Tigers Defeat Rebels 3-2 SO

I thought the Tigers were extremely fortunate tonight. Tyler Bunz played phenomenal in goal. The Tigers were soundly beaten for 2 periods of hockey. They came out a little harder in the third period(down 2-0), and managed to get a bit of good luck.

The tigers started their comeback when the grind line was working hard in the offensive end. Grbavac fed the puck out front to Matt Mackay who tapped the puck home into an empty net. Both players had good games.

The Tigers would get a powerplay with 5 minutes left, and Emerson Etem would roof a shot from the slot to tie the game.

I have noticed quite a few groupings of scouts in the stands during the last few games.

Shootout
I thought Tyler Bunz stole the show in the shootout. You might have missed it but he baited both rebel players by doing a quick fake/save.

Thoughts
The rebels would be a very good pick to be the dark horse in the whl playoffs. They are big and have an amazing set of wheels. They keep coming at you and pressure hard in the offensive zone. From what i saw earlier in the year, they are a completely different hockey team.

Couple things I've noticed about the Tigers game.

1. Not enough support in the offensive zone. Their play is becoming predictable. One guy will skate into the zone down the boards, do a little turn around, throw the puck in the corner and their will be very little support from the tigers forwards.

When they were on their game as soon as they entered the zone they would slow down to create some room for the forwards streaking in.

2. More offensive Pressure. As soon as the opposition defenseman goes behind the net they completely back off. I think that they are killing some opportunities for maintained pressure/turnovers and allowing the other team to setup, when they dont force the defenseman out from behind the net. As you noticed today when the Tigers backed off the Rebels had an easy time entering the Tigers zone.
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Scoreboard Watching

Kootenay lost tonight. The Tigers are 1 point behind Kootenay, and 1 point ahead of Red Deer for Home Ice advantage in the first round. Kootenay's next two games are against the Rebels.(Wed,Fri)

The best case scenario for the Tigers wold be to hope that they split the games, with no extra overtime points.If one team wins both games they would leapfrog over the Tigers.