It was an odd game. The Giants were tired, the Tigers play in their own end stifling and up until the middle of the third period it was a game either team could win. Then the wheels fell off and the formerly solid and at times brilliant Payton Lee let in some ugly, soft and odd goals. The game had no flow. The only offense the Giants brought was disjointed and solo-based. They rarely had a good team breakout. The Giants did not look dangerous and when they finally started to look dangerous, that’s when the Tigers began to score. The officials had their heads rammed deep and intractably up their own butts for the entire tilt as they called soft stuff very early and then let everything go for great swaths of the game, despite players getting hammered from behind, and regularly obstructed. The score does not indicate the play. The Giants never seemed to want to actually win this one or really try, and then they did. They opened the game with 2 whole shots in the first period and upped that to 11 more in the second. In the third they managed 10 more shots, but rarely from the sweet spots and with hardly any puck support. Hayzer was saying that the guys didn’t chase hard enough in the offensive end and get it behind their D-men. He’s right. They also didn’t support one another when they did have the puck. They did not seem to have the energy to battle through the traffic the Tigers created in their own end and although they stood up for their teammates by dropping the gloves or laying a big check, they did not hit effectively. They tried, but it felt like none of the boys were ever on the same page. The Tigers added three easy ones late and the Giants managed to finally beat the Tiger’s netminder to ruin his shutout.
No scoring in the first. The Giants were out shot 14-2 and Lee was a big reason it was still donuts after one. The second kind of limped along for awhile until the Giants looking moderately dangerous coughed up the puck. The Tigers brought a 3 on1 back the other way as former Giant Anthony Ast got a fine first assist on the play. The second goal for the Tigers came off of a won faceoff by the Gs and an ensuing comedy of errors keystone cops affair eventually pushing the puck out front where every Giant and his dog swiped at the puck and missed. A Tiger player finally found it and lifted a back-hand into the top of the net. The score remained that way until 6:06 of the third when the Tigers found twine off the rush. After that the Medicine Hat squad seemed to have no problem finding the back of the net as they scored three more markers, all of which Lee would want back. Jackson Houck finally broke the shutout bid at 18:35. Shaun Dosanjh got the only assist.
Team Notes: Hayzer shuffled Franson down the line-up early on and I don’t recall seeing him out on the ice until 5 minutes left in the first. I am sure he had a few shifts before then, but I didn’t notice him. Lofthouse, Rathjen are still injured. Morrison played a fair amount of minutes up front. Giants inserted Devon Fordyce into the line-up as the back-up. It was the first Giants action for the 19 yr old goaltender and one of the reasons Hay left Lee in when things went sideways.
Fight Night: Mason Geertsen v Jacob Doty – sticking up for Ty Ronning who was levelled in open ice.. Geertsen challenged Doty. A decent bout and Geertsen stayed in there at a distance. Dalton Sward v Tyler Lewington – Lewington is a big boy and Sward lost his helmet early and took some shots. Sward stayed on his feet for awhile before being dragged down
Zebra Cage: Mike Campbell and Jeff Ingram… Wow it’s like these guys have never even read the rule-book. They open the game calling a slash which was a tap on a Tiger player’s stick which he held for two more strides before dropping. And an invisible check from behind right after. Then they called nothing, despite there being several rather blatant things to call. Like interference, charging, hooking and several cheap punches. A high stick double minor call put the whistle back in their mouths for a bit. A Giant player mugged in the Tiger crease going for the puck and then pounded in the back of the head from behind into the ice was the Giants first PP call, but it was halved with a double minor to the Tiger and a single to a Giants player who was mugged. Then nothing until a ticky tack interference when it meant nothing and frankly the softest of one of those they could have called on a night laden with them right in front of zebras with no calls. Holy crap it doesn’t get much worse or more inconsistent.
The Giants were soundly out shot 34-23. They went 0 for 2 on the PP, while the Tigers went 1 for 5. The Tigers work in their own end of the ice was obscenely boring, but very effective. It was a rare time that the Giants were able to muscle their way to the front of the net and when they did it was more as a solo effort. Lots of Giants had frustrating nights. I can’t say there was no effort, because there was effort, just not good or effective effort. Big hits that did little to stem the flow or change the momentum and fights that should have been pretty good on any other night, but in this game felt hollow. The whole energy of this game was off and I am not sure if it was because the Tigers were so good at playing shutdown stifle-hockey, or that the Giants just had no energy left over from their tough recent road-trip. Or the hockey gods had inhaled some incredible ganja and were just playing dice.
The Gs will have a brief practice tomorrow before resting up for their tilt versus the Hurricanes as another eastern Conference team comes to town. The Giants split their season series versus the Tigers as they won in Medicine Hat in November. The Giants take on the Hurricanes on Friday and the Royals on Saturday. They have one more home game next Wednesday versus the Blazers.
Three Stars
1. Jacob Doty
2. Kyle Becker
3. Mason Geertsen
It was such an odd tilt and felt like to me three different games for every period played, that I have no idea who to make my heroes or my goats. Lee was a hero for the first half of the game and a goat for the last half of the third. Mason Geertsen had a solid team game and was good all over the ice, he carried a –1 out of this one. Dalton Sward had some jump, but would lose momentum between shifts. Hamilton made some great moves and then some horrific gaffes. Atwal looked huge for some plays and then very small and clumsy for entire stretches and the list goes on. Volek tried at times and was completely invisible others. Ronning had some real quality offensive forays, but on his own with no support so they went for naught. Franson showed up when the score was out of reach, as did Houck. Osipov played with a variety of D partners and looked great at times, making some very nice passes, but then he’d get caught scrambling a bit in his own end.
The puck bounced and jumped, missed sticks and caromed off of stanchions out into the open in front of open nets and only managing to stay out due to some desperate scrambling then a soft shot from the slot would float past Lee. So much good and so much bad from each and every individual. From a purely forensic point of view an interesting game, but it was screamingly boring with brief nano-flashes of excitement followed by long stretches of extreme boredom. It was one of those games that made me squirm or sleep in my seat.
Giants 1 Tigers 6 - Jan 22nd, 2014
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Giantsfan
