Well a very spirited and chippy affair at the Coliseum tonight on Cam Neely night. Lots of hits, fights, and cheap shots delivered by both teams tonight, but probably the biggest surprise was how undisciplined Kamloops was in a game that ment so much for them to have a chance to advance to the playoffs. Vancouver I thought did not have a very good game, and had a lot of problems getting out of their own zone, turning over the puck on numerous occassions.
NOTES
Slade and Dubnyk got the starts
Slade left the game with just under 4 mins left in the third after getting run by Delaronde; Don Hay said in the post game show, he was dizzy still and was a question mark for tomorrow.
Gutierrez left the game mid-way thru the third after taking a huge Fistric check right at the red line. He looked a bit dazed, but no report on the Giants post game show.
Mikkelson (Knee), Kraus (Jaw), Lucic (Hand), Deck, Parker (?), Dulle (?) were the Giants scratches.
Shots 30/19 Giants
PP 2/9 Giants, 1/6 Blazers
GOALS
Scoring
1. VAN Brule, (19) (Bartley, Machacek), 6:01 (PP) 5-4, Shot comes in rebound out front and Brule somehow manages to get it under Dubnyk and into the net with Dubnyk on the ice prone.
2. KAM Rome, (29) , 12:11 (PEN/SH) After a major mix-up between Slade and the Defenceman which ends up in Nixon ending up with the puck, and Slade and the Defender prone on the ice, Slade throws the stick in a last ditch effort, misses, and Nixon then hits the post on the wide open cage. Rome takes the PS, and beats Slade clean with a shot glove side.
3. VAN Brule, (20) (Watt), 4:19 Watt chips the puck up to Brule breaking down the wing on the 2-1, and Brule fires a wrist shot that beats Dubnyk Glove side, fromt he top of the circle.
3. KAM Nixon, (24) (Jorgensen, Tesliuk), 10:23 (PP) 5-4, Shot comes in rebound, and Nixon gets 2 whacks at it int he mad scramble with bodies flying every where and it gets in.
3. VAN Albers, (17) (Franson, Watt), 16:38 (PP) 5-4, Albers gets the puck at the point, and fires a soft wrister that goes thru a tonne of traffic and right by the screened Dubnyk.
FISTICUFFS
There were a LOT tonight, going to try my best to recap them all.....
Ellerby vs. Lamb
After exchanging a couple slashes, the play moves to the Giants zone and everyone except Ellerby goes to the play. He stops at the red line and ditches the gloves and the lid. Finally Lamb realizes he has been challenged, and he skates over, from his own zone, and drops the gear. the dance around for what seemed like forever, and then they finally lock up and get at it. Lamb gets the better punches in, knocking Ellerby a couple times with some good punches. Each get 5, but why Ellerby who, clearly instigated the fight didn't get the 2/5/10 makes no sense to me. WIN: LAMB
Jorgenson vs. Scharff
After a scrum along the boards, these two end up dropping the mits. More wrestling match than anything, Jorgenson managed to hit Scharff a couple times, and Scharff got one shot in at the end. 5 Each. DRAW.
Czibre vs. Dunstall
Can't remember how this got started, but they go and Czibre gets the early advantage landing some nice shots that stun Dunstall. After a bit of wresling and a few more Czibre hits, Dunstall turns it on and catches Czibre a couple times with some nice hard shots. Each get 5 DRAW
Repik vs. Tesliuk
More commotion along the boards after the whistle and these two end up coming out of the pile going at it. Repik hung on for dear life all fight, keeping Tesliuk tied up for most of the fight, and his head down, but Tesliuk did manage to get a couple shots in, before it was over. 5 Each WIN TESLIUK
Hunt vs. Skrudland
After Kamloops scores to tie it up, Skrudland decides now is the time to pick a fight and he decides it will be Hunt. They drop the gloves fast, Helmets on, and they are going at it. Hunt gets in close quick, due to the overwhelming size advantage for Skrudland ( 6'5" vs 5'9"), and he delivers a bunch of blows catching Skrudland off guard, and popping his Helmet off. Hunt continues to throw punches like a mad man, and Skrudland may have got one or two shots in, but Hunt clearly dominated the much bigger Skrudland. Skrudland gets the 2/5/10, Hunt 5. WIN: HUNT
OFFICIATING
Kirk got the call tonight and he was an idiot. No idea what the heck he was watching, what he was doing and he never had control of this game from the opening whistle. It got to the point where after every whistle, players were trying to find out what the **** was going on in his head. Blown calls, wrong calls, not sending guys to the box, it was terrible. I found myself wishing Savage was here . At the end of the game, Rome gave him a bunch of stick taps on the ice to acknowledge the terrible job he did, and I agree with Rome.
OVERALL
A chippy affair tonight. Both teams seemed more interested in getting personal shots in then playing hockey. Made for an exciting game to watch as a fan, but I was very surprised, especially, as I said before with Kamloops having so much on the line..
Giants were very, very, sloppy int heir own zone, and if the Blazers would have been able to play with some kind of discipline tonight, they would have more than likely won this game. I can think of 3 penalties they took right of the top of my head that were terrible and just plain selfish ones. The Slade running, Skrudland instigating that fight, and the Bench minor they took at the end of 2 to put themselves down 2 men to start the third.
Giants I think got lucky tonight, not their best effort, but they did just enough to get the win. The shakey play in their own zone had me concerned, but I'm sure they will bounce back just fine tomorrow.
3 STARS
1. VAN - 17 Gilbert Brule
2. KAM - 9 Ashton Rome
3. VAN - 37 Dustin Slade
PLAYOFF UPDATES
With that win, Giants have clinched home ice advantage for the first 2 rounds of the playoffs, and can now finish no worse than 2nd in the Western Conference. Also, with the MH loss in KTN, thanks KTN, Vancouver is now tied with MH for first overall, with MH haveing 1 game in hand.
So lets go to Kamloops tomorrow and get another win and put some distance between us and MH.