"Goals are like bananas"
I always say good play overcomes bad reffing, but when Matt Kirk is in the house, it's much harder. Things got messy, especially as regulation time ended, couple of battles broke out right in front of Owsley's net--for which Drew got a 2-minute penalty for leaving his crease. For real. Of course he left his crease, he was getting out of the way of Schmidt and Reddick fights and other potential fights*. You gotta be kidding me. And that check from behind on Shinnimin by Gallagher only gets a double minor? C'mon, get real. Holland and a Giant bump on Holly's way to the bench and he gets an interference call. In a good game, one shouldn't even notice the ref.
Thankfully, reffing didn't affect the outcome (for the Americans). I wouldn't necessarily say good play overcame it, but good enough play. And a short-handed goal by Feser. Or a hot goal by Neal Prokop. And holy hotness that shot from the point game-winner by MacKenzie. RAWR.
Assistant Coach Bilodeau said on the post-game show that we haven't seen playoff hockey yet. I don't know that I particularly agree with that, but I think it's come in spurts. Friday night they spent half the time feeling each other out and gripping their sticks too tight, last night was more back and forth, clogging up the neutral zone--not giving each other much room, but it was also fairly sloppy and complicated by the stripes. Friday night both goalies were on their game, last night there were 9 goals scored--goalies weren't bad, per se, but not great.
Yuen's still wearing the college cage, and he's seemed a step behind. Certainly hasn't been playing bad, but just not quite himself. Schmidt had a better game that Friday night, ended up with a 3-point night. Kruise Reddick was all kinds of feisty and Bilodeau was right, there was a lot of shit-talking going on out there (he didn't use the words shit-talking). I thought Mason Wilgosh had a hell of a game. I love that he doesn't let anyone slow him down, he'll just go through them, over them, whatever. He kept control of the puck with his skates after losing his stick for a good 15 seconds--which doesn't sound like a long time, but it is when there's 3 Giants battling him for control.
"Every game in the playoffs tells a story," said Americans coach Jim Hiller. "Tonight we had a whole bunch of penalties and goals, and last night no one could score. That's the evolution of the playoffs -- you have to adapt."
"The bright spot tonight was we were able to kill those penalties," Hiller said. "I'm glad we don't have to play tomorrow, there are some tired boys in that locker room."
"Things are going to get heated," said Tri-City defenseman Tyler Schmidt, who was dinged for a roughing minor and a fight after handing out three assists during the game. "We are going to stand up for each other and not back down. It's a good rivalry and we play hard against each other."
"I thought Shinnimin's goal was important," Hiller said. "We needed to answer back."
"Goals are like bananas, they come in bunches," Holland said. "It was a different scenario tonight. We've seen it all."
"A two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey," Holland said. "Teams never seem to die when they are down two." (Herald)
Goals are like bananas. Nice Holly.
"We ran those guys pretty hard on the penalty kill," said Ams coach Jim Hiller. "We let (Vancouver) get under our skin and weren't smart, and we got ourselves involved in a couple of situations we didn't need to.*upon looking at my game photos, it appears he may have, in fact, left his crease but didn't get out of the way, he seemingly skates around the chaos, instead of just sticking to the corner or whatever. Damn.
"But the bright spot is we killed those penalties. Guys like Kruise and Feser and Holland got a lot of work at the end, and Wilgosh did his best work on the PK. I'm glad, though, that we don't have to play tomorrow night, because we have some tired guys in the room."
"Emotions were high, and this was a battle to the end," he said. "These are two teams that are not completely friendly with each other, but we'll sweep it under the rug and get ready for Game 3.
"We'll need to play our best game of the series (in Game 3)," Hiller added. "The guys will be ready for that, too." (Examiner)
3 comments:
Wilgosh playing soccer with the puck was fabulous! That he managed to stay upright, fend of 3 Giants, get the puck out of their offensive zone, all without a stick - just wow.
Watching Shinnimin lay motionless on the ice for 5 seconds was awful. We think he blacked out. I was relieved to see him back on the ice, but he's got one helleva headache today. Also, the trainers had better be watching him for signs of a conky. Gallagher should have been thrown. That hit was completely gratuitous.
The penalties at the end were as inconsistent as the penalties during the game. Somehow Schmidt and Statsny were the only ones to get 5-for-fighting. Bull. Shit. Schmidt and a Giant (probably Statsny, he was a thorn all night) got into it. A Giant became 3rd-man-in. Yuen pulled 3rd man off of Schmidt. I have no idea who Reddick was fighting, but between the Giant and the stripes, Reddick's blood was on the ice and his face looked awful as he skated off. I also found it frustrating that the stripes had so little control that skaters uninvolved in the initial "roughs" often ended up in the thick of things because they wouldn't go to the benches.
*wishes she could bail on work to go to Vancouver*
I think Schmidt was fighting Gallagher at the end, at least that's what the game photos on the Ams site indicate. Big surprise there. The mister reminded me that Gallagher was also the punk that jumped Shinny at the end of 8-1 rout months ago. Unfortunately, WHL politics will persevere and their precious Brendan Gallagher won't get so much as a slap on the wrist. Protecting their players indeed.
As far as Kirk and his attempt at officiating, all I can say is thank God for Mason Wilgosh and the rest of our penalty killers. Yep, Kirk and Nissen did a bang up job of keeping control of the game. Couldn't you tell by the all the penalties at the 20:00 mark? What a freakin joke.
Keep it up, Ams.
I'm glad I'm not the only one pissed off to high hell. Brendan Gallagher is a piece of trash. I don't care how "good" he is. That hit on Shinnimin was garbage, as was the rest of his play that night -- and most nights. (He laid out several more hits from behind that went uncalled, as well.) That high sticking call Schmidt got? That was Gallagher throwing himself into the boards (after trying to run Schmidt several seconds after he passed the puck), throwing himself into the boards, and falling onto Schmidt's stick. Cup-o-noodles didn't even see any of that, but saw the precious on the ice when he turned around.
That interference call on Holland was pure, unadulterated, epic bullshit. Broken stick, skating straight for the bench, and the Vancouver guy skates straight into him and "falls" down. Nice sell, buddy ... hope you're proud.
The precious also took down one of our guys -- Shinnimin, I think -- and held him on our net sometime in the third. We were the ones that got penalized for that.
I can only hope Bob presses for supplementary discipline on Gallagher. Maybe the Dub will step up for once and show it actually means something when it says it wants to crack down on dangerous hits. But I'm not holding my breath.
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