The Tigers started the game out flying. They controlled the first 20-30 minutes of the hockey game by a wide margin. The shots read somewhere along 18-3 at one point and Lethbridge looked really flat, despite being ahead by a goal.
The Hurricanes got a key break when Austin Fyten threw a bad angle shot from the corner of the rink and it slid in between Tyler Bunz' shoulder and the post.
Momentum Change
Lethbridge made a change to their gameplan in the second half of the second period. They started sending their forwards up high, and they managed to generate a handful of odd man rushes, breakaways and opened up the neutral zone.
The Tigers had been dominating the game up to this point and a pair of goals 13 seconds apart ripped the game open and changed the momentum a complete 180 for the rest of the second period.
In the third the Tigers manage to battle back, finally cracking the impenetrable force-field around Canes goalie Dylan Tait. He lost sight of the puck after a save and Wacey Hamilton came charging in to score the first goal of the season, short-handed nonetheless.
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Game Thoughts
At the beginning of the game when I saw Thomas Carr step on to the Ice with an "A" I knew Wacey Hamilton would be dressed. It was a very pleasant surprise that he will be back this season. (Carr was captain during pre-season)
I thought the Tigers were very good at picking up loose pucks in the neutral zone and forcing turnovers. They had numerous chances to score but the Hurricanes goalie played very well. Excellent positioning and came out and challenged the shooters. Not to mention an incredible glove save when he was down and out.
I thought the Tigers looked unorganized when attacking in the third period. They looked like a team who were frustrated and started trying to play individually. The canes Defense played a collapsing style, didn't give up many odd man rushes, and they didn't give up many rebounds.
Lethbridge got a lot of offensive chances off turnovers when the Tigers were in the offensive end. (Blocked shots and sending in forwards up high)
Player Thoughts
Hunter Shinkaruk skating style reminds of Stefan Myer(not as big), I thought he looked pretty good for a 16 year old.
Tyler Pitlick looked a little hesitant. He hasn't spent very much time with the Tigers and he looked like a player that was just traded here. He was challenged to a fight but declined and his confidence looked shaky after that.
Kale Kessey must be injured. I beleive he missed the last couple exhibition games but never heard anything about it.
Reid Petryk looked very much improved with his puck handling skills.
Patrik Parkkonen has pretty good hockey sense, and despite his size plays alright in the corners. However he took a penalty trying to regain body positioning on a Canes forward. His hand I think came off his stick otherwise it was a good play.
Curtis Valk didn't play much but there was one move where I was blown away. He was coming into the offensive zone and had a player swing behind him. He did a little dip pretending to do a drop pass then rifled a shot on net.
Emerson Etem was invisible out there.
Mathew Konan looked very speedy. He caught up to 2 Canes forward on clear cut breakaways.
Sebastien Owuya made a daring play that cost him. He tried to level Hurricanes Jacob Berglund when he was the last man back, but only caught a piece of him. Berglund put a nice move ON Bunz and put one in off the crossbar.He also made a nice rush up the ice. Showed some soft hands and was able to get back pretty quickly.
Wacey Hamilton was targeted every-time he touched the puck. The Hurricanes didn't let him skate the puck through the neutral zone and had a couple guys on him pretty quick.
Wacey Hamilton fought Austin Fyten. Was a very scrambly fight both players fell down pretty early.
Give the Tigers a bit of Time. They are missing Jace Coyle on the back-end a lot, and still need some time to gel offensively. Once their forwards start clicking, get their powerplay going, and are a little more mindful of giving up odd man rushes, they'll be fine.
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Jace Coyle
In Other News Apparently Jace Coyle looked good in preseason action with the Dallas Stars. He recorded an assist, a +1 and logged the 4th most minutes on Dallas. I'm Guessing that Dallas will send him back to the Hat Tomorrow after giving him a taste of nhl action. Coyle was also a game starter.
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Lethbridge
I focused mostly on Tigers players getting to know their styles, but here is a few things off memory.
Obviously their goalie Dylan Tait looked pretty good. Like I mentioned above, Excellent positioning, challenged the shooters, and came out to the white ice. Their were a bundle of deflections that he managed to snag by being close to the shooter and the puck hitting him in the body.
In the second period Cam Braes looked like he had quite the wrist shot. He rifled one on net and Tyler Bunz managed to get a tiny piece of it as his shot rang off the crossbar and out of play. Mike Reddington stood out on the blueline, he did a good job at clearing away rebounds and boxing out Tigers forwards. Austin Fyten always seemed to be involved in a few scrums or yapping at tigers players.
I noticed a couple plays where Cane defender Daniel Johnston made an unforced error giving the puck away hearing footsteps but I think almost all Hurricane defenders made unforced errors in the first period.
3 comments:
I thought I heard that kessey had an abdominal strain,...
I'm not convinced that Frazer will be the one that is out and not Carr. I like them both and we would still have 6 defencemen. We have alot of good forwards and could possibly move one for a 7th defenceman.
Thanks Hurricanes for making the game easy to listen to without the drunken noise usually at Tigers games. For 90% of the game it sounded like it was played in a library.
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