Clearly, I will never be a hockey coach
"What a great game," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller, whose team beat Brandon for just the second time in six seasons. "We've been good in the third period, but that may have been our best period of the year. (Brandon) is a good team who had its foot on the gas. I'm really proud of the third -- we played the game right." (Herald)I thought it was not a great game. I thought it was sloppy, especially the first two periods. Passing was terrible. It's like the AMS couldn't tell the difference between navy blue and neon yellow. I kept looking at the shots on goal and was surprised every single time. It seemed impossible to have that many shots when they couldn't hang on to the puck.
Whatever, they won. It was a good game in that it was intense, stressful, hard-fought. It's not that the AMS weren't fighting for it, they clearly were, but I Brandon was very successful at blocking all available lanes. The key was going 2-for-3 on the power play and killing 4 of 5 penalties, including a penalty shot while shorthanded, hell yes Kruise Reddick.
The more I watch that Drydn Dow, the more impressed I am with him. And his eyebrows. om nom nom.
Drew was outstanding, again. Brandon was in his kitchen all night, I was surprised their shot total was so low, seemed like they were peppering him more than that. Or laying on him. Once again, what do I know?
I'm not one to blame anything on bad reffing for the most part, like I always say, good play overcomes bad reffing, and it did last night. If those morons had allowed that 4th Brandon goal to stand, I might have jumped over the glass and shanked anyone and everyone in black and white stripes.Owsley finished with 22 saves for the Americans for his WHL-leading ninth win.
"I didn't think we needed him as much tonight," Hiller said. "But when we did, he was there."
Boys face those pesky Kelowna Rockets tomorrow night, don't forget to wear red.
14 comments:
IMHO they didn't play a bad game, they just faced a very tough opponent who made them look bad at times. Brandon has the speed to match and did a really impressive job of getting their sticks in the way of any passes the Ams tried to make. They also had a VERY strong forecheck and forced our guys to make some poor, panicked decisions.
Toll and Schmidt were both outstanding, but I thought the rest of the D struggled. Brandon's third goal was a direct result of Suds' lazy play. As he skated towards the offensive zone I could clearly hear Hill, from all the way across the ice, yell, "Deep!" Instead, Brock tapped it in as the Ams made a slow line change which led to a 2 on 1 for Brandon, which led to Suds having to hook one of the guys, which led to the penalty and in turn, the goal. I'm not trying to pick on Brock, just providing an example of where some of the D struggled last night.
If the Ams want to go far this season, they're going to have to figure out how to provide, for the lack of a better word, cleaner offense against fast teams like Brandon. I'm not undermining what they did last night; they battled hard, didn't give up, didn't get discouraged when it was tied up and in many cases sacrificed their bodies for the sake of the win.
Most disappointing thing for me was to see Mason on the 4th line. Boy, I guess he really is the new Drew Hoff, eh?
Hill = Hiller. Obvs.
Agree with Dave & spokant. I told spokant last night that I thought Lane Werbowski played a better game then usual (when I was specifically paying attention to him) :) he had a few good moments that surprised me...more specifically when the puck came through Drew's legs and he was right there to stop it. That easily would have been a goal had Lane not been there and hes not always right in there battling so I was glad to see that. Things also started clicking more in the 3rd, not sure if that was because Brandon was tired or not. They were big guys and I thought the boys responded pretty well to them but agree with spokant, still is room for improvement. The big "test" is going to be in Spokane Saturday, IMO.
I think the Americans played well, considering they played probably the first team this year that matched them in skill depth at forward.
And of course, the Wheaties were large kids, all of 'em.
If Dow had mishandled one or two more pucks at the left point, I was going to strangle my dad..luckly dad survived the game.
I was glad to see the Reddick-Drozd-Macek line show up.
I brought my sign for Sergei, it must've helped. :)
We definately roll in the third period. By my stats, on average for the season, we have tripled our opponents score (1.5 vs 0.6, season average for the third period).
We have only been outshot in 11 periods so far this season.
Drew Owsley gets stronger each period in a game; once he faces 4-5 shots, he becomes rock solid.
Wangler,
I love your stats. Keep them coming! Also, if that was you with the flag tied around your shoulders, holding a sign, I saw you finally. You're right over in Q? We sit really close to you.
@ant..that was me, the freak dressed as "Minsk-man, defender of good".
My sign sucks, need to make a prettier one.
I would post my stat sheet, but I can't figure out how. It's fun looking at the numbers. :)
Oh, and dad and I have the privilege of annoying our fellow fans in Section RR, not Q.
We were just over in Q to cheer on the 3-stars!
@Wangler--if you email me stats sheet, I can totally post it (with appropriate kudos, of course) :)
@Wangler- what did your sign say? Was it the one by the flag?
@Mikaela, sign says:
"Schaibu, Sergei!"
I was told by my Russian co-worker that "Schaibu, Schaibu" is a chant of encouragment to your team. "Schaibu" basically means "washer", i.e., the puck.
So, I am encouraging Sergei to get the puck.
If I do a new sign, it will be an "I believe in Sergei Drozd" one..in Cyrillic, of course.
@our gracious host: I will e-mail it to you...don't expect anything fancy, though.........
Cyrillic "I believe" sign will be so full of win.
and no worries about fancy, I mean look at this site LOL
I was pretty sure that was your sign, I think it looks great but an "I believe" sign would be awesome too! :)
spokant - usually agree with you but can't this time. Schmidt's minus 2 in a game we won not indicative of good play at all. As well have to agree with Wranglers Dow evaluation of mishandling - but still new to this level so will withhold judgement.
How dare you! :)
Schmidt probably had a hard time keeping up with Brandon. He's not slow, but he's not fast either. Usually he's smart enough to be in the right position not to get beat, but Wednesday may have been an exception. The first goal by Schenn was a little flukey in that the puck made a weird bounce off the boards and right onto his stick. I wouldn't necessarily fault any of our D for that. You could argue that they should have cleared the zone sooner, but you could argue that for the entire game. Brandon gave them fits anytime they tried to clear the zone.
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