Friday, November 30, 2012

Rebels Defeat Tigers 6-5

Hunter Shinkaruk back in the lineup.
Jayden Hart back in the lineup
Ty Stanton back in the lineup

1st Period

The first period was a snooze fest. Lots of neutral zone play and not a whole lot of offensive chances.

Red Deer's Brandon Underwood would slap a knuckle puck on net near his blueline. Lanigan would whiff with his glove. 1-0 Rebels

A minute and a half later some bad positioning would cost them as Cory Millet would pick up the puck near the boards cutting in front of 2 Tigers. He would find Connor Bleakly who managed to get his stick on the pass and put a shot towards the goal which beat Lanigan in the butterfly. 2-0 Rebels

I thought the rebels were the better team in the first period even though the Tigers outshot them. 13-10

2nd Period
3:34 in Hunter Shinkaruk would gain an inch and drive to the net. He would throw the puck out front and it bounced in off of Curtis Valk's shin-pads and into the net. 2-1 Rebels.

Midway through the 2nd the Tigers turned the puck over and the Rebels would create a 3 on 2 Rush. They couldn't have played the 3 on 2 any better. 1 guy rushed the net, Rhyse Dieno would hesitate find the Trailer in the slot and Cory Millete put one past Cam Lanigan 3-1 Rebels

Late in the period the Tigers started pressing hard and would score a couple quick goals.

Shinkaruk off the rush would go behind the net and find Busenius at the point. Bus did a good job at hesitating to get a clear shot at the net which beat a screened Bartosak 3-2 Rebels.

Boston Leier would get dumped by Brandon Underwood and it led to a Tigers powerplay.

Elgin Pearce won a faceoff back to Spenser Jensen who fired a shot on net. Curtis Valk would get his stick on it and the re-direction would fool Patrik Bartosak 3-3 TIE

3rd Period
A horrible start to the 3rd period as the rebels score twice in just over a minute of play. Spenser Jensen tripped himself up going to smash a forward behind the boards. This left the crease open where Brooks Maxwell found Turner Elson for a bang bang play. 4-3 Rebels

The rebels would add to their lead off a bad goal from Lanigan. Wyatt Johnson would float a wrister on net and Lanigan would whiff with his glove for the 2nd time tonight. 5-3 Rebels.

That would mark the end of Lanigan's night in favor of Marek Langhamer.

7:18 in Trevor Cox would receive a gift from some Hard Work by Boston Leier. Leier fired a bad angle shot on net got his own rebound went behind the Rebel net and threaded a pass out front to Trevor Cox who had a partial open net  5-4 Rebels.

Then the nail-breaker. The Tigers were all over the rebels with multiple scoring chances. The next Rebel rush up the ice saw Brooks Maxwell go top shelf short side on a perfect shot over Langhamer's shoulder. 6-4 Rebels.

With the goalie pulled Curtis Valk would walk off the halfwall and thread a pass over to Elgin Pearce at the far side. Pearce fired a quick low shot on net that beat Bartosak 6-5 Rebels.

With 30 seconds left the Tigers couldn't generate anything after the puck hit the linesman and forced the Tigers offside...They took 2 tries to clear and the Buzzer sounded, handing the Tigers their 8th straight loss.


Thoughts
Rhyse Dieno played on the Rebels top line and was quite a factor. 3 assists on his former team giving him 7 points in 6 games with his return to the whl.

I thought the Tigers didn't play that well in the first period but showed strong character battling back from 2 goal deficits multiple times. Lanigan made some big saves but also let in a couple weak goals.

The Tigers had more offensive punch with Hart, and SHinkaruk back in the lineup. One positive was that the mistakes they made are fixable instead of totally getting outplayed like they have been the last few games. I would like to see a better team effort on finishing their hits.


The Tigers shook up their line combos  a bit.

Shinkaruk Pearce Valk
Leier Hart Cox
Koules Bredo Doty
Penner Labelle Sanford

Jensen Lewington
Busenius Ryckman
Stanton Becker

Next game: Lethbridge Visits the Arena. The Canes are also struggling a bit as of late

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Curtis Valk Suspended 1 Game

According to the WHL's Official Twitter feed Curtis Valk has been suspended 1 game for his boarding Major Tuesday night against Red Deer.

http://twitter.com/TheWHL

The Tigers play the Calgary Hitmen on Friday in Calgary. The Tigers clobbered the Hitmen 10-1 during their last meeting, and the Hitmen will probably be licking their chops for Friday's game.

Hunter Shinkaruk and Curtis Valk have accounted for 33 of the Tigers 89 goals.

Hunter Shinkaruk Update
Dave Dawson a reporter for Shaw TV tweeted this earlier Wednesday

" Asst Coach Joey Frazer about Shinkaruk injury: "Day to day. We'll keep pushing him at practice and see how he responds"

http://twitter.com/DaveDawson7

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Rebels Defeat Tigers 4-0

  Rebel Connections
Rhyse Dieno made his return to the arena. I thought he played well with 1 assist and a +2 rating for the rebels. He was playing in the rebels top 6.

The rebels also have another Tiger Connection as Joel Hamilton is Wacey Hamilton's Brother.

Rebel Thoughts

I thought the Rebels worked pretty hard throughout the game, they had a few lapses but the Tigers couldn't bury their chances. I thought Patrik Bartosak looked really good in net challenging shooters with his positioning, often coming out of the blue paint and didn't give up many rebounds.

I was impressed by 16 year old defenseman (#4) Haydn Fleury for the Rebels.




Curtis Valk (Possible Suspension)
Curtis Valk was assessed a 5 minute major for boarding and a game misconduct after pushing a falling rebels player into the boards. I know he was frustrated but it was a dumb play. Valk's penalty will be automatically reviewed by the league and I will not be surprised to see him suspended. The player wasn't hurt but the intention of the play will surely get him at least a game or two.

Valk was obviously frustrated as he was mobbed a few times during the game and didn't get any calls from the zebras.

Tiger Thoughts
It was the Tigers 4th game in 5 days.  I thought Gavin Broadhead played really well. I also thought Elgin Pearce played really well. Broadhead's dog like determination and physical presence was excellent to see. I liked how he was put on the penalty kill late in the game. I think that is an area he could excel at.


I thought the young guys played well. I was a little surprised by how well Matt Staples played, he looked like a veteran in the 3rd period.

 Guys like Leier, and Bredo received a lot of ice-time and you could see their legs were toast.

I didn't mind the effort of the Tigers tonight because they were a tired group. Despite being outworked the rebels didn't really create a whole lot of prime opportunities until they split the game open with a couple goals Lanigan normally stops.

At one point the Tigers were buzzing the rebels end with constant pressure for a good 2-3 shifts. Then the rebels next rush up the ice saw 3 players head over to the puck carrier and ignore the guy coming down the middle. That killed any chance of a comeback.

The Tigers did miss Hunter Shinaruk a lot. If Valk does happen to get suspended the next game against calgary could be ugly.


PK
I think their is one element of the Rebels game the Tigers could use on their penalty kill.

Whenever the Tigers "walked the point" on the powerplay 1 rebel forward would stay up high to cover the dman, the other forward would fall back to form a triangle to protect the front of the net and cross ice passes.

 If the defenseman went D to D the 2nd forward would come back up and cross over to cover the points again. Often times we see a large gap in the middle of the ice opposition teams sometimes are able to exploit.


Next Games
Unfortunately I will be unable to recap either weekend game against Calgary or Edmonton.


2 Tigers Make the NHL CSS scouting Lists

NHL central Scouting just released their preliminary lists for this year.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=84930

2 Tigers made the list.
Hunter Shinkaruk is rated #2
Spenser Jensen is rated #25

This list is basically a top 25 preliminary list for each league. During the midterm rankings they usually expand into 1 big list and include more players.

(When the list expands I think Tyler Lewington, Trevor Cox, and Jayden Hart will have good shots at making the mid-term lists however all players can use this as motivation for not being preliminary listed. I think Hart would have made the preliminary list if he had remained healthy)

Other shots

Edit: I missed Gavin Broadhead as being draft eligible

Ty Stanton, Chad Labelle, Matt Staples, Cole Sanford are all 1st year eligilble for the upcoming NHL draft as well. They are probably not on the radar as of yet

With the Injuries at forward I'd like to see Sanford with an increased role. I think Sanford has potential to suprise given  more icetime. He is on my list as an underutlized player to watch for.

Staples is too raw at this point. I see Labelle as more of a Bretton Cameron style grinder who may be able to score some goals in the whl as he gains more experience.

Stanton had a couple injuries but could be given consideration if he can stay healthy and show consistent improvement.  Pre-season Stanton was seen as a physical guy, but now that a few games has passed I see him as more of a 2 way Dman with some offensive potential, a little raw but not as raw as Staples.

Gavin Broadhead I see as more of a grinder/late bloomer. I dont think he will garner consideration this year but the road is long and if he keeps up that work ethic could be a player who gets a contract at 20 but it is waay to early.

-------------------

Spensen Jensen
I am not suprised that Spenser Jensen made the list.

Their is a poll on the Tigers website about most improved player. IMO the "most improved player" is not on that list which is Spenser Jensen by a mile.

Spenser was a forward last year. I found myself wondering pre-season where exactly he fit on the defensive depth charts. Jensen's ice time the last month has increased, as you'll notice he has been starting the game with Busenius on the back-end.

Jensen is listed as 6'4 191 lbs. For a bigger guy he has incredible acceleration and speed to match the speed of opponent forwards who try and beat him wide. Jensen has shown that he brings a physical presence along the boards, and more often that not wins the small battles.

If Jensen can bring a bit more offense to his game and maintain his strong defensive play he will shoot up the rankings.

Hunter Shinkaruk
I've seen him listed as anywhere from 3rd-15th on overall scouting lists. One interesting note about his 2nd position on the CSS prelim rankings is that he is 6 spots above Curtis Lazar who has been neck and neck with him on other preliminary lists. I think Hunter dropped a bit early in the season but has made a slow incline the past month.

With Hunter being injured for 2 weeks it should give extra opportunities on the powerplay and more icetime to the 16/17 year old rookies. I hope a couple of them can take off with this opportunity. 

I remember when Shinkaruk was 16 it was an early season injury which gave shinkaruk more icetime. He has ran with it and never looked back.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Silvertips Defeat Tigers 2-1

Tigers were without Hunter Shinkaruk, Miles Koules, Jayden Hart, and  Ty Stanton due to injury.

Ridley mentioned on the radio that Hunter Sppeared to have a skate cut injury. He took a hit from Seth Jones 15 seconds into the game against portland and twisted awkwardly to the ice.

Miles Koules mentioned on his twitter feed "Swerving through the mountains on the bus. Only 12 hours 39 minutes left." #carsick #throwup...sounds like the flu.


I wasn't able to watch the game but here is an article and some excerpts from Nick Patterson's HeraldNet.com blog


HeraldNet Article on the game
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20121118/BLOG12/121119825

The game has been over for about an hour-and-a-half, I'm sitting here in the press area at Comcast Arena, and I'm still trying to figure out how Everett won this game.


Frankly, the Tips didn't play a very well tonight. Everett looked sluggish and was not sharp in any aspect of the game. Medicine Hat outworked and outskated the Tips throughout. The final shot discrepancy was 41-18 in favor of the Tigers, and the game was every bit as one-sided as that shot total suggests.

Meanwhile, Medicine Hat seemed to be lacking the cutting edge in front of goal. I think it's safe to say the Tigers missed injured star winger Hunter Shinkaruk tonight.


Tigers outshot Everett 40-18.
Former Tiger Reid Petryk was held pointless and is wearing an "A" for the Silvertips this year.




Saturday, November 17, 2012

WinterHawks Defeat Tigers 5-2


Pre-Game Notes

Boston Leier gets to face off against his cousin Taylor Leier.
 Marek Langhamer gets the start in goal.
Portland Starting their backup goalie Brendan Burke
(Interesting stat with Langhamer in net the Tigers have a 66% Penalty Kill Rate)
Preston Kopeck of the Portland Winterhawks is from Medicine Hat.


Tiger Scratches
Ty Stanton
Jayden Hart
Chad Butcher
Steven Owre

First Period

Tigers get some bad news. 15 seconds in Hunter Shinkaruk attempted to side step Seth Jones and went down as Jones was able to lay into him. Shinkaruk has not returned to the game. The hit didn't look that bad but their was some twisting involved and I'm wondering if its a twisted knee/ankle.

 Cole Sanford is taking his spot on the top line, Koules stepped in at the 10 minute mark after Sanford scored a goal.

Marek Langhamer stopped a breakaway and then a Penalty Shot very early in the period.


Spenser Jensen took an accidental tripping penalty behind the net. On the powerplay Taylor Leier received a pass down low from Nicolas Petan. Taylor Leier did a little spinorama on Tyler Lewington and roofed it in tight on the far side over Langhamer's shoulder, who was closely guarding the near side post. 1-0 Portland.

The Tigers would strike a minute later. Off the rush Curtis Valk cut to the middle then rifled a back-hand shot on net. The shot would hit a charging Cole Sanford's midsection and bounce into the net. 1-1 TIE

Portland Severely outshot the Tigers 21-6 during that period, and got a whole lot more scoring chances.  Langhamer played very well but wasn't positioned right on the Winterhawks PP goal. Portland Won the Period but all 6 Tiger shots were very good chances. Portland hit 2 posts, Tigers hit 1 post.
----------------------
2nd Period

Langhamer with a huge cross ice save 1 minute in.

Portland  cracks Langhamer again. . Winterhawks Brendan leipsic was able to beat a flat footed Spenser Jensen and took a shot on net. Dylan Busenius failed to knock away the rebound, and Ty Rattie was able to shovel it under Langhamer. 2-1 Portland

Boston Leier was called with an accidental high stick
Just after the powerplay expired. Chase De Leo circled down low in the Tigers zone and was able to walk out right in front and Fired a shot over Langhamers Blocker. 3-1 Portland

Portland would score again with 1.1 seconds left on the clock. Portland's Oliver Bjorkstan beat 2 Tigers down low for the puck and put a pass out to Taylor Leier who was unwatched by Kyle Becker in front of the net. Langhamer had no chance. 4-1 Portland

Portland outshot the Tigers 19-7.   With a 2 Period Total 40-13.

Tigers are doing a lot of watching, and not very aggressive. Portland doesn't even look like they are trying that hard, yet are soundly beating the Tigers in all areas of the game. Hunter Shinkaruk has still not returned to the game.

3rd Period

Miles Koules!

Koules Undresses Derek Pouliet with a toe drag, and fires a perfectly placed shot shot past Brendan Burke 4-2 Portland.
Highlight Reel Goal!

Off the faceoff Brendan Leipsic gained control of the puck and skated to his blueline. For Some reason Trevor cox backed way off. Leipsic skated to the halfwall then was able to make a pass over to Ty Rattie as their was a huge gap in the Tigers zone and no one was covering Rattie. Rattie had all day to fire a shot into the open cage. 5-2 Portland 

Portland Outshot the Tigers 53-26.

Thoughts
Very disappointing. Tigers played a little better in the third period but there was a lot of watching, and players away from the puck were standing still.  I haven't seen Miles Koules on the ice for a long time.

Ridley mentioned on the radio that Shinkaruk was out with a skate cut. Tigers haven't played well on this road trip. Hopefully this means they have their legs for the last game against Everett Tomorrow.

Other Notes
Rhyse Dieno didn't take long to make an impact with the Rebels. Dieno scored 27 seconds into the 2nd period 

Friday, November 16, 2012

Seattle Defeats the Tigers 4-3

Tonight is the first game since the offseason trade that Riley Sheen and Jake Doty faceoff against their old teams.



First Period
Seattle starts off the game with good pressure, and manages a quick 8-2 early shot advantage

Fight
2:37 in Seattle's Daniel Wray would crash the net after the whistle knocking Cam Lanigan into the net. Derek Ryckman took offense and engaged Wray in a fight. Wray got the first punch in then fell over. Ryckman had Wray at his mercy when the lineman stepped in.

The Tigers Chad Butcher would draw a Tigers powerplay after getting tripped up. On the powerplay Kyle Becker would draw a Seattle Thunderbird player to the middle of the ice. It left Boston Leier, open and he walked into the slot area. Dylan Busenius did a helluva job screening the goalie in front and Leier's shot easily beat Brandon Glover low blocker side. 1-0 Tigers

2nd Period
Seattle would score twice. With the 4th line out, seattle's rush up the ice had Matt Staples back up pretty far into his own end. Seth Swenson was able to take a screen shot from the high circle that beat Cam Lanigan. 1-1 TIE

On the powerplay the Thunderbirds would strike again after Derek Ryckman would get called for roughing. 4 seconds before the pp expired, Riley sheen was fed a pass at the blueline. He was able to stick-handle through Curtis Valk, and Spenser Jensen, and poke the puck behind Dylan Busenius. Alexander Delnov was able to skate around Busenius pick up the puck and deke out a fallen Cam Lanigan. 2-1 Seattle

3rd Period
On the powerplay Miles Koules walked the blueline dragged the top guy over and passed to valk. Valk in the middle of the ice fed Hunter Shinkaruk at the side of the net who beat a stretching Brandon Glover 2-2 TIE

Just over 2 minutes later off the rush Alexander Delnov undressed Derek Ryckman to the outside, pulled the puck past a Lanigan pokecheck and wrapped it around an outstretched Lanigan.
3-2 Seattle

HUNTER SHINKARUK. He first created a turnover by intercepting a Seattle D to D pass in the Tigers zone. A few seconds later he was able to pick up a loose puck in the high slot and fired a shot past the goalie high glove side. 3-3 TIE

4 Minutes to go in the game Cam Lanigan couldn't handle a soft shot from the point as he left a huge rebound in front. Seattle's Roberts Lipsbergs turned and whipped a quick shot off the far side post and in. 4-3 Seattle
-----------------
 I thought the Tigers shot themselves in the foot with poor defensive positioning on the goals against them. It also looked like they were fighting the puck at time.

WHL On Sportsnet
Rogers Sportsnet had Regina vs Vancouver on TV. It was Alex Theriau's first whl game, facing off against old teammate Kale Kessy. Kale Kessy potted 2 goals including a shorthanded marker.
Alex Theriau saw third line minutes until the 3rd period where he was seeing almost every other shift on the ice.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Dieno Picked up by the Rebels

The La Ronge Ice wolves play by play man Dustin Forbes https://twitter.com/dforbes91  Has tweeted that Rhyse Dieno has been picked up by the Red Deer Rebels.

Some of his La Ronge teammates have also offered him congratulations on twitter.

Around the WHL - Updated

Last Edit: 1:00 PM MTN: Added Red Deer Firing their Head Coach

Hunter Shinkaruk

Sportsnet did a piece on Hunter Shinkaruk
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/juniors/2012/11/14/hunter_shinkaruk_player_feature/

You can Watch Hunter Shinkaruk play for Team WHL tonight as the WHL hosts the Russians for the annual Subway Super Series. Russia has 2 wins and 2 loses splitting both games with the OHL, and QMJHL. Game starts at 8:00 PM mtn time on sportsnet.


Injury Front
The whl weekly report lists both Ty Stanton and Jayden Hart are listed as being out for 1 week with upper Body Injuries. Both players have seen lots of time on the IR early in the season. With the depth the Tigers have I think it would be good to have both players sit out for a few extra days.

Alex Theriau
Edit: Regina confirmed it this morning
http://www.reginapats.com/article/pats-add-overage-defenceman

An nhl player agent http://twitter.com/RickJValette on twitter who has mentioned that Alex Theriau will be joining the Regina pats. 

Alex played 2 games for the basement dwelling Cowichan Valley Capitals, earning a 3rd star in his second game.

"Alex Theriau will be joining the Regina Pats as early as tomorrow, and will be in the lineup Friday night when the Pats play the Giants "

Overage defenseman Colton Jobke recently suffered a serious cut hand injury after a line brawl developed between Regina and Saskatoon. He is listed as out indefinitly.
On a side note during that Regina/Saskatoon line brawl Saskatoon's Jesse Astles also suffered a cut hand injury.


Calgary Hitmen
Victor Rask was returned to Calgary after a prolonged stay with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. Calgary is currently tied with Edmonton for the lead in the Eastern Conference.


Lethbridge Hurricanes
Spencer Galbraith  - The feisty hurricanes defenseman has decided to call it quits. Here are some comments by Lethbride's GM Rich Preston On Pat Siedlecki's blog Hurricane Watch

"It completely came out of the blue after the game on Wednesday. We (coaches) had a long chat with him and told him to sleep on it, but we couldn't talk him out of it.  He cam back the next morning, said bye to the guys, and went home.  I don't what he plans to do.

Red Deer Rebels
The rebels have relieved head coach Jesse Wallin of his duties as head coach. The Rebels have also hired Jeff Truit to be an associate coach, while Brent Sutter will take the reigns as the interim Head Coach.

http://www.reddeerrebels.com/article/rebels-make-major-changes

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Tigers Release Theriau

http://www.tigershockey.com/article/tigers-release-defenceman-alex-theriau
Medicine Hat -- The Medicine Hat Tigers announced today the team has released 20-year-old defenceman Alex Theriau.


Theriau had been activated from the Injured Reserve on Monday. With the move, the Tigers are now in compliance with the Western Hockey League maximum of three 20-year-old players on the roster, with Elgin Pearce, Derek Ryckman and Cam Lanigan remaining.

Lanigan was acquired from the Portland Winterhawks on October 17th in exchange for a 7th round pick in the 2013 WHL Bantam Draft, giving the Tigers four overagers. Since he joined the club, the Tigers have posted a 6-2-0-0 record, with Lanigan going 5-2-0-0 alongside a goals against average of 2.36 and a .933 save percentage. Lanigan was also named the Vaughn WHL Goaltender of the Month for September/October.

“We are pleased with the effort and performance of our team over the last eight games,” stated General Manager and Head Coach Shaun Clouston.

“This is a decision to maintain the current active roster.”

Theriau, a native of Duncan, B.C. played in 85 regular season games with the Tigers, totalling 4 goals, 22 assists for 26 points to go along with 69 penalty minutes over that time.

“We would like to thank Alex for his time and contributions to the Tigers,” concluded Clouston.
-----------------
Not sure what to say. I am a little shocked by this.

I think Theriau  is too good of a player to not be playing in this league.  If another whl team were to pick him up they would virtually get a #1 line pairing defenseman for free. Possible 2nd line pairing on a deep team.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Tigers Defeat Kootenay 3-1

 Unfortunately the Injury bug hit Jayden Hart again. He was scratched tonight.


Game Summary

Elgin Pearce was able to exact a little bit of revenge on his former team scoring the games first goal off a rebound. 1-0 Tigers

In the second period The Tigers would add to their lead from a point Shot by Kyle Becker on the powerplay. 2-0 Tigers

Kootenay would get on the board very late in the second period. Their was scramble in front of the Tigers net and I'm not sure if it was deflected or not, but a sharp backhand from Sam Reinhart rang off the far post and into the net.   2-1 Tigers

The third period was quite entertaining high paced gameplay both teams looking to score. Kootenay would pull their goaltender late, however they didn't even have time to setup as Valk and Busenius shoveled the puck up to Hunter Shinkaruk who  put it in the empty net.
3-1 Tigers

Thoughts

I thought the Tigers came out and played very well in the first period. It was a goaltenders battle as both tenders played very well in the nets. I thought the Tigers laid back a little during the first 8 minutes of the second period, but a powerplay goal was able to snag the momentum back.
 
 The Tigers showed a couple new set plays in both zones. I won't describe them here but it led to a few chances.

 Jake Doty covered for a pinching defenseman 3 times, and all 3 times made very nice plays to breakup the Kootenay rush. Doty was also involved in a second period fight with big 6'4 207 lb Mike Simpson.  Doty was able to land a handful of big punches, knocking Simpson to his knees at the end.


I thought Kootenay played a hard working type of hockey game. They get lots of pucks around the net. They have some real big defenceman.

That whole line of players Leier, Bredo, and Doty have been playing really well and have stepped up their game as of late. The 4th line also continues to play well no matter who is dressed. Cam Lanigan another first star.

Game Links
MH News Article

Friday, November 2, 2012

Canes Defeat Tigers 5-2

Tigers 5 game winning streak comes to an end


 Quick Summary
The canes were really fired up at the beginning of the hockey game. They oushot the Tigers by a wide margin early and had sustained periods of pressure in the Tigers end.

The canes scored 2 goals in the last 2 minutes of the first period, as well as 2 goals in the first 5 minutes of the second period to chase Cam Lanigan from the net.

1st goal was a deflected in off the post.
2nd goal Lanigan made a nice save from the high circle, but a pinching Rylan Pilon put the rebound in over a diving Lanigan. PP Goal

3rd Goal was a quick passing play behind the boards out in front.
4th Canes goal was a wider angle shot that Cam left a big rebound right to a Hurricanes player.


After Lanigan was pulled the Tigers started playing a little better. Shinkaruk had a blast from the high slot, and Trevor Cox tipped a point shot by Kyle Becker.

The canes sealed the win with an empty netter after Derek Ryckam bobbled the puck coming out of his own end.

 Thoughts
Tigers couldn't fully match the intensity of the Hurricanes at the start of the game. They gave up a couple big rebounds which the canes capitalized on. Canes outshot the Tigers by a wide margin.

The Tigers had a handful of chances, Rimmer shut the door when he needed to.

For once it didn't seem like this game was as chippy as in games past between the two teams.



Thursday, November 1, 2012

Tigers Defeat Giants 5-1

 Before the game Cam Lanigan was named WHL Goalie of the Month.

Vancouver Trades
Vancouver had a different lineup as they traded away their star defenceman David Musil yesterday, as well as 18 year old Austin Vetterl before the game. In their lineup was former Oil King Mason Geertson.

 The Victory Tonight brings the Tigers winning streak up to 5 games.

Period Thoughts

I thought the Tigers had a really good first period and the score could have been 5-1 after the first, and the giants were lucky to come out down just one goal.

The second period was a different story as the Tigers fell asleep a little. Lanigan made some solid stops to keep the Tigers in the lead.

Jayden Hart, and Trevor Cox put on a highlight 2 on 1 just before the end of the second period to help get that momentum back on the Tigers side.

In the third period the Giants had a goal disallowed after Video Replay determined the puck was knocked in with a high stick.

In the third it was Hunter Shinkaruk scoring twice on a perfectly placed shot on a mini-break and a rebound goal to cement the 5-1 victory.


Goalies
In the second period after Elgin Pearce created a turnover and scored unassisted, Giants Goalie Liam Liston looked to be in a lot of discomfort. It looked like Liston pulled a back or leg muscle as he could not stand up without support, and had to be taken out of the game in favor of Tyler Fuhr.

 I thought Can Lanigan played really well, and even though the Tigers won 5-1 it could have been a very different game if the giants popped one in during that second period. Lanigan leads the league in goals against, and save percentage........Pretty damn good trade for a 7th round pick.

Heard scouting reports say he was prone to giving up bad goals or bad games, but we haven't seen a trace of that as of yet. 

Kale Kessy
 Kale Kessy played well in his return to the arena knocking in the only Giants goal . Both Tiger Defencemen went to take him out, and resulted in a Giants Breakaway. Lanigan stopped the shot but the rebound laid at the side of the net in between a couple Tigers who didn't realize the puck was at their feet. Kessy skated by and swiped it into the net.

I thought the Tigers defenceman played really well in making sure Kessy wasn't barging in on Lanigan. During his Tiger days he would do this quite often and the Tigers Dmen solidly kept tabs on him from doing so.

Kessy and Bredo had a bit of a thing going, as they seemed to be giving it to each other whenever they were close by.

Everyone played fairly well, however I thought Miles Koules was off his game tonight. I thought he lost a lot of the small battles and could have played better.

Jake Doty
With his goal tonight Doty matched his previous seasonal high in points with his 7th point in 18 games.

What's Next
The Tigers take on a surging Lethbridge team Friday Night in Lethbridge. It could be a goaltenders battle as Ty Rimmer is sporting a .921 save percentage through 17 games played.