(photo: Dinur Blum)
Have they kicked the habit? Have the Stockton Thunder finally found a breath of confidence after losing eight out of their last nine contests? After an extended losing streak, the Thunder got the upper hand on the Bakersfield Condors with a 3-2 win on a 10:30AM game start time. Forwards Peter Sivak (1 g) and Tyler Shattock (2g) got the team on the board and stellar goaltending by Shane Owen shut the door on the Condors making 29 saves on 31 shots faced.
The start of the season has not been an easy road for the Stockton Thunder. Giving up early goals, an offense that has struggled to get the puck in the net and a defense that can’t contain their opponents have made it a rough ride early on. Thunder netminder Shane Owen has been a force in net and has given his team a chance to win, often without much support. He now leads the league in saves (310) and has the most wins for the team with four. As the final minutes of the game ticked down, the Thunder faced tremendous pressure from the Condors’ offense and Owen was forced to make several saves to end the game in regulation and seal the five game road trip with a win.
“You just have to stand tall,” said Owen on the final scramble in front of his net. “It was a hard fought game by the boys. The defense battled and kept pucks away from me and gave me lanes to see. I got a couple saves at the end there and we got the two points.”
The win gives the Thunder a shot in the arm before returning back home for a seven game homestand where they will face the Condors two more times over the weekend. The game highlighted some strengths Stockton can build upon on home ice. An early goal by Sivak gave the team momentum to keep the pressure on Condors goaltender Frans Tuohimaa.
“I thought the guys came out with high excitement and energy,” said Assistant Coach and Captain Garet Hunt about the strong start. “You can’t think about the past games, you have to think about the game ahead of you and take it five minutes at a time. We scored in the first shift and I thought we fed off of that. We had a few lapses we have to work on, I mean, we’re not going to be perfect, but we got the win and the boys played well.”
Special teams are also driving momentum in the game and the Thunder are second in the league in short-handed tallies with three. Tyler Shattock netted a shorty off a feed from James Henry and JT Barnett in the first period of play.
“ It was a great play by Shattock and Henry to go back and forth,” said Coach Hunt on the short-handed goal. “I think that was another great momentum changer, short-handed goals, power-play goals, special teams is huge. That helped continue our momentum early on.”
The Thunder will meet Bakersfield over the weekend and yet again for a pre-Thanksgiving tilt. The two teams will share no holiday cheer for one another after the four game series. Stockton will then host the Utah Grizzlies for one night. Finally, after being swept in Anchorage, the Thunder will seek some redemption in their home barn, when they take on the Alaska Aces for a 3-in-3 weekend series at the beginning of December.
(photo: Dinur Blum)
The Ontario Reign bounced back tonight against the Idaho Steelheads. Their loss on Wednesday was enough to push them harder and it showed with their 4-1 final score. Ontario started a new record in the making on Thursday as their three game skid has already been kicked to the curb.
Some things were different compared to Wednesday night’s game. Reign right winger Derek Couture was placed on reserve after yesterday and with that Vincent Arseneau had been reassigned to Ontario from the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs. His 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame brings an obvious toughness that the team can benefit off of with 120 penalty minutes from playing with the CHL’s Denver Cutthroats last season. This kind of size could be the key to stopping the Steelheads from even stepping foot in the Reign’s zone. Idaho is still excelling in puck possession and out shooting in 11 out of 15 games, so Ontario was going to have to keep holding on all throughout the second period into the third to ensure a quick comeback did not happen.
The Reign came in ready to charge during the first period. Ontatio’s Maxim Kitsyn got the puck out of the corner and passed it to Judd Blackwater who then shot the puck within minutes of the first period starting and beat Steelheads goalie Olivier Roy at just 3:15. Another goal came at 9:41 by Blackwater once again. Reign Defenseman Jeff May shot the puck to Blackwater who backhanded it past Roy for a lead of 2-0. Big bad Arseneau suffered a major five minute penalty for elbowing which made the Reign have to start standing their ground. Goalie Joe Cannata and Ontario’s blueline managed to keep the Steelheads out for the rest of the period for a 2-0 lead.
Ontario kept the reigns tight all through the second period. Forward David de Kastrozza managed to pull a goal for Idaho at 10:51 to have the Steelheads only trailing behind by one goal. Steelheads defenseman Matt Case and forward Gaelan Patterson cleared the way for de Kastrozza to be able to make his move. Idaho ended the second with 15 shots on goal and scored one out of it. That was still not enough to spook the Reign into making any drastic moves. They kept their lead all the way through the second and into the third.
Wednesday’s third period during the Reign’s first game against Idaho is when all things fell apart but not this time. They pulled ahead of the game once again at 7:04 after Alex Roach‘s shot was retrieved by left winger Everett Sheen who then passed it to forward Rocco Carzo and scored. Carzo did it again at 8:43 when Blackwater took the rebound from Roy and fed it to Carzo who shot and scored. The Reign’s comeback game ended in regulation with a final score of 4-1. Cannata earned the victory with 34 saves while Roy took the loss with 17.
The Ontario Reign are looking to win their second game in a row against the Steelheads on Saturday.
Photo by Kirby Lee, USA Today Sports
Los Angeles Kings’ defenseman, Slava Voynov was suspended on Oct. 20 of this year following allegations of domestic abuse and his subsequent arrest. He was immediately suspended for the duration of the investigation, which still has yet to be resolved. Although the Russian native is not currently involved in any team activities, he continues to be on the Kings’ payroll, taking up $4.166 million of LA’s salary cap space.
This is the fifth week of Voynov’s suspension. The choice to suspend a player with pay is a fairly uncommon one and so far, it has worked against the Kings. The cap crunch has caused the Kings’ to have a player shortage. In order to accommodate the cap, the Kings have been forced at times to play one defenseman short. Naturally, they are not too happy with their current situation. Unfortunately for the Kings, league commissioner, Gary Bettman is sticking to his guns.
Bettman has remained unsympathetic towards the Kings’ struggles with the salary cap is not willing to make any exceptions for the reigning Stanley Cup Champions. He has made it clear that every team has a salary cap and is responsible for cap management, and the Kings, despite their situation with Voynov, is no different. According to an article published by Sports Illustrated, Bettman stated during a conference that the “Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expressly provides for what we’re doing,” as in the CBA directly addresses this kind of suspension.
General Manager of the LA Kings, Dean Lombardi, is especially frustrated by the situation and Bettman’s unwillingness to throw his team a bone. While Lombardi has made statements since Voynov’s suspension that he agrees with the suspension of the 24-year old blue-liner, he also feels as if the league’s refusal to provide the Kings’ with cap relief is unfair and unreasonable.
In an interview with the Orange County Register’s Rich Hammond on Nov. 17th, Lombardi commented on the fact that other teams have been allowed cap relief for issues such as injuries, and that relief allows for “a cushion,” he said. Lombardi believes that the Kings’ should have that cushion. Voynov is still suspended and his actions are very clearly not being ignored, and yet LA has not been given any wiggle room.
He further stated to Hammond that:
”We must build in a cushion in case one of our players is a bank robber, kleptomaniac, etc. The seemingly better alternative is, we have to do a better job of educating our players and, in particular, monitoring our players away from the rink. While monitoring them away from the rink may have the Orwellian connotation of `Big Brother’ oversight, that is the nature of the sports business in the cap era.”
Lombardi went on to reference the case of Maple Leaf’s right-winger, Carter Ashton, who has been serving a 20-game suspension which went into effect early November for the use of performance enhancing drugs that violated the terms laid out by the NHL/NHLPA’s Performance Enhancing Substances Program. Following Ashton’s suspension, Toronto was allowed cap space. While Ashton and Voynov’s respective cases are certainly not the same, Lombardi was trying to make a point about who gets cap space and who does not and how this distinction points to how, as he told the Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times, “the system is dysfunctional.”
Looking ahead, Voynov’s court date is set for December 1st and with the way things are going it looks like the Kings will have to do what they can with the current salary cap in place.
Coming off of a strong road trip in Canada, the Arizona Coyotes were on the hunt for a win at home. Winning two out of three on their last road trip, there was momentum coming into a game against a team they’ve already beat.
Equal Responsibility
The main question for the Coyotes was who was going to get the start in goal. With Mike Smith having a rough start, and still not being completely consistent, he was benched the last two games of their trip after a loss to Calgary. The Coyotes other goaltender, Devan Dubnyk, got the last two starts, and even earned himself a shutout.
The final decision was that Smith would get the start, which seemed normal for Coach Dave Tippett to say. Smith stayed strong, and had a good performance. A goal in the first for the Capitals, and a late OT winner were the only one’s that made it through. Post game, Tippett explained that their busy schedule of 9 games in 15 days would mean that “as much as [we] want to say one guy is great and everything, but [we] need both those guys [both goalies] playing well”.
Defense Stepping It Up
The difference this game, and the past several, have been the support in front of the net by the defense. A save on the goal line by D-man Zbynek Michalek in the third to stop a goal showed the effort that they were putting out. The only goal of the game for the ‘Yotes came from defender Oliver Ekman-Larsson (his third of the season).
Blocked shots were a big story after last nights game. The Coyotes were taking them off of basically everything: heads, faces, legs, you name it. Michael Stone took one to the face in the third and headed down the tunnel for some stitches. Stone said that “it didn’t feel nice when it happened”, but whatever effort they could put forward to the game was appreciated. When asked if he knew how many stitches he actually got, Stone lightheartedly responded with “I have no idea, I haven’t even seen them, yet”. True hockey toughness, right there.
Rivalry Feel
If you didn’t know any better, while watching the game, you might have thought that there was some sort of big rivalry between the Capitals and Coyotes. Besides the Coyotes last win (6-5) against the Caps a couple weeks back, everyone is a bit confused about the aggression. Then again, that kind of game is interesting to watch, even if it’s a nail biter. Chris Summers said that, “it’s not a fun hockey to watch by any means.But it’s effective and in the long run, I think it’s going to be beneficial for us.”
The physicality was unreal. It was a fast-paced game, but still low scoring. There wasn’t an exceptional amount of shots on goal, because of the amount of pressure being issued by both defenses. Both teams ended the game with only 24 shots, but the Capitals trumped the Coyotes with 41 hits, to 29.
The whole game had you on your toes, and it going into over time just went to show the equal playing field. Both Chris Summers and Michael Stone made comments on this “rivalry” sort of feel during the game.
Offense Still Struggling
I’ve said this all season, and I will say it again, the Coyotes are not an offensive team. They are known for their defense, and now that their D is getting to the standard that has been set, they are really what is going to make the differences in the games.
The Coyotes don’t have any big-time forwards, and therefore they are going to struggle to generate a lot of goals. You have players like Mikkel Boedker who takes a lot of shots, and has good games, but the execution on the shots just isn’t there. By no means is it not possible to get there, but it’s something that they definitely struggle in.
They controlled the puck and were able to get it out of their defensive zone a good amount during the first two periods. The third period was rough, and it wasn’t in the zone that they wanted it to be in enough.
Coach Tippett said that if they keep playing this way, then you need to expect “low-scoring games”, but hopefully those can come out as wins.
Coach was impressed with the game, even if the outcome wasn’t the one he wanted. They still get a point, considering it was an OT loss, and at this point, getting points is what they need if they want to be serious contenders in playoffs.
The Canadian Women’s Hockey League has named the 42 players selected to participate in the league’s inaugural all-star game on Dec. 13 in Toronto.
The players – 23 forwards, 13 defensemen and six goaltenders – were chosen from all five teams in the league (Boston Blades, Brampton Thunder, Montreal Stars, Calgary Inferno, and the Toronto Furies). Staff, coaches and players themselves made the selections based on skills, leadership, community engagement and commitment to the league and the sport.
Fans will vote online from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 to choose the captains of the two teams. A private draft on Dec. 12 will determine the rosters for each team.
On Dec. 13, the game at the Air Canada Center will air live on Sportsnet as part of the CWHL’s new four-year broadcast deal. The game will be free to attend, though fans are asked to RSVP for tickets.
“These 42 players represent the immense commitment, skill, passion and talent found within our league,” said CWHL commissioner Brenda Andress. “We are proud to recognize each of them with this invitation. WIth the support of the Toronto Maple Leafs, we have made the All-Star Game a free event for our fans, consistent with our league mission to provide exceptional hockey entertainment at family friendly prices.”
The players selected are:
Goaltenders (six)
- Delayne Brian (Winnipeg, Man./Calgary Inferno)
- Erica Howe (Ottawa, Ont./Brampton Thunder)
- Christina Kessler (Toronto, Ont./Toronto Furies)
- Charline Labonté (Boisbriand, Que./Montreal Stars)
- Geneviève Lacasse (Kingston, Ont./Boston Blades)
- Sami Jo Small (Winnipeg, Man./Toronto Furies)
Defensemen (13)
- Kacey Bellamy (Westfield, Mass./Boston Blades)
- Courtney Birchard (Mississauga, Ont./Brampton Thunder)
- Michelle Bonello (Mississauga, Ont./Toronto Furies)
- Tessa Bonhomme (Sudbury, Ont./Toronto Furies)
- Megan Bozek (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Toronto Furies)
- Cathy Chartrand (Nominigue, Que./Montreal Stars)
- Laura Fortino (Hamilton, Ont./Brampton Thunder)
- Alyssa Gagliardi (Raleigh, N.C./Boston Blades)
- Jocelyne Larocque (Ste. Anne, Man./Brampton Thunder)
- Shannon Moulson (Mississauga, Ont./Toronto Furies)
- Lauriane Rougeau (Beaconsfield, Que./Montreal Stars)
- Tara Watchorn (Newcastle, Ont./Boston Blades)
- Jessica Wong (Baddeck, N.S./Calgary Inferno)
Forwards (23)
- Anne-Sophie Bettez (Sept-Iles, Que./Montreal Stars)
- Emmanuelle Blais (Lasalle, Que./Montreal Stars)
- Blake Bolden (Cleveland, Ohio/Boston Blades)
- Lisa-Marie Breton-Lebreux (St-Zachaire, Que./Montreal Stars)
- Jessica Campbell (Melville, Sask./Calgary Inferno)
- Julie Chu (Bridgeport, Conn./Montreal Stars)
- Jenna Cunningham (Medicine Hat, Alta./Calgary Inferno)
- Sarah Davis (Paradise, N.L./Calgary Inferno)
- Brianna Decker (Dousman, Wisc./Boston Blades)
- Meghan Duggan (Danvers, Mass./Boston Blades)
- Brittany Esposito (Edmonton, Alta./Calgary Inferno)
- Carly Hill (Pointe-Claire, Que./Montreal Stars)
- Haley Irwin (Thunder Bay, Ont./Calgary Inferno)
- Rebecca Johnston (Sudbury, Ont./Calgary Inferno)
- Jess Jones (Picton, Ont./Brampton Thunder)
- Hilary Knight (San Francisco, Calif./Boston Blades)
- Jenelle Kohanchuk (Winnipeg, Man./Toronto Furies)
- Carly Mercer (Exeter, Ont./Brampton Thunder)
- Caroline Ouellette (Montreal, Que./Montreal Stars)
- Carolyne Prevost (Sarnia, Ont./Toronto Furies)
- Jamie-Lee Rattray (Kanata, Ont./Brampton Thunder)
- Natalie Spooner (Scarborough, Ont./Toronto Furies)
- Kelli Stack (Brooklyn Heights, Ohio/Boston Blades)
Click here for more information on the CWHL All Star Game.
(photo: Wikipedia via Pens Through My Lens)
There is a new health issue within the Pittsburgh Penguins. Forward Pascal Dupuis has found out that he has a blood clot in one of his lungs and the bare minimum time he will be gone is six months. The Pens veteran was first complaining about a pain in his chest and the clot was officially discovered on Monday.
A release from the team’s physician explains his overall health and future. “Pascal had a blood clot in his leg that traveled to his lung,” Dr. Dharmesh Vyas said. “In medical terms, that is a deep vein thrombosis resulting in a pulmonary embolism. This is the second such incident that we know of for Pascal. The treatment is at least six months of blood thinners, during which time he will not be able to play hockey. Other than that, his condition is stable.”
This is not the first time suffering a blood clot for Dupuis. He missed most of last season because of one. Back in January, he was put on blood thinners for a clot that followed surgery to fix an ACL injury. Dupuis has not played since Saturday and most likely will not for a while unless a miracle happens. Because this is such a life threatening situation, he is a lot better off taking care of it now than trying to play through something of that nature.
The past year has not been too easy health wise for the Penguins. Last year, defenseman Kris Letang missed time on the ice due to suffering a stroke. Former goalie Tomas Vokoun also suffered a blood clot in his pelvis and had to go through surgery and put him out of the game. Not even a month ago yet, defenseman Olli Maatta missed two weeks due to having a cancerous tumor removed from his thyroid.
Bad timing and luck seems to be circulating around the Pens’ health but it will just make them even stronger than before. Even though hockey is their way of life and the way they make a living, players’ health should always be the number one priority to them and all of the staff. Without good health, there would be no games.
(Photo Courtesy of Bill Wippert)
While areas south of the Buffalo metro area were getting slammed with an extremely bad lake effect snow event, the Sabres–Sharks game went on as scheduled. Through various social media accounts, plenty of fans were upset by the decision to play the game. Parts of South Buffalo and beyond were being buried under 5-6 feet of snow and with multiple travel bans, many of Buffalo’s fans were not going to make it to the game. There was an estimated 6,200 people that were able to make the game and my guess is that the majority were from the northern suburbs where not a inch of snow fell. If we were playing any team from the Eastern Conference, I feel that management would have looked a little closer into cancelling the game, however with San Jose already being in town and needing to return home for a game on Thursday, the decision to play the game had to be difficult.
Only one Sabre was unable to attend, that being Patrick Kaleta, who recently return to the lineup following an extended injury and rehab stint with the Rochester Americans. Kaleta lives in Angola, about 20 miles south of Buffalo and was snowed in and coach Ted Nolan thought it be best that he stayed safely at home. “I’d rather have Kaleta home safe than have him drive through dangerous conditions on the roads to make the game.”
Even with a sparse crowd cheering them on, Buffalo was able to find the back of the net 4 times in order to get their second straight win beating San Jose 4-1. This also marks the 8th straight win for Buffalo against San Jose. The first period saw both sides get goals waved off. The first was on Buffalo when Tyler Ennis went full steam sliding into Troy Grosenick. Ennis was sent to the box for goaltender interference. San Jose was called for a no goal moments later when Justin Braun went towards the net and slightly ran into Michal Neuvirth, along many can argue that Ennis also had a hand in hitting his own goalie and helping the situation.
Buffalo scored first in the second period on a lucky bounce from Nicolas Deslauriers, his 2nd of the season. As Cody McCormick was trying to just get the puck near the net, Deslauriers was able to get himself in the play and made a nice shot behind the goalie that bounced off his back and into the net. San Jose countered 5 minutes later on the powerplay when Brent Burns was able to make his slap shot go through the crowd of people in front of the net. This was Burns’ 7th goal of the season. Roughly a minute later, Brian Gionta scored his first goal of the season, making a quick release shot towards the net. Gionta hasn’t been able to score yet this season and it has been frustrating for the Sabres captain. “It’s a big relief,” he said. It’s been a long time and it weighs on you a little bit, but I thought our line was going well tonight, skating well and we created some chances.” Brian Flynn closed out the second period with just his second of the season. Gionta chipped the puck past the Sharks defender and skated hard with Flynn and passed the puck at just the right time for Flynn to make the one timer past Grosenick.
The third period saw another Sharks goal waved off when Patrick Marleau’s shot looked to cross the line. The goal was waved after further review and it was shown that Matt Moulson was able to get his stick in the way before the puck crossed the line and saved the goal. The only goal of the third period was an empty net goal scored by Gionta. He was on a 2 on 1 break with Zemgus Girgensons and while Gionta looked like he might pass the puck, he chose to keep it and get his second goal of both the game and the season.
The game also saw previous NHL goalie and current Sabres goaltending coach Arturs Irbe dress as a backup for Jhonas Enroth. Neuvirth started the game in goal for Buffalo but left the game with a lower body injury after the first period and in order to get a full roster of skaters, coach Ted Nolan turned to Irbe and asked him to dress as backup, just in case. “We started scrambling, looking for options and it’s a snow day, No. 1. And No. 2, it’s Independence Day for Latvia, for our tiny country today,” Irbe said after the game. “Ted said, “Arch, why don’t you be our security net just in case?’ Irbe last played professional hockey in 2007, so he would have been a little rusty, but with no other options he strapped on Enroth’s pads and borrowed a glove and blocker that used to belong to Ryan Miller and went to work. “I went about my business, started second period and thought I’m just going to be on standby,” stated Irbe. Neuvirth is expected to be out for a few games so a backup from Rochester is likely for the next couple of games.
San Jose flew home to host the Florida Panthers on Thursday while Buffalo will host the New York Rangers on Friday. Hopefully the current snow storm situation will lighten up in Buffalo and allow for more than 6,200 fans to attend the game.
Aaron Portzline at the Columbus Dispatch released a heartbreaking story today, about Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson filing for bankruptcy after his parents allegedly sent him spiraling into debt after grossly mismanaging his finances. From Portzline:
Johnson has earned more than $18 million during his nine-year NHL career, not including the $5 million he will be paid this season by the Blue Jackets.
Almost all of the money is gone, and some of his future earnings have already been promised — which is why Johnson, surrounded by a new team of financial advisers and an attorney, signed his financial surrender. […]
“Jack’s financial situation was detrimentally affected by the actions of those who were trusted to handle his business affairs,” Kessler told The Dispatch. “Unfortunately, these were predatory lenders going so far as to use Jack’s NHL contract as collateral.
“In order to best protect his future, he’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and he’s enlisted a new group of professionals who are helping him get through these matters. Jack remains focused on hockey. He appreciates the support of the entire Blue Jackets organization and the fans during what is a pretty difficult time.”
Johnson is certainly not the first professional athlete to file for bankruptcy, nor will he be the last. Professional sports often rocket young players into a world of large finances, large opportunities, and large pitfalls without any kind of preparation. If your last job was making $7.50 an hour, how do you react the first time someone puts a check worth $100,000 in your hands? It’s easy to sit back in my bought-from-IKEA desk chair and say, “Give it to a financial adviser.”
But financial advisers can be swindlers, too. Alan Eagleson was charged with 34 counts of racketeering, obstruction of justice, embezzlement and fraud, and we put that guy in the Hockey Hall of Fame before anyone realized what a dirtbag he was.
When you’re 18 or 21, when all you know is hockey, who else do you trust to act in your best interest but your parents? You likely won’t be able to tell the difference between a trustworthy accountant and a conman, but you know your parents. They love you. They sacrificed for you. At the very least, they have your best interests at heart.
Right?
Last year, the NHLPA rolled out an NHL Rookie Orientation Program. According to Sports Business Daily, “players were to partake in three days of training, including media training, and hear presentations on health and safety issues, as well as information on how to manage personal finances and general life skills guidance. The NHL and the NHLPA have jointly funded the program.”
The program is meant to introduce rookies to life as a public figure, who is likely making exponentially more money than their peers. (Johnson was drafted in 2005, long before this kind of comprehensive program existed.) It’s tough to say whether the program is effective, given its short life span, but it could become one of the best things that either the NHL or the NHLPA has done for its young players in the history of both organizations. Hockey, they know. Hockey they understand.
Finances? Responsibility with social media? Learning how to say no (or how to say “just a little”) to the sudden flood of potentially negative influences their new paycheck and social status has thrust on them?
Jack Johnson’s bankruptcy is heartbreaking, for him and his loved ones. But it’s also a reminder that hockey takes very, very young people and trains them to be excellent at one specific thing. It’s up to the people around them—team management, the NHLPA, and the NHL itself—to act as advocates and guides for managing all the baggage that comes with being excellent at that one thing.
Being an 18-year-old professional does not make you an adult; education and understanding does. The NHL always talks about it’s “young men,” but the emphasis there should not be on “men.” The emphasis should be on “young.”
(photo: Dinur Blum)
The Ontario Reign fell to the Idaho Steelheads 4-3 on Wednesday night at Idaho’s CenturyLink Arena. After suffering two consecutive losses, they were hoping that this would be the comeback game they needed to start getting back on track. The Reign previously lost against the Steelheads just under a month earlier at their home opener.
The first of three games against the also powerful Steelheads was expected to be a good one because both teams have specialties in completely different areas. The Reign have the benefit of great power plays and penalty kills compared to Idaho. The Reign have 84.6 percent of their penalties killed which may give them somewhat of a competitive edge. What the Steelheads do have is their ability to maintain puck possession and forward Jason Bast who is overall sixth in the league with 49 shots on goal.
The first period was opened by Idaho’s charge with a set up by defenseman Charlie Dodero and stuffed in past Reign goalie Jussi Olkinuora by forward Steve Quailer at 7:16. That did not discourage the Reign from wanting redemption. Reign’s Gasper Kopitar went up the right wing and shot but was initially blocked by Steelheads defenseman Colin Shea but left winger Everett Sheen grabbed back the puck and snapped it through to tie the game at 17:49. Idaho had a considerably larger number for shots on goal compared to Ontario at 17-3. The first period ended with a tie to start the night with a fight to the finish edge.
Ontario started pulling the reigns harder during the second period and scored two quick goals to lead against Idaho. Left winger Maxim Kitsyn took Tyler Spurgeon‘s rebound and slotted it. Judd Blackwater smacked the puck right through Idaho goalie Henri Kiviaho at 1:50. Reign defenseman Matt Register broke through a Steelheads pass and sent a pass over to Tristan King in the neutral zone. He blew into the offensive zone and snapped a wrist shot at 6:27. The second ended with Idaho trailing 3-1. Things were finally starting to look up in the Ontario zone. They woke up after the first period with now 14 shots on goal which reflected in the two goals they quickly pulled.
During the third period, the Reign started out strong once again but let go of the handles too soon. Just a few minutes into the period, Idaho tried to shoot one past Olkinuora but he saved it thanks to those leg pads. The Steelheads proved that they had no intentions of being done yet. They came back on a four-by-four play when Quailer snuck his way around the back of the Reign’s net, passed the puck to Bast who shot and scored at 5:27. At 9:13, Steelheads forward Alex Belzile shot a long range pass from Quailer which made it into the net once again. Dodero received a pass from Wade Macleod and drove the puck into the net at 15:52. Olkinuora pulled for an extra man and a faceoff in the neutral zone began with 20 seconds left and no man in the net. Regulation ended with a win from the Steelheads at 4-3.
Idaho surpassed Ontario with 34 overall shots on goal to the Reign’s 27. Goalies Olkinuora had a total of 30 saves while Kiviaho took the win of the night with 24. Ontario will be back at it on Thursday for their second game against the Idaho Steelheads to try to win their throne back.
(Photo: Krista Patronik)
When the buzzer signaled the end of Tuesday’s game in Boston, St. Louis found themselves singing the shutout blues in the key of G, as Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask kept singing his own refrain of “No goal for you,” by making some absolutely tremendous saves.
Coming into the evening the St. Louis Blues were 9-1 in their last ten games and were certainly a team on a streak—in fact they had a three-game winning streak. And as the game got underway it seemed that the Blues intended to make this game another win, though the pace of the game was much slower than perhaps they were expecting from the Bruins.
The Boston Bruins are often looked at as a team that doesn’t have speed, but they usually have lengthy periods between whistles, which was certainly not the case in the first period. That period alone saw eight icing calls and five calls on the teams being offsides, which didn’t include stops as a result of the puck being in the netting or goaltenders stopping the puck. The first icing came just eighteen seconds into the game. The incessant whistles made for a slow first period and may have worked to the benefit of the Bruins whose neutral zone play also contributed to slowing things down and perhaps threw off the Blues timing some.
Kevin Shattenkirk
After the game The Pink Puck asked Blues Kevin Shattenkirk if perhaps that slow start may have contributed to the lack of production from St. Louis.
“Yah, I think that’s mostly due to their neutral zone forecheck. They really sit back and wait for you to try and force a pass, and then attack off of that. I think that’s what makes the game a little bit slower,” Shattenkirk told The Pink Puck. “So I think that’s where we have to be able to just kind of turn it right back around on them, like we did in the third period there. We were able to just get pucks, turn it back, get it in their zone, and go to work.”
And go to work the Blues did—throughout the game—having almost twice as many shots on goal in the game with 33 to the Bruins with just 17. And yet despite the constant barrage of shots, most of them were kept to the outside and Rask was clearly in his zone because with just a couple of exceptions he was square to the puck and ready to stop it regardless of where St. Louis shot. Those couple of shots that Rask wasn’t immediately on top of, somehow stayed out or he made one of those “miracle saves” that leave people gawking at the net.
In response to being kept to the outside, Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock acknowledged that but also pointed out that perhaps his team was looking for the pretty goal.
“Well, I just think they kept us on the perimeter all night. I know we had a lot of shots on goal, but we weren’t really a threat,” Hitchcock told reporters. “We were trying to make the extra play all night, rather than pound it in and look for the grease goal.”
The game probably looked different to those watching it than to those who were playing it, especially in regard to how well St. Louis was playing.
“[The Bruins] allowed us to enter the zone, kept us on the perimeter, and we stayed on the perimeter all night, did the same thing on the power play,” Hitchcock continued. “I think in style points, it looked probably like we were playing good, but there was no detail in doing the hard things that you have to on the road to score. We just allowed ourselves to stay on the perimeter.”
Patrice Bergeron
Of course, it wasn’t all perfect passes for the Blues. even as they were kept to the outside. One errant give away would prove costly. Just 5:45 into the first period, after having won an offensive zone faceoff, the play ended up back in St. Louis’ end of the ice and goalie Brian Elliott went behind the net to play the puck to Ian Cole. And Cole, who saw Matt Fraser coming at him, passed the puck around the net, only to discover Patrice Bergeron of the Bruins there to receive that pass. Elliott hadn’t made it all the way back into his net, making this an easy goal for Bergeron and one that he happily took, putting his team on the board first.
When asked about this gift of a goal after the game, Bergeron couldn’t help the devilish little grin from appearing as he responded.
“Yeah, sure, especially when the goalie was caught behind the net,” Bergeron said. “It was definitely one of those that you take for sure.”
Of course the lack of push by the St. Louis Blues is not intended to take away from the effort by the Bruins. Fraser, who had been put on the line with Bergeron with the scratch of Brad Marchand due to injury, was forechecking and using his speed to force the Blues to make costly plays, such as the one that gave Bergeron the goal, even though Fraser appears nowhere on the statistics sheet with an assist.
And for those who have been clamoring for Rask’s head on a stake for his slow start to the season, his play in Tuesday’s game was truly critical to the Bruins putting that game in the win column.
“He was tremendous tonight. Definitely gave us a chance to win on every play,” Bergeron said of his goaltender. “He was battling, playing the puck, finding it too through traffic. It wasn’t easy saves all the time, but it was definitely some tough ones and he made some huge plays for us.”
Boston now has a two-game winning streak, and head to Columbus to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night before returning Saturday for their next tilt with their bitter rival the Montreal Canadiens, followed by seeing the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday. It will be interesting to see what they take from their wins against the Carolina Hurricanes and the Blues to apply to the upcoming games.
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