It’s been some time since I last wrote about the team. I was away for a good month and then when I finally got to see a game I witnessed the Giants stumbling through a game versus the Blazers, allowing a shut-out to be broken in the dying seconds due to lazy sloppy play and generally winning by default. Not a good win and not a convincing one. As well as being an exceedingly boring game to watch. I really didn’t have the heart to make that my first recap back.
Last weekend I made the trek down to Portland and Seattle for games away. I have to say that the Dub officiating is not just garbage in my building. Lee was very good down south, as he was tonight. The goals which got by him, with the possible exception of one in Seattle he might want back, were very good goal-scorer’s goals. The team was soft though. In Portland they coughed up the puck badly and lost most of the battles along the boards. Oddly Portland didn’t score on their great chances, but rather found the back of the net off of hard working plays and almost perfect passing. The Winterhawks rookie tender 17 yr old Adin Hill had a solid night, but the Giants did not take advantage of the young netminder and played perimeter hockey the majority of the night. If they play that way come playoff time, the ‘hawks will have a cakewalk for four games to advance to the second round. The Giants need to play an edgy game and shut down the speed/transition game the Portland squad works so well.
The Giants played a better game in Seattle, except for the second period where they became spectators. They were at least trying to get to the front of the net, in the first and third. The Giants bounced back in the third using a mid-period PP chance to score and then added a tying marker 5 seconds later on the very next shift. The Kent Washington barn went pretty quiet after that. Both teams had good chances in OT, but the game went to a shootout. Franson scored as the first Giant and Lee turned aside Seattle’s first two shooters, but the Giants could not find the back of the net again as the shootout went 10 shooters deep. In the end the T-Birds won a game they probably should have won and the Giants pulled a point out of the fire.
Payton Lee earned the first star tonight turning aside 21 shots and some good Victoria chances in the first period alone. The Giants came out scrambly, lost most of the face-offs and most of the board battles. When they did get the puck in the offensive zone they played around the outside giving back possession with nary a shot fired. The Gs had 1 shot at the mid-mark of the first and managed a paltry 4 shots in the period. They have their goalie to thank for tonight’s win. The Royals continued to get chances which were turned aside, but early in the second Steven Hodges was given a clean breakaway and buried it top corner. Dalton Sward responded taking the puck to the net and while on his stomach picking the rebound up and over Vollrath’s pad to put the Gs on the board. A gutsy gritty (Machacek-like) goal. The WHL stats sheet says Lofthouse scored the Giants first PP goal, but it was actually Jackson Houck who was in front of the net, tipping a point shot past Vollrath. The time of the goal and details are wrong too. Well-done WHL stats people well-done. Too many very poor errors and incorrect information on too many box score sheets this season for my liking and it feels as if it is getting worse. Time for the Dub to address these mistakes. Lofthouse did tip a puck past Vollrath on the PP in the third period, giving the Giants some insurance they would need. Victoria got a late PP goal, but were unable to come all the way back. The Giants did a good job not allowing Vollrath out of the net with time ticking down and managed to run the Royals out of minutes. Giants win the season series by one win as the teams went 5-4-1. It’s nice to see these two teams finally developing a rivalry/hatred as well as some parity.
Walking Wounded: The Giants have had a lot of players injured this season. They are woefully missing Dalton Thrower who it appears he might be out for the whole year, including playoffs (sad). Phenom to be Tyler Benson was hurt in the first period in Seattle and it appears he will be out for the remainder of the season, including playoffs as well. It’s a real shame as I was hoping to see the kid get a couple of playoff games under his belt so he knows what to expect down the road. There is nothing like being in a playoff game. Jared Rathjen, who is “19” this season and could come back as a 20 yr old (but I feel that the future is to go with Lee and up and comer Ryan Kubic) is also injured and out for the remainder. Dominik Volek is injured, but should be back practicing this week and could find the line-up on Friday. Ditto for Travis McEvoy. Dmitry Osipov is injured, but also could be back by Friday’s game.
Team Notes: Lots of Giants players have reached career best points/goals this season. The most notable is Carter Popoff, currently with 60 points he had only 27 points last season. Thomas Foster up to 23 points after notching 8 total points his previous season. Jackson Houck had a jump after struggling early in the season with now 31 goals, over his 23 last year. Traber, Geertsen, Hamilton, Sward, Kulak and Franson have all had career numbers in points or goals. Sward has matched his season high of 28 points with his goal tonight and is 6 points shy of 100 WHL points for his career. Sward has been wearing the ‘C’ very well since Thrower went down. Lee has played some of his best games between the pipes the last few games. The Giants dressed five D-men. Joel Hamilton played the point for the majority of the game and looked pretty solid doing it.
Fight Night: Thomas Foster vs Braden Oleksyn – Oleksyn must have said something about Foster’s sister cause the feisty middle-weight laid into the young forward with a vengeance and even throwing a couple as they were on the ice. I hope Foster learns to stop throwing when the players go to the ice, but kudos on the fight and his team commitment. There should have been another fight, but massive winger Axel Blomqvist is gutless coward who happily leaves his gloves on while trying to pull off another player’s helmet. How he didn’t get 4 minutes for that move is beyond me. Timmy Traber had a long discussion with him and then with Victoria captain Fransoo to make it clear that that is not done. If you want a fight, drop ‘em.
Zebra Cage: Jason Nissen and Ryan Benbow frankly suck and seem very unclear as to what the freaking rules of the game are. They are both very happy to call scrums badly. I watched many, many players instigate punches to the head and rile things up either not getting penalties or having the penalties matched up arbitrarily. They were both careless dumb refs tonight, missing stuff on both sides and calling stupid crap. The only call they got right was the (non) high-stick on Ronning which was actually a follow-through of a shot taken. There was no call on the play, despite much grumbling from the stands.
The Giants were badly out-shot 21-4 in the first period, but bounced back into a respectable range in the second with 14 and then didn’t bring the fore-check in the third sinking back to 5 shots. Not very impressed with a fair amount of this game. The Gs have Lee to thank for the chance at a W in this one. The Royals second goal came off of a lost face-off, one that actually should not have taken place in the Giants zone but apparently the refs know better (no they don’t). The Giants did not cover the shooting lanes well enough. The Giants were not great at the face-off dot and they lost too many puck battles along the boards for my liking, but I do like how they went to the net. How they screened on the PP instead of sitting in the safe zone. We were lucky to get the victory in this game in my estimation, but some good effort by a few players made the difference.
The Giants final home game is on Friday versus the Kelowna Rockets boasting the best record in the West and tops in the Dub with 114 points, the next nearest being Portland with 107. That said the Giants have had victories versus the Rockets this season and if they play their best they could win one of the back to back games starting in Vancouver and ending both team’s regular season in Kelowna on Saturday night. Puck drops at 7:30pm on Friday, which is also the Honda giveaway night, so expect a packed house.
Three Stars
1. Payton Lee
2. Dalton Sward
3. Logan Nelson (I would have given it to Steven Hodges who looked dangerous every time he touched the puck)
Dondo’s Doghouse: I have to say I did not like Geertsen’s game tonight. I usually like Mason’s work ethic, but he felt soft in his own zone tonight to me and his timing with pinching seemed to be off, not disastrously so, just off.
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to: Payton Lee who stole that game in the first and kept at it for the rest of the game. He was only beat by good goals and held his team in there while they sleepwalked through stretches of the game. I really liked his patience and positioning watching him down South on the road as well.
Giants 3 Royals 2 - March 11, 2014
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