Saturday, April 2, 2011

Tigers Defeat Brandon 9-5

The Arena Was Rockin' right from the Get Go. Brief Summary

First Period
The Tigers opened the game on fire. They dominated the first period and had Brandon running around for the first 14 minutes, outshooting them 14-8. Curtis Valk would bank in a rebound shot for the only goal of the period.

Second Period
In the second period Brandon made a comeback and took over the lead. Matt Mackay and Micheal Ferland would put soft shots through Dubyk's five-hole.

The Tigers would bounce back however and turned their game up another notch, as they scored 4 goals within 4 and a half minutes to take a commanding 5-2 lead.(The outburst was initiated when Brandon would shoot the puck out of play in their own zone and gave the Tigers a 5-3, I'm surprised Brandon didn't use their time-out sometime during this outburst)

Each team would score 1 more goal to make it a 6-3 game going into the third period.

Third Period
The Third was a lot like the second period. Brandon initiated a comeback attempt and the Tigers would score 2 more goals only 18 seconds apart. Each team would pot 1 goal apeice making the final score 9-5 Tigers.

Thoughts
An incredibly wild game. Very entertaining for the fans. I thought the Tigers played waaaay better compared to the first two hockey games. They made a number of adjustments to their systems from when we saw them last. They took a page out of Brandon's book and spread out their attack across the ice, and it created a shit-load of chances. Good job to the players/coaches for making that adjustment. Something i wished they would have done much earlier in the year.

The Tigers were also doing a much better job at blocking neutral zone passing lanes, creating more turn-overs. I am amazed at the progress of these 3rd and 4th line guys.

Both goaltenders were getting left out to dry on occasion. It was a very wide open game, with extremely quick transitioning. Both teams Defenceman looked gassed in the third period, more-so towards Brandon's side.

The score could have easily have been something like 12-6, or 14-6. It was a shootout. I noticed Brandon's Mark Stone was limping during the game.

Also some people might wonder why Brandon kept their starting goaltender in for the whole game.Well the game was never completely out of reach as their was only a 3-4 goal difference and Brandon's backup is injured, so they are way more likely to keep their starter in net unless its a complete blowout. If Brandon's regular backup was healthy, theirs no doubt we would have seen a goalie change at some point.

Brandon's Spencer Galbraith was a healthy scratch for the first 4 games but played tonight due to Brandon having 2 injuries to Ryley Miller and Brenden Walker.

I thought the Tigers must have watched some video on Brandon's power-play as their were doing a few things out their that halted Brandon's potent attack. Brandon made a couple adjustments later in the game and scored.

Edit: Saturday's Game Was indeed sold-out

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe neither team is allowed to use their backup unless the starter gets injured as they are both listed as emergency replacements.

Anonymous said...

Can someone tell me about the scoresheets. Don't all players in the game have to be on the scoresheet? The last 2 games Brandon has not had a back up goalie named. I noticed tonight the goalie wasn't even on the ice for warm up so I assume he arrived at the rink late.

TigerTurf said...

I read somewhere that Brandon's Backup arrived during the warm-ups.

Their backup Michael Tadjdeh previously played for Brandon but I believe they dropped him early on in the season.

The injury to starter rule sounds very familiar and I was wondering about it, but couldn't find anything on the internet that confirms/denies it

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a game last night. Brandon's 4 goals in the 1st period of game 4 sure woke the Tigers up. Vey and Etem got us back the lead in both game 4 and 5, pretty impressive.

It's going to be exciting if the Tigers make it to the second round and Tyler Pitlick returns from injury as they will once again have two of the best forward lines in the league.

I'm expecting big things from Pitlick in round 2, hopefully he'll be able to impress. I heard he got his cast off a week ago so hopefully he'll be good to go!

TigerTurf said...

No Pitlick's cast isn't off yet. But it is supposed to come off early this week.

Anonymous said...

What's the story on Theriau? He didn't play at all in the third period. There were times he appeared doubled over on the bench in this last game.

TigerTurf said...

Theriau has a some "bumps and bruises"

Anonymous said...

Seems a little more than bumps and bruises, if he is sitting a whole period. What are his injuries? How has he played?