Tigers at Royals 06/07 Oct

[CdnSailor]

at

Royals just completed a three game road swing taking 2 of 3, loosing the third 8-2 against Kamloops.
Royals are currently in first place in the BC Division and in first place in the PIM department.

5-3-2-0-0 6 pts 128 PIM
Tigers are currently third in the Central Division on a two game winning streak playing their last game against Edmonton with a 4-3 win.

4-2-2-0-0 4 pts 81 PIM

[pontcanna]

4-2 final flattered the Royals. 40 shots against and probably another dozen or so gilt-edged chances for the Tigers. Creditable game again by Hamilton, but for the most part the Royals were outclassed and strangely out of it (especially during the second period...no hitting and it felt like one long Hat power play).

Some good physical play in the first, but then went to sleep for a very long time. When we missed the SH breakaway early in the third and the Tigers came back up the ice to score, that was effectively the game, though we mounted a bit of a spirited comeback. The Prairie kids just seemed bigger and more talented. Kind of a yawner.

Anticipating a big crowd tomorrow night (given that this one was up against the Canucks debut) and the fun of junior hockey is that we might see two entirely different teams on Friday. Hope so

[pontcanna]

Tigers pounce on depleted Royals

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM OCTOBER 6, 2011 11:01 PM

One Tiger clearly separated himself from the pack Thursday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

But he’s been doing that pretty much every night.

Emerson Etem, a native of Long Beach, California, and 2010 first-round draft pick of the nearby Anaheim Ducks (29th overall), scored his sixth and seventh goals of the season to lead the Medicine Hat Tigers to a

4-2 victory over the Victoria Royals.

The Royals (3-3) lost for the second consecutive game, while the Tigers (3-2) won for the second straight time. The clubs meet again tonight at 7 in a Western Hockey League battle at the Memorial Centre.

“We’re missing a couple of defencemen who would see him a lot more than others would,” said Royals head coach Marc Habscheid.

“We don’t want to get mismatched, but at the same time you want to give your players opportunities to play, too, and find out what it’s like to play against a player like that. He has a lot of talent, but what you can’t let him do is overwork you.”

Etem got the puck rolling for the Hat at 14:39 of the first period with his first goal of the evening.

The highlight of the opening frame for Victoria was a fight in which

six-foot-five rookie defenceman Keegan Kanzig leveled Tigers captain Cole Grbavac with one decisive punch.

But the period may have proved costly for the Royals when defenceman Zach Habscheid had to be helped off the ice after being hit from behind by Medicine Hat’s Kale Kessy, who received a double minor for the infraction.

Habscheid did not return to the game, potentially adding to the Royals’ defensive woes with fellow 19-year-old veteran blue-line leader Tyler Stahl already out with a concussion.

The Royals will re-evaluate Habscheid’s condition today.

“It wasn’t a great hit, that’s for sure,” said Marc Habscheid, a dad and coach in this instance.

“We’re down Stahl and now we lost [Zach] and that puts our young guys in a tough position. Hopefully, he’ll play sooner rather than later.”

Defenceman Scott McKay, from the point, made it 2-0 for Medicine Hat at 2:32 of the second period. Matthew Konan, on the power play, put the Tigers up by three at 7:19 of the second.

Six-foot-one Tigers goalie Tyler Bunz of St. Albert, Alta., a 2010 fifth-round draft pick of the nearby Edmonton Oilers who had a decent NHL rookie camp, kept the Royals at bay until 9:32 of the second period. Logan Nelson, with his team-leading fifth goal of the season, finally got Victoria on the board as the second period ended 3-1 to the Tigers.

Mike Forsyth of the Royals broke in alone on a short-handed breakaway before the third period was a minute old but was stymied by Bunz. In a crucial swing moment, Etem scored a few heartbeats later on the power play at 1:06 for his second of the night as the Royals were suddenly three goals down.

Robin Soudek, with his fourth goal of the season and 100th career WHL point, scored on the power play at 3:49 to pull Victoria back to within two but that’s as close as the hosts got.

Thursday’s game may have proved a B.C. adage: Any teams in this province going up against a Vancouver Canucks TV game, do so at their peril. After a sellout of 7,006 in the home opener, the second Royals game at the Memorial Centre attracted an announced 4,448 fans.

ICE CHIPS: Etem’s mother, Patricia, rowed for the U.S. at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics in the women’s four. Rival Marilyn Campbell of Victoria won silver in that event in the Canadian fours boat.

[CdnSailor]

4 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90pHrWmjUMc

1st Period

Fight between Royals Keegan Kanzig and Tigers Cole Grbavac 00:04
Fight between Royals Steven Hodges and Tigers Kale Kessy 00:48
Tigers 1st goal by Emerson Etem 1:26

2nd Period

Tigers 2nd goal by Scott McKay 2:16
Mix and match 2:30
Tigers 3rd goal by Matthew Konan (PP) 3:15
Royals 1st goal by Logan Nelson 3:40

3rd Period
Tigers 4th goal Emerson Etem (PP) no video
Royals 2nd goal by Robin Soudek (PP)3:55

3 Stars
1. Tigers - 26 Emerson Etem
2. Royals - 25 Robin Soudek
3. Tigers- 30 Tyler Bunz

Game Summary

http://www.whl.ca/schedule/show/game/60231

[50sWHLer]

Not much feedback or many posts on this site regarding the game??

LACK OF INTEREST??? --- Less than 4,000 'ACTUALLY' in attendance --

HHmmmmm ??

[CdnSailor]

Until more people get involved from FB we will not see people on here.
Would be nice for Mart and the Royals scribe mention that this is a good site to gab on.

[pontcanna]

How to send a big crowd home happy.

For once I think the official attendance underestimated things. Announced at just under 6,000, but I figured no more than about 500 empty seats. My section usually has lots of elbow room, but not tonight.

Real gutsy effort by an undermanned team. Keeps the faith alive for sure and very necessary with two road games upcoming. The refs got far too involved in this game for my tastes (and for both teams) but overall I thought we looked a lot more organised/disciplined. Hamilton may be the best goalie I've seen whose average is around 4.0. I think it was the first minute when he pulled one off the line and there were many other times his superb reflexes saved the day.

As for the Hatter Headed for the Show, he's one of the few juniors who will take a "three stars" bow after his team loses. Obviously thinking ahead to the pro life

[CdnSailor]

5 4


Missed the game but caught the last two minutes on air. Sounded incredible with getting the winning goal with less then 30 seconds to go.
Looking at the penaltiies on both sides, Royals special teams scored 3/9 while the Tigers were 1/7.
Not sure what happened with the Royals in the third period with 5 penalties in a row.
Still good to come out with a win giving the Royals 1st place in the BC Division and YES my friends FIRST place in PIM with 178 PIM.

[CdnSailor]

What the return of the Western Hockey League to Victoria promised was the chance to once again witness that single potential future NHL star, in a cast of 40 on the ice, turn a game by himself.

Check.

Emerson Etem, a native of Long Beach, California, and 2010 first-round draft pick of the nearby Anaheim Ducks, scored four goals for the Medicine Hat Tigers before 5,935 fans Friday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

But Victoria captain Hayden Rintoul scored the biggest one — the winner with 23 seconds remaining to give the Royals a dramatic 5-4 victory over the Tigers.

Etem, the complete package of power and speed, has 11 goals in the five games he’s played this season, six of them over the last two nights against Victoria.

Regardless, it’s Rintoul’s two goals on the night Friday that were just as key as any that Etem scored.

“That was awesome . . . and quite a turnaround [from Thursday’s lacklustre 4-2 loss to the Tigers],” said the 20-year-old Rintoul.

“We banged and fought hard, things we didn’t do [Thursday].”

Rintoul teed up the winning shot from the point as the Royals (4-3) snapped a two-game losing streak, while the Tigers (3-3) had a two-game winning streak cracked.

“I saw their goalie [Oilers draft pick Tyler Bunz] go down to his knees and I went for the roof and hit it,” said Rintoul, who has three goals on the season.

“I’m known more defensively but I try to move up at times to contribute.”

But Rintoul was only named second star of the game to Etem’s obvious first-star accolade.

“That guy is a really good player,” said Rintoul.

“We have to contain guys like that and not let them make good plays.”

Royals goaltender Keith Hamilton, game third star, is undoubtedly grateful he will see Etem only one more time — Dec. 17 in the Hat.

Victoria fans probably won’t ever see the 19-year-old again on Blanshard, which is good in terms of future-season wins over the Tigers but certainly bad in terms of sheer entertainment.

Etem put the young Victoria blue line — missing 19-year-old leaders Zach Habscheid and Tyler Stahl to injuries — under tremendous stress.

“He’s a world-class player and was out on the ice for 40 minutes,” said Victoria GM and head coach Marc Habscheid.

But it was the moxie displayed under trying conditions by his own club that Habscheid was more interested in discussing.

“That was a gutty effort,” he said. “It’s all about attitude and we were nowhere near where we needed to be on [Thursday]. But the attitude and effort was there tonight.”

The Royals trailed 3-2 after two periods but used the odd-man to gain the upper hand early in the third. Logan Nelson’s power-play counter at 2:19 of the final frame gave the rookie from Rogers, Minnesota, a team-leading six goals on the season to tie the match 3-3. Jamie Crooks, on a two-man advantage, put Victoria ahead 4-3 at 4:52.

Victoria then survived a full two-minute two-man Medicine Hat power-play at 11:23 in which Etem moved in brilliantly on a clear break but was stymied by Hamilton. But this Etem guy is something else, tying it 4-4 on another power play at 11:58 before Rintoul managed to steal the night right out from under his skate blades.

The Royals hit the road for games tonight in Seattle and a Monday matinee at the Pacific Coliseum against the Vancouver Giants



Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/Royals+...#ixzz1aAP2FOjR

[the Royal Flush]

Fun hockey has returned to the capital city.