of a pregame. I sat in my seat about 30 seconds before puck drop. I did realize a problem though. Somewhere in the city some wires must of got crossed and everyone thought that it was the playoffs. Nearly 6000 people out to the game tonight. I haven't seen the CUC that full George Strait. Good to see.

Scratches for the Blades
Panchyson - resting shoulder
Zahn - Back pain

Scratches for the Wheaties
N/A (cause I don't know)

1st Period
Nothing...the period was controlled by Brandon. Most of it was spent in the Neutral Zone or in the Blades end. At times Brandon just looked a few steps ahead on everything, winning virtually every battle, stealing the puck off of the stick, through it all they only recored 13 shots. The best chance came on a breakaway (Topilko I beleive...could be wrong). He made a nice move but Holtby won the battle kicking out his pad and making an extremely nice save, not to mention saving the rebound as well. Again...Holtby's quick and incredible positioning...(for the most part). I thought the Blades would be shooting from everywhere knowing it was Caligiuri's first career game. But there was nothing. Stat's sheet says 7 shots in the first. The statisticians were either drunk or giant homer's cause I have no idea where 7 shots came from. Most likely dump in's. He had no decent shots on him all period.

2nd period.
4 minutes in Cameron steps over the blue line and fires a slow wrister at the net. Zero traffic in front. Caligiuri went into the butterfly. From my angle it appeared the puck got caught in Caligiuri's pads. Then the fans behind the net start going crazy. GOAL CAMERON. First career whl goal. Very weak through the five hole. 1-0. The next few shots are crucial. 1 minute later Yeo picks up a cross checking minor. Should be 2-0 in the next few minutes. But wait...to score you have to shoot which the Blades failed to do in their first three powerplays.

The TSN Turning point
of the game came about half way through the 2nd with the Wheaties on the PK and caught in a bad line change Holtby hussles the puck up to the wheaties blue line to menei who comes in 2-0 with Mccrae. Mark Lewis is the first one off the bench busting his anus to get back into the play. Menei feels the pressure and chokes! TERRIBLY! Getting in way to deep and never getting a shot off. Andrew Clark picks it up and throws it ahead to Reaves who is now somehow coming down 2-1 one against the Blades (on the PP). Reaves obvioulsy watched some game tape on Holtby knowing if you want to score throw it high blocker. He does exactly that with a bullet shot. 1-1. Reaves shoulder looks ok. He had been invisible on the ice up until now.
1:30 seconds later Derlargo is streaking down the right wing with the puck. Reaves heads to the net and Derlargo throws a picture perfect pass onto Reaves stick for his second goal of the night and his season. Just like that 2 - 1
Credit Mark Lewis (great defensive game) with this momentum change.

Caligiuri made some nice saves in the second. Highlight save of the night for the rookie would have to be the point blank slap shot from Bohdan Visnak that Caligiuri got a piece of his glove on to save a sure goal and keep the Blades from extending their only lead of the night.

3rd
4 mins in the puck is thrown in front of the net. It bounces off a few bodies before settling at the side of the yawning cage for Derlargo to put home. Reaves and Kohn (another player with a great defensive game tonight). Reaves picks up his 3rd point on the night.

The game is nearly over and ppl are leaving their seats as Colton Gillies takes a tripping penalty with just over three minutes left in the game. His penalty is killed off and they have a PP or about 1 minute which they take full advantage of. A beautiful pass from behind the net right to Konecny who puts it just inside the post to make it 3-2 with 30 seconds left. To little to late as they say as the Blades did not produce a shot in the final 30 seconds and the Wheaties come out victorious.

Overall
Not a bad hockey game. Not physical at all. Wheat Kings are fast (compared to the Blades anyways). Holtby had some struggles handling the puck tonight (behind the net espescially) Overall he looked to be good though. Caligiuri had a solid WHL debut stopping 23 of 25. He wasn't tested to much but when he was he stood strong.

Blades standouts:
Macangus had to shifts in a row where he got levelled. 1 coming cross ice another one he wasn't tight along the boards. Both he bounced right up. Ryan Funk showed very good hustle tonight. The few mistakes he made he skated like mad to get back into the play and break it up. Brett Ward made a few mistakes. He could of prevented the second goal but live and learn. Konecny had an ok game and Macauley again played well. Cole, Logan looked good on D.

Wheaties standouts:
Well Reaves put up three points. So he obviously had a good game. I was impressed that Mark Louis was picked as third star as I think he was the best defenseman on the ice tonight. Burki showed why he'll be wearing an Av's jersey some day. Dittmer skated around a few guys and Simek made me say "wow" a couple of times.

Brandon should battle for first in the div. this year after watching them play tonight.

Done.

mhmmmm Todd Panchyson is stiiiil out?!?, well I listened to the game and from what i heard Camerons goal was lucky, seems everything the Blades do this season is considered lucky, Blades lead 1-0 about 0.9 seconds later they seem to be down 2-1 somehow, anyways they needed to play Holtby against SC, or at least in the shootout so the Blades actually had a chance at winning!.

[wango tango]

mhmmmm Todd Panchyson is stiiiil out?!?, well I listened to the game and from what i heard Camerons goal was lucky, seems everything the Blades do this season is considered lucky, Blades lead 1-0 about 0.9 seconds later they seem to be down 2-1 somehow, anyways they needed to play Holtby against SC, or at least in the shootout so the Blades actually had a chance at winning!.

panchyson played against the ice. his shoulder is still tender so he will not get regular duty until it's back all the way.

camerons goal was the product of little rubber on the brandon goalie, and it also being the brandon goalies first career whl start. the blades didn't put near enough shots on him.

the blades did seem to be slow footed. three games in four nights will do that to you.

reeves first goal for brandon a great shot and a poor play by holtby. he has to start working on his angles with wingers coming off the walls.

if the blades would have scored on the 2 on oh in the second, different game. reeves comes back to tie it at one.

still the blades scored late to make it close and just didn't get the puck where it needed to be to tie it up.

the power play continues to look bad.

[GOBLADESGO#3 (among other aliases)]

I am sorry in my post i forgot to see congrats to Dustin Cameron for his first career WHL goal, congrats man.

[Blades 4 Life!]

ya i tolltaly missed the goal i was talking with my friends and they scored but ya a goal is a goal.

[GOBLADESGO#3 (among other aliases)]

From what i heard from Les it seemed to be a flook goal that just happened to find its way in from the blue line

[GOBLADESGO#3 (among other aliases)]

From what i heard from Les it seemed to be a flook goal that just happened to find its way in from the blue line.

[Blades 4 Life!]

ya even on the jumbotrone the person that was holding the camera couldn't keep forcus on the puck.

[Tidball]

Most people just dump the puck in and go for a line change, Cameron thought "what the hell" and gave a little wrist shot(knowing if it was stopped there were both D and 2 forwards still on the ice) and it snuck in. Kinda funny that i started cheering before Cameron put his stick up. Fluke goals count too. Wayne Gretzky once said "I scored 0 goals on the 100 shots i didnt take"

[Blades 4 Life!]

The Blades need to take more shots, every so many games they might get a lucky goal which could win them the game.