There was a lot not to like about this one. As is my personal bias I thought the officiating was very poor and inconsistent. Not too impressed with the Ice either as they seemed to be determined to drop to the ice every time a player came even close to them. I was not impressed with the Giants either, leaving their goalie hanging out to dry frequently and Tucker not properly controlling his rebounds off of pretty routine shots. It was ugliness upon ugliness as the boys looked to be slogging through quicksand, dumped and coasted and were incapable of clearing the front their net. No Giants stepped it up and they took a bad loss, by a team they really should have beaten. The inconsistencies this team is exhibiting this season has me a bit frustrated. Time to sit a bunch of players until they realize what's needed.

Ice Chill Giants
Vancouver 2 Kootenay 6

Don Robinson

At the risk of further aggravating those who think I do nothing but complain about the refs, I really do have to mention two things. First the refs were very inconsistent tonight and to be blunt, blind. Secondly the Ice are the worst diving team I have seen in a while, falling all over the ice at the least touch of stick or body part and the refs bought it all. I have to give the Greg Louganis award to the Ice for the most impressive use of the dive as a tool to shift the momentum of a game, you would have thought you were watching a soccer game as opposed to a hockey game. That said: the Ice were a very effective stick checking team and either the Giants did a piss poor job of protecting the puck or the Ice’s stick checking karma was at its peak. They out-hustled the Giants and were much better at clearing the front of their net than the home team were. The Giants allowed way too many second shots from close in, open sides and could not for the life of them find loose pucks in front of their own nets. Tucker was not good either, allowing poor rebounds and failing to control the puck in front of his own net. The one time the Giants actually drove the net with the puck they scored. One has to wonder why they didn’t do that more often as they allowed themselves to be hampered and kept to the outside for the majority of the evening. They tried to draw penalties at times, but the refs weren’t buying anything where the player didn’t sprawl on the ice instantly. Credit the Giants for staying on their feet and still trying to make it work.

The Ice opened the scoring on the PP. Kevin King tickled the twine, fighting in front of the Giants net and battling for the loose rebound putting it past a sprawling Tucker, a sight which would be seen frequently throughout this game. Dustin Sylvester padded that lead five minutes later as he put the puck past an out of position Tucker. The Giants got one back off a solid effort by James Henry while killing a penalty and coming hard down the left side, ripping the puck far-side over Todd Mathew’s glove. The short-handed marker came at 13:07 of the first, Neil Manning was awarded an assist after the fact. You would have thought that would have charged up the Giants who came out a bit flat, but it really didn’t.

Sadly the Ice scored some pretty easy goals in this one, finishing off plays which should have seen them knocked flat on their back, but instead looked to be a whole bunch of stick-waving Giants failing to take their man. Sylvester tied it back up just past the mid-way mark of the second, taking a nice feed from Boomer and putting it past Tucker. Brock Montgomery scored on a ridiculous gratuitous double roughing call, that was some pure evidence at how little a clue the two zebras had tonight. The Giants failed miserably in the middle period, losing most of the puck battles and allowing their sticks to be regularly and consistently stripped of the puck. Pretty damn boring hockey actually.

Brendan Hurley tallied one early in the third starting the first coffin nail in the game. The Giants were not able to draw penalties, getting a paltry 2 PPs in the game, to the Ice’s 8 PP chances and to be honest there is no way in hell that the play of the game was that lopsided infraction-wise. In the end though the teams will always face that in this league and get the calls one night and not get the calls the next and although tonight’s was an extreme example of cluelessness, the Giants were not battling hard enough to maintain possession of the puck. Lance Bouma got that one back on the Giants second PP of the of the game, by driving the net from the corner. Zach Hodder and Brendan Gallagher got the helpers on some better passing for the Giants on the night. Montgomery tallied his second of the night with time ticking down putting the game well out of reach. Kind of an ugly game all in all and the Giants did not do enough to win, but were rarely given an extra chance to make amends. They should not be pleased with themselves tonight and if they even play 10 minutes of this kind of hockey versus the Hitmen on Friday they are dead.

The Giants and Ice both had 26 shots on goal, but the Ice made theirs count much more than the hapless home squad. The Giants were 1 for 2 on the PP, while the Ice went 3 for 8, feasting off of their ability to drop to the ice on cue. The no-name #32 ref was instrumental in this one, calling some stupid things and Iverson was no better. I really hate it when the zebras in this league become the story of a hockey game and sadly in this one they were a great part of the game and not in a good way. The Giants were very ineffectual with the puck and need to protect the puck better when coming into the zone. They lacked a bunch of hustle and were beat to loose pucks by the speedy Ice, frequently. They did not have the kind of traffic at the front of the net they needed to have to get the win and despite battling through many non-calls, really needed to find that other gear when they were down. This was a team they should have beat, playing their back-up and not really bringing too much more than couple of solid forays, it was rare that they didn’t score when given half a chance.

I was not pleased with the G’s effort in this one as they looked as if they had lead in their skates and this was the first of four in five days, including 3 in 3 this weekend. The boys need to find a lot more out of this line-up in those games to remain competitive. The next tilt is on Friday versus the Hitmen at the Coliseum, puck drops at 7:30 PST.

Three Stars

1. Dustin Sylvester
2. Kevin King
3. Steele Boomer