Rockets 1 @ Giants 4 Oct. 27th

[Beaner]

Well that was interesting. A dominating performance by the Giants tonight, but considering that they spent 90% of the second period on the PP, one would expect that. Westbloom tonight was simply amazing, stopping a total of 53 shots, with 27 of 28 saves in the second period alone. It was really the Kris Westbloom show tonight he put on a real clinic.

NOTES
Slade and Westbloom got the starts
Togio, Cunningham and Bouma were the Giants scratches
Flatters left the game in the 1st period after taking a skate to the head, suspected concussion he did not return.
Dowzak left the game in the second period after taking a puck to the face.
Shots 53-13 Giants
PP Kelowna 0/5 Giants 2/13

GOALS
1. VAN Franson, (4) (Blum, Reese), 9:59 (PP) 5-3, Reese up to Blum, over to Franson who snaps a shot from the top of the circle that beats Westbloom
2. VAN Festerling, (1) (Blum, Lucic), 16:33 (PP) 5-4, Festerling with the point shot that beats Westbloom shortside.
3. VAN Hunt, (3) (Dulle), 12:32 Strange one as Hutn jut throws a puck on net from behind the goal line in the corner that sneaks in and beats Westbloom short side.
3. KEL Bloodoff, (3) , 17:39 (SH) 4-5, Blum mishandles a puck at the blue line and Bloodoff goes in all alone and he snaps one right thru the wickets.
3. VAN Watt, (10) (Festerling), 19:22 Didnt see how this went in, but it was a cross crease pass that JD deflected in. Shure looked like he kicked it from my angle, but the Ref disagrees.

FISTICUFFS
HUNT vs ALMOND
Right off the opening these 2 decide to go and its a good one. Almond gets a couple early shots in that land square but Hunt turns it up a notch and catches Almond with numerous shots in a very long fight. Big win for Hunt that set the tone of the game early. WIN: HUNT

LUCIC vs McEWAN
Off a face off at the end of the game these 2 decide to go and the square up and get ready to exchange bombs. All Lucic as he catches McEwan early and hard and rocks him a few times, before the linesmen step in and stop it before McEwan gets hit more. Looked like Lucic let up on him after the 3rd or 4th hit. WIN LUCIC

OFFICIATING
Papp and Smith tonight. Ok and let me start by saying if I was a Kelowna fan I would be madder than hell. 9 PP's against int he second period alone is a bit crazy. That being said, Kelowna was just playing stupid in the second period. Punching guys well after the whistle, etc. There were 2 obvious calls in the second that the refs didnt call, the slash on Barthel that wasnt called, but they somehow caught Barthels slash, and when Machacek dropped his gloves to get in a fight. Both those should have been called on the Giants but for whatever reason they were not.

OVERALL
2 Stories tonight. 1 - The unbelieveable play of Westbloom. A True goaltending clinic, he gave his team a chance to win a game they had no business being in. 2- The complete lack of discipline shown by the Rockets in the second. Almost cost them the game, but great goaltending kept them in it.

Giants had lots of great challenges but Westbloom was just that good tonight. He really was the story of the game.

And thats 10 wins in a row on home ice to start the year.

3 STARS
1. KEL - 30 Kristofer Westblom
2. VAN - 6 Cody Franson
3. VAN - 15 Spencer Machacek

OTHER

Forgot the exact total, but the Giants Fans raised aprox. 3300$ for the Garrett Robinson fund tonight, which the Giants are going to match, bringing a grand total of aprox 6,600$ raised for the Robinsons.

Great job to all who supported the fundraiser, and to the Giants orginization for matching it. :thumb:

[langdak]

3. VAN Watt, (10) (Festerling), 19:22 Didnt see how this went in, but it was a cross crease pass that JD deflected in. Shure looked like he kicked it from my angle, but the Ref disagrees.




He kicked it in the net, not sure how 1 of the 4 officials didnt catch it but oh well.............1 point for the convert :D

[Beaner]

He kicked it in the net, not sure how 1 of the 4 officials didnt catch it but oh well.............1 point for the convert :D

Brutal. Thats what we all thought, but the Ref was sure convinced it was a goal.

No wonder Westbloom was so mad.

[rinkrat]

27 of 28 saves in the second period alone. It was really the Kris Westbloom show tonight he put on a real clinic.


I got the puck from the second period shot barrage! The linesman threw it up as he left the ice.
My son(the Rocket fan) grabbed it and was going to throw it at the now empty net,for a shot on goal!!LOL :spineyes:

[Knuckles Muldoon]

Hated the game. A complete waste of time. The reffing leaves me speechless. There's nothing I can say about that mess. Westblom was great, but the Giants let him off the hook with some poor shooting. If they had been sharp they could have easily had 70 shots on goal, as they continually missed the net on point shots. The Giants worked hard, but were poor with the puck. The PP is horrible these days. The forwards aren't moving and the Dmen all look confused. Mikkelson is a disaster out there on the point. That drag wrist shot is a joke. It takes him so long to get rid of it, its getting blocked way too often. It hardly ever gets through to the net. I know I probably shouldn't be, but I'm really getting down on Mikk's play outside of his own end. He just doesn't see the ice very well and his work on the PP is abysmal, IMO. And to further add to the problems on the PP, Blum and Regner have shots that couldn't break a pane of glass, and everyone knows it. The only guy who has any idea about shooting is Franson, and he's missing the net as often as he hits it.
In general, though, the team is a skating, grinding machine. I'd hate to play against them because they know what they're doing and never let up. The Rockets had no hope of winning that game, as the Giants skated them into submission. I love the continued work ethic, if not the play with the puck, which has been uninspiring as of late.
I don't know, maybe its a good thing that the team will be out of town for a few weeks. The product has been bothering me the last 4 or 5 games. Not with the players, but with the reffing. We're watching a brilliant hockey team, but the game experience is sadly lacking. The Dub should be embarrassed by this ongoing fiasco.

[dj-kris]

Hated the game. A complete waste of time. The reffing leaves me speechless. There's nothing I can say about that mess.
thats smith for you

[dondo]

Beaner - Westblom faced 53 shots and stopped 49 :thumb: :D

An odd one alright. The ref for the Watt goal was standing right behind the net and saw the whole thing. I was slightly blocked, but from my perspective the puck could have gone off the shin of the other leg not kicking, but it was a very definite kicking motion from the one foot. Considering the way the game was going it could easily have been waived off.

I thought the hockey was okay tonight, as neither team really gave-up, but the Kelowna team did take some sloppy and lazy penalties, but I'm sure there are at least a couple of more which could have been called against us -- the two that Beaner mentioned being two.

anyway here's my recap - enjoy.



Giants Shell Rockets
Vancouver 4 Kelowna 1

On the Friday night before Halloween the Giants got a treat and a bit of a trick as well. The ice was distinctly tilted toward the Kelowna end all night long as the Okanagan squad took penalty after penalty, which was the Giants treat but the trick was Kristofer Westblom who turned away 49 shots in the loss and out and out robbed more than a few Giants players throughout the game. To illustrate this point, in the second alone the Giants peppered the Rocket net with 28 shots, while holding the visitors to zero shots and came away with only one goal.

The game started with a bang as Garet Hunt was busy yapping prior to the drop of the puck at Cody Almond. The two doffed the lids and shed the gloves 4 secs into the game and went at it. Hunt got some shots in early, but Almond did not go down and fed a few back, but in the end even after the combatants smashed one another up against the glass, Hunt came away with the marginal victory. The Giants took the first couple of penalties after it appeared that the refs were going to let some calls go early in the game, but after that it was all Kelowna until the end of the first when Franson garnered a double minor for high-sticking on an incredibly late call, with the whistle blowing after the Giants handled the puck for several seconds and got off a shot, confusing the fans as to who was being sent off the ice. The G-Men got on the board mid-way through the first on the Giants first 5 on 3. Jason Reese, who had pretty soft night over-all shying away from giving and receiving checks, got the puck back to Jonathon Blum who fed it across to Franson for the one-timer. The puck found its way through traffic to the twine and Westblom didn’t see it until it was in the net. The home team out-shot the visitors 12 to 4 in the first and ended up 1-0 for their efforts.

The second was crazy as the Rockets spent almost the entire period on the PK. They gave the Giants 8 PP chances in the second to their 1. Its lucky Westblom was between the pipes because although the G-Men didn’t have consistent traffic in front of the Rocket ‘tender they managed to fire 28 shots on him and hold the opposing players to the goose egg. The Giants would squeeze only one puck past Westblom in the middle stanza at 16:33 of the period, on the PP of course. This time Milan Lucic got the puck to Blum, who would garner his second assist of the night off the play. Blum drifted the puck across to Brent Festerling and the usually defensive minded D snapped the puck into the back of the net to put the G-Men up by two. Once again Westblom probably never saw the shot, as he seemed to be stopping everything he did see.

The Rockets seeing that they were still only down by two played a better game in the third hustling to the puck and taking less of those lazy and careless penalties against. They would also manage to past double digits on the shot clock as they threw 9 shots on the Vancouver net. The G-Men would put the score up another notch off of some great forechecking by Dulle, Hunt and Wright, who were an energetic fourth line and played a perfect grinding game in the corners. Dulle worked the puck out to Hunt who was standing virtually on the goal-line below the face-off circle. Westblom, with one of his only misplays of the game, cheated for the pass and was surprised when Hunt rifled it behind him from the sharp angle for the Vancouver squad’s third goal of the game. Dustin Slade must’ve been falling asleep as the Kelowna team managed to squeeze a very soft goal five-hole off of a short-handed breakaway to ruin his shut-out bid, but that’s as close as the Rockets would get on this night. The Giants took the play back down into the Rocket zone and with time ticking down JD Watt would storm the net and appeared to kick in a puck off of a nice feed from Festerling. There was a definite kicking motion but from my angle the puck could actually have gone off JD’s opposite shin pad from the kicking skate. Surprisingly, the ref was right there and emphatically pointed at the net to indicate a goal, so it’s possible it went off of the other leg. It was an odd one tonight and I don’t think I have ever seen a second period like the one I watched tonight as Westblom made some sparkling saves and put the thought of Kelowna keeping Yeomans out of my mind completely, very deservedly earning the first star in the process.

The Giants went 2 for 13 on the PP, while holding their opponent 0 for 5. The shots by the end would be 53-13 for the Vancouver squad and if not for the stellar play and quick glove of Westblom probably would have got more than four goals against. The Rockets are sporting a good goal tandem of Kristofer Westblom and young rookie ‘tender Torrie Jung who lit up the lower levels last season. They have lost a lot of their veteran fire-power and have a young defensive crew, but they played a hard Jeff Truitt kind of game and were actively blocking shots and clearing lanes for the majority of the evening. Seems hard to believe but it was good hockey tonight as the effort was there for both squads, but the Giants pressure and their defensive prowess held the Rocket players at bay. In other fisticuffs, Milan Lucic crushed James McEwan in fight late in the third as the Rocket player took a flurry of shots to a point where he had to hang for dear life to stop the beating – oddly this was prior to the Rockets getting their shorthanded goal.

The Giants are about to embark on an extended road trip, which should test their mettle against the four Alberta teams and the Spokane Chiefs who are struggling on special teams at the moment. The G-Men are hoping to bond further while on the road, and they begin their journey tomorrow night (Sat. Oct 28th) in Spokane before taking a scenic tour through the central division challenging all the Alberta teams in the process. The Giants are currently on a 10 game winning streak at the Coliseum and have only lost once away from their barn this season and they boast a remarkable 14 0 1 0 record as of this evening.

Puck drops in Spokane 7pm MDT, 7pm PDT. Make a note that daylight saving time ends as of Sunday Oct 29th – so all the other games will be around 6pm PST, and 7pm MST. Also note that the Friday Nov 3rd game versus Medicine Hat will be shown on Shaw cable, at 7:30pm MST.

Three Stars

1 – Kristofer Westblom
2 – Cody Franson
3 – Spencer Machacek

[scrunt]

Very strange game tonight. It was good to see FesterBlum back together, but I was sure disappointed in our PP. We rarely seemed to have anyone in the slot for a rebound/screen, it was mostly perimeter play with the shots from the point that were often blocked or missed the net.

I'm also wondering why in every game the other team's goalie is one of the three stars. Is the goaltending in this league really that stellar, or are we making these kids look good? I totally agree that Westblom was worthy of the first star, and deserved all three, but in nine of twelve games so far in October the opposing goalie was a star. Maybe its just the Giant's lack of a true natural goal scorer to two that can bury them and break a game open. With the record we have it seems a bit silly to feel this way, but I can't help but worry that despite way the Giants seem to dominate the possession of the puck, they haven't been dominating the scoreboard since the first week of the season.

[rinkrat]

With the record we have it seems a bit silly to feel this way, but I can't help but worry that despite way the Giants seem to dominate the possession of the puck, they haven't been dominating the scoreboard since the first week of the season.

We should get McArdle,the Warriors are going to be "sellers" soon.

[Squig]

I took in that fiasco last night by our team. Not fun to watch as a Rockets fan :burningma The second period seemed to last forever. Thank god there is beer :laugh:

Westbloom was fantastic - no denying it - some great glove saves in the third. The fourth goal was kicked in from my angle as well. The reffing ....................no comment.

I can see why the Giants are winning this year - playing sixty mins - working hard every shift. They will win a ton of games with this style but will it win in the Memorial cup? They game slows down in that tournament with all the tv timeouts - all the top players get tons of rest. The third and fourth liners usually have very little effect on the game. Food for thought - good luck this year to your team and look forward to hosting - its a hoot!! (Yes you will see a few rocket jerseys around for it!!)

[old_time_hockey]

Beaner pretty much summed up my thoughts.

I just can't believe the Goonish penalties the Rockets took. The one that stood out to me was in the second after a scramble around Westblom and the whistle blows. Czibere is standing to the left of the goal and a full 5 count after the whistle a Rocket cross checks him square in the numbers and his head misses the post by less than a foot. Mitch wasn't even digging or pushing after the whistle. There is protecting your goalie and then there is being stupid and doing something that could seriously hurt someone. Just no room for that.

The Rockets short hander, I was mad a Slade. But then I figured that he must have fallen asleep by that point. But he made quite a few nice passes to press the Rockets PK as well as getting a shot on net. :)

Think Festerling needs to check his tape job. How many passes/shots did he wiff on last night?

[Beaner]

I can see why the Giants are winning this year - playing sixty mins - working hard every shift. They will win a ton of games with this style but will it win in the Memorial cup? They game slows down in that tournament with all the tv timeouts - all the top players get tons of rest. The third and fourth liners usually have very little effect on the game. Food for thought - good luck this year to your team and look forward to hosting - its a hoot!! (Yes you will see a few rocket jerseys around for it!!)

Interesting thoughts. Never really thought about it much but you are probably right, all those timeouts will hurt a team that likes to roll all its lines so much as opposed to a team that plays its top 2 lines mostly.

Guess we will just have to wait and see what happens in May.