Game 28-Hitmen 4 at Giants 3

Got a chance to watch the boys on Shaw last night and I was hoping to see an improvement from a couple weeks back when they were in Brandon unfortunately I saw much of the same.

Positives from last night:
1. The Hitmen won a lot of battles in the Giants zone and generated lots of good cycling.
2. The Hitmen had the better goaltender last night, something that hasn't happened enough so far this season.
3. The penalty killing was excellent, they held the Giants to just one power play goal in 6 opportunities.
4. They matched the Giants work ethic and the Hitmen finally showed up and competed for 60 minutes.

Negatives:
1. They lost battles in their own zone because they are very weak on the puck.
2. They really lacked speed last night and for most I don't consider a fast team but they are by no means a slow team either but last night they looked slow compared to the Giants, particularly in the 2nd and 3rd periods.
3. They had some great puck movement on the power play. They were moving it from point back down to the sides near the bottom of the circles with some crisp hard passes and it allowed Justin Kirsch to score 2 power play goals.
4. Turnovers. Turnovers at their own blue line and in the neutral zone.

They showed up and played real hard and didn't stop even after the Giants tied the game up at 3 in third, most nights this season, the Hitmen would have collapsed right then and there.

Hitmen are in Kamloops tonight. It would sure be nice for the boys to win back to back games.

1. CAL Kirsch, (12) (MacKenzie, Fisenko), 17:41 (PP)
2. CAL Foucault, (8) (Kirsch), 3:48
2. VAN Musil, (3) (Cunningham), 11:48 (PP)
3. CAL Kirsch, (13) (Foucault, Wilson), 1:28 (PP)
3. VAN Gallagher, (23) (Rowinski), 1:37
3. VAN Musil, (4) (Rowinski), 4:10
3. CAL Sylvester, (9) (Cheek, MacKenzie), 4:35