The Giants play well at home especially versus the Cats, who stung them last weekend for two close games in PG, but have been blown out twice already coming to the Rink on Renfrew. This young Giants squad seems to get a lift from the hometown crowd, but have so far struggled on the road. Two hat tricks tonight, one from Jackson Houck and the other from Alec(x) Baer who notched first Dub hatty. Some dominant play. Leading 5-0 coming out the second period the Gs shredded the Cougar’s back-up for four goals in the third. The Giants grabbed a hold early and did not let go for the whole 60. Lee made a poor deflection into open ice for his only goal against and never had to be great, but he was solid on the night. Why the Gs could not finish on the road is still a mystery to me as they have seriously controlled all ends of the ice versus the Cats playing at the Coliseum. I suppose they were missing Arvin Atwal more than I thought (
).
Jackson Houck opened the scoring on the PP just over 6 minutes into tonight’s tilt. A nice backhand pass behind the net by Joel Hamilton to Carter Popoff who got it out to a wide open Houck cutting down the slot. Oddly this happened just as I was commenting that we needed someone to go to the front of the net. Bing, Bang, Boom back of the net by someone cutting to the front of the net. Alec Baer added another one a few minutes later, off of Dalton Sward and Mason Geertsen. Putting home Sward’s rebound behind Ty Edmonds, the same goalie who had the boys frustrated in PG. At the end of the period, Baer lifted a brilliant backhand top corner far side on Edmonds off of a sweet Tyler Benson feed. The Gs kept it rolling in the second. Matt Bellerive found twine off of Thomas Foster 12:10 into the middle frame. Carter Popoff put home another nice Benson feed, assisted by Houck, a few minutes later.
The final frame saw the Cougars insert their back-up between the pipes and the poor 16 yr old kid got shell-shocked. Very early in the third, on a carryover penalty from the end of the second, Houck scored his second goal, off of Arvin Atwal. Houck completed the hatty less than 4 minutes later. Popoff and Hamilton combined getting the puck to Jackson for his hat trick goal. The same crew scored a PP marker a couple of minutes after that, when Hamilton scored off of Houck and Popoff. Baer scored his first hat trick in the Dub a couple of minutes later, wheeling and firing at the net and finding some twine. The Cats broke Lee’s second straight shut-out bid late in the period, as the puck caromed off of Lee’s shoulder and into open ice where a Cougar player found the back of the net.
Team Notes: Coming off a 3-0 win last night versus the Blazers the Giants were prepped to take on the Cougars. Alec Baer notched his first WHL hat trick tonight. 16 yr old Gage Ramsey had some fourth line minutes, which were more than usual due to the massive lead. The late PP chances for the Giants saw the third and fourth lines taking turns playing with the man-advantage.
Fight Night: Mason Geertsen and Sam Ruopp had the only fight of the night. Geertsen got some shots in early and when Ruopp’s lid popped off Geertsen scored few more big strikes getting the take-down and the decision.
Zebra Cage: Kevin Bennett and Ryan Benbow – a few soft calls, but mostly okay, but late in the game it was clear they went into the kind of reffing I truly hate and it’s more a league fault than the individual refs. They went into the truly egregious “game management” mode, calling multiple softies to even out the calls and control the game. Hey WHL and other hockey leagues: The refs need to call infractions, not “manage games” it’s a very slippery slope imnsho.
Broadcast: I am getting really rather pissed off that the Gs are happy to be the fourth cousin, eight times removed on the TSN radio network. These online only games are seriously bullshyte and the Giants would do well to make a deal with a radio station that is willing to carry all of the games on the radio and not be shoved to the side for the Lions, Canucks, Whitecaps, NFL football or other talky talk bullshyte. Even the internet radio providers, such as Tune-In radio on my phone can’t even represent the Giants as the thing being broadcast, but label it as Bob Mojanovich or some such crap ( oddly the Canucks come up as “Canucks”, Lions come up as “Lions” and even the Whitecaps come as “Whitecaps” – funny that eh?). Talk about being fifth class citizens. Not impressed in the least. We had two “online only” games the entire season last year and this year we have already had two and one more at least planned this month alone. This is truly insulting in my mind and makes it tough for casual fans to find the freaking game, let alone diehards. Time for a real change as this being shuffled down the list to cater to TSN radio’s whim sucks big hairy ballsack.
The Gs out shot the Cougars 36-27. They went 3 for 6 on the PP, while holding the Cats to 0 for 5. It was actually a decent game. There were some very nice hockey plays being made. The forecheck and intensity from the home town boys was very strong and they hustled well on the back check. The Cougars by contrast really lacked any pushback whatsoever and Ty Edmonds who held them in the games in PG, looked very ordinary in this one. Not too many Giants passengers in the tilt as everyone seemed ready to play on their shifts. I would say that none of the penalties were really careless or damaging except maybe Dosanjh’s checking to the head, but even that was mostly invisible from my seat.
The Gs need to take the momentum from the past two tilts on the road with them. With a re-match with the Blazers In K-town on Wednesday and then two in Victoria next weekend, they need to find wins on the road and ideally come out with two out of the three. The skill is there and under Troy G Ward the boys are playing a more exciting and challenging form of hockey. They have the ability to bring the same game to the fore away from their home barn and will need to do so to be a contender.
Three Stars:
1. Jackson Houck
2. Alec Baer
3. Mason Geertsen
Dondo’s Hardhat: It’s hard to argue with Houck’s production. A hat trick plus two helpers makes him the hardhat dude of the game. I liked seeing Baer get the nod for the team’s centre honour player at the end of the game though. If you don’t know what I am talking about; the Giants have instituted a circle at centre ice win or lose and select a player to be in the centre to bang his stick and lead the ritual who they deemed to be the best on the night. Houck being a veteran probably deferred to Baer in tonight’s case and that’s another reason to give him the hardhat.
Giants 9 Cougars 1 - Oct 18, 2014
Reply With Quote
