oh hey, that was a good game

"That wasn't on Drew at all," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller, whose team has won six in a row and is a league best 22-4-0-0 on home ice. "Clearly, he was helpless. We needed to be better as a team -- we needed to change things up, and you don't have a lot of options. Alex made some key saves out there." (Herald)

It wasn't on Drew, but I did feel bad for him. That being said, there are so many things a coach can do in that early-down-by-2 situation, changing goalies is one of them. Hell, Vancouver did it too.

But what a good game. Tight. Both teams knew that if a mistake was made, the other team would capitalize on it. When two very good teams are held to less than 30 shots on goal, you know it was a tight game. It was one of those where you're watching so intensely because anything could happen at any moment. All but one of the goals were scored in the first minutes of the 1st period, the rest of the game was certainly not boring, even with no scoring.

From Russia With Glove was outstanding. That one glove save in the first (if you saw it, you know the one I'm talking about) was un-freaking-believable. I may or may not have Tweeted "FRWG just got me pregnant". It was that hot. It took me awhile because of my devotion to Owsley, but I believe in Alex. I didn't ever NOT believe in him, but yeah.

I could go on and on about the God-awful reffing, but what's the use? They're still gonna suck. I have rarely seen Captain Toll so angry as I saw him last night with some of the calls. Bouma jumping Shinny? How the hell is that not an instigator? Schmidtty's constant jawing has drawn such attention to himself that he spent a ton of time in the box, not good. Whatever, the boys prevailed.

Speaking of Captain Toll, the Herald had some good stuff on him yesterday in the pre-game piece:

"I still feel like I'm 16 and coming here for my first season," he said. "I don't know where the time has gone.

"Being a part of the first banner from where we've come since my first year, it goes to show we've gotten better," Toll said. "I looked up to Logan Stephenson -- the intensity he brought every night -- and it's cool to know you've played with guys who are playing in the NHL."

It's pretty rare that a kid plays his whole WHL career with the same team so for Toller to be at the 250-game mark is pretty outstanding. Obviously it would be more if not for all his injuries over the years.

I also need to make note that in my opinion, Kruise Reddick played his best game as an American last night. He was absolutely nails. THAT is the Reddick I expect to see every night and am usually let down. I have been quite the critic of Pokey (not as much here, but definitely in my head) but if he can keep playing like he did last night, I'll consider changing my tune. As I've said before, my biggest complaint with Kruise is his consistency, so who knows how he'll do tonight. I am hoping he'll play as balls-to-the-wall as he did last night.

Alright, the Spokane Chiefs are in town tonight, so you know it'll be another good game. The boys always (almost always) seem to bring their best against the dreaded rival, tonight shouldn't be any different.