Monday, March 24, 2014

Tigers Take 2-0 Series Lead

Game 1: 2-1 Tigers Victory
Game 2: 4-2 Tigers Victory


With the Injuries to Steven Owre and Gavin Broadhead, the Tigers were virtually playing with 3 lines for the first two games. The Young kids Allan, Mowbray, and Mathew Bradley drew in for the rare shift every once in a while. Sometimes getting thrown out with a veteran or two.

Both teams Top Two Lines received a ton of ice-time.

Game One
I really liked the Tiger's overall game. I thought their defensive play, and the ability of their defenseman to skate the puck out of their own zone was outstanding.

I thought the Tigers controlled big portions of the game. Swift Current's was unable to get any sustained pressure, as it was often one and done and the Tigers did an excellent job at getting the puck out of their zone on the first try.   I thought they forced the Broncos into numerous unforced errors, and made them hesitate on their decision making. I thought the Tigers had a lot more zone-time and the 2-1 score was semi-flattering to the broncos.


Game Two
Started out the same way game one did, except this time the Tigers didn't take a couple early penalties and it earned them a big shot advantage early in the game. They pressured early but the Tigers didn't have as many good quality scoring chances.

Unlike last Game Swift Current starting pressure in the mid-way point in the game. They started sustaining a little bit of pressure and had a little more zone time that the Tigers did. t

Late in the second period Swift Current took 2 penalties within 13 seconds of each other and it gave the Tigers a 5 on 3 powerplay for 1:45. Miles Koules would scored a HUGE goal to give the Tigers a 2 goal cushion at that point.  Swift Current had just started turning on the jets and this goal helped stave off their building momentum and switched it back into the Tigers Favor.

The Third period I'd say was the first period Swift Current won in the series. It was a nail biter as they scored 2 goals within 3 minutes to TIE the game.

Chad Butcher would score his 2nd consecutive game winner putting in a tight angle shot off a rebound to put the Tigers up 3-2, With 7 minutes left, and Trevor Cox potted an empty netter to seal the game 4-2.

Thoughts
Swift Current generated some momentum off of game 2, as they had the Tigers on their heels towards the end of the game.

I listened to a post game interview from the Bronco's Assistant Coach and he seemed a bit frustrated about how the Broncos' were unable to make plays once they crossed into Tiger's territory and wanted more out of some of this veteran players.

The Broncos liked to enter the zone from the outside and crashed the net and I think the Tigers were very prepared for this.  The Tigers gave a lot of Ice-Time to their top 6 and it made Defensive Line matching difficult for the Broncos because the Tigers had so much sustained pressure in the first few games. They were also able to lay a few good Hits on Julius Honka and got him to cough up the puck before he could skate it out.

It is possible that the Tigers will see Steven Owre back for Game 3. He is still Day to Day, but the coaches said he might be ready to go for Tuesday's game.

Swift Current is a different team in their own barn, as they had a .708 record during the regular season. The Tigers beat them their once 7-3 late in the season, as well as a 4-3 loss.

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Game 3 Goes Tuesday 7:05 in Swift Current.



22 comments:

longtimefan said...

This series is far from over with Swift being a real tough place to play. Important to try to get a lead as Mark Lamb shortens his bench even more than our staff does when they are behind.

TigerTurf said...

Agreed. I think these teams are really similar.

TigerTurf said...

I thought the game in Swift was unfortunate but they didn't get the bounces go their way as cliche as that sounds....I thought the Tigers could have won it.

I thought Doty was unfairly singled out in a scrum. A bronco player was chirping at Labelle after he fell over, and Doty did his thing getting in the Bronco's players face. The ref immediately called a penalty and Doty snapped and probably said something which resulted in his misconduct...

You could say Doty was the third man in and therefore got the penalty, but there were a lot of scrums early on, and it was bullshit that the Tigers got singled out on that call, and no broncos were called in their parts of the scrum.
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Swift played a lot better in the first period it was pretty even. The Second period swift had the edge.

In the third Period the Tigers had a ton of chances, and just misses... They had the momentum in their favor and it seemed like a matter of time before something broke..

They had a 4 on 2 up the ice and Eisenschmid gave off a back pass to an unsuspecting Vanelli who had his stick lifted and it resulted in a 2 on 1 the other way.
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It could easily be a 3-0 Lead....But the game was soo damn close, that either 2-2, or a 3-1 lead coming back here for game 5 won't surprise me.

longtimefan said...

Stating the obvious here but someone with names other than Valk, Sanford and Cox need to start chipping in for this team to get by Swift. Rest of the game is in pretty good shape.

Anonymous said...

Well, unimpressed with the broncos hitting Langhammer 4 times and no call. I think Doty needs to lay a pounding on Black.

Anonymous said...

It has nothing to do with scoring, they're scoring goals. Replay the OT goal and take a look at the gap control of the med hat dmen. Swift player is coming over the blue line and their standing on the top of the circle. Gap control is everything to defence but when its on existent the other team can just walk in

Anonymous said...

No one ran your goalie! Look at the replay. Marek played it up to draw a penalty but the refs saw thru it.

longtimefan said...

Anon 12:00, what do mean they are scoring goals. they scored 3 times in 125 minutes, all of them by one line. That's not going to get it done over the long haul. As far as the comment on gap control, when d men get tired they don't want to get beat on the rush with speed so they tend to want to get back to the net, which may be what happened on the winning goal.

Anonymous said...

Well need to work on the PP. Will make all the difference in this series!

Anonymous said...

4 runs of the goalie. Pretty cheap play!

Anonymous said...

Nobody has run your goalie, black on the second one may have got a piece but the one before that where he got called was your dman and the cave one watch your dman drive him through the net. That being said why do dmen always seem to think that cross checking a guy into your goalie is a smart play.

Anonymous said...

Your news paper publishing comments in their story about running the goalie is completely unprofessional because we take what we read as truth in a paper. However, that was a lie and a simple watch of those replays would tell you so. The journalist that published that should face discipline! No Bronco ran your goalie! We did however make contact with your goalie because YOUR dmen pushed us into him. Marrek plays dead to draw a penalty but no call made, as the ref saw into that! Quit reading your paper and make up your own minds on what actually happened.

TigerTurf said...

Hockey is very subjectively biased for most fans.
It is easy to see here in the comments.
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I do remember Becker pushing a Bronco player into Langhamer. Becker was hurriedly rushing up the Ice and Colby Cave stopped catching Becker off guard. That was a correctly called penalty for Becker
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Black got a penalty for goaltender interference running into Langhamer at the top of the crease. He could have easily went behind the net. Stanton was there making his presence felt but If you watch him he completely let up as both players ran out of room. Black tried to jump out of the way and clipped langhamer. So its one of those calls that looks innocent but black put himself in a bad position and deserved the penalty...as tough as it was for Bronco's fans to accept it.

Langhamer's reaction was probably a bit overkill...but it was definitely goaltender interference as Black could have easily avoided the mess.
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The one where Black bowled into Langhamer knocking his Helmet off..
Black wasn't expecting langhamer to lunge to the other side to stop his shot...nonetheless contact was made right smack dab in the middle of the crease....This is a textbook goalie interference call. It should have been co-incidentals with Black being sent off as well as Stanton.
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If you follow my blog in the past you know I think the Referee's have an extremely tough job as the play happens so fast. Their are numerous plays where I have to put the game in slow motion to determine whether it was worth it or not.....
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I tought Black should have had 2 goaltender interference calls.

longtimefan said...

Anon 7:17 I'm guessing you are the same Bronco poster who posted almost the same on the whl fans site except you left out this part,

"Typical Tiger fans...boooo hoooo for you, "my city gets fludded, our whl team deserves better"...must have us confused with someone that cares! Haha"

Firstly, as a resident of this city who saw first hand hundreds of people lose most everything they had due to the flooding, I find the comments to be very distasteful. If that's how you feel about other peoples misfortune I feel sorry for you.
Secondly, players try to get an edge all the time and even more so come playoff time. I'm guessing Langhammer was trying to get his team a pp opportunity the same as Larakainen did in Medicine Hat in one of the games when Cox bumped him and he went down like a shot elk.

Anonymous said...

If you are not smart enough to read any paper in the world and understand that there is no such thing as unbiased then don't read or get educated. Silly comment, and even funnier, is that it is from yet another biased source.
Troll elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

I hope we run Black back to Swift. Hope Doty KOs him. Although he is not man enough to stand up to the call.

Anonymous said...

Why would Black fight Doty. Should Valk be fighting LeSann tonight too?

Anonymous said...

I thought the first (and only) Black call shouldn't have called. Blow the play down but no call.

The second one I would have been ok with that being called, problem is I think the first call kinda showed up the refs on replay and they backed off.

Either way I expect SC to be in Langhamers grill all night.

Anonymous said...

BOOM!!!!!!! What a win, slam down and nice sending SC off with a 4-1 kick in the pants. There was a clear best team tonight!

Anonymous said...

Why the heck are the Broncos so disrespectful to come on to the ice prior to the home team at the beginning of the game? It is something that just seems to show a lack of class. Pretty sad statement about them.

longtimefan said...

anon 11:32pm, what are you going on about. Who cares who comes out first.
Another good game last night. Broncos came out on a mission and really controlled the first period but Langhammer was equal to the task. Thought the turning point was when he got flattened in the second. It was if the team said we've had enough of this and the energy level changed. With the missed open nets and some good saves by Laurakainen the score could have been much worse. Also noticed that the Broncos Honka sure doesn't like being hit. He spent a lot of time whining to the officials after body contact last night.

Anonymous said...

I thought the Broncos chants while Langhamer was injured was more disrespectful