Player News
Hunter Shinkaruk was scratched for tonight, apparently he has a case of the flu and is day-to-day. Emerson Etem will now depart for Team U.S.A's selection camp which starts on Friday. Linden Vey did dress tonight and he apparently got back into the Hat mid-afteroon. He must have been a bit tired as this was his 3rd game in three nights, and he was also a victim of a 6:00 am Toronto phone call this morning :(
Goaltenders Battle
It was a goaltenders battle tonight at the Arena, as both goalies put on a goal-tending clinic. Tyler Bunz was good when called upon and kept the Tigers in the game when the Rockets pushed early, and also stopped a pair of Rocket breakaways. The Rockets and Tigers both hit a couple posts.
GamePlay
It was a pretty intense game out there. The atmosphere resembled a playoff type game and despite the 2-0 score it was a fun game to watch.
Kelowna played with a real strong aggressive fore-check and the Tigers were able to get some chances off their quick transition game. Kelowna was playing very physical in the first two periods. It took the Tigers a good ten minutes of the first period before they were able to adapt and start evening out the scoring chances.
Despite Kelowna's very high work ethic in the first it was the Tigers who scored the games first goal off a rebound. The puck was sitting ten feet in front of the goalie in a little scrum and Tyler Pitlick neatly gave a backhand 2 foot pass over to Jace Coyle who snapped it home.
In the third period Kelowna seemed to tire and the Tigers started getting some quality chances but their goaltenders Adam Brown played a big part in keeping it a one goal game.
Empty Netter
Emerson Etem scored his league leading fifth shorthanded goal. It was a 6-4 late in the game when the Rockets pulled their goaltender.
Player thoughts
I thought Coyle has been in a bit of a funk lately and he played a good first two periods, but reverted to bad habbit's in the third period.
I have been impressed with the improvement of Matt Konan, Sebastien Owuya, Reid Petryk, and Dylan Bredo. The Tigers defense as a whole has been playing better, including Tyler Bunz.
I also like the development of Dylan Businius. His playing style reminds me of Jay Bouwmeester. Businius made a bad mistake tonight passing without looking and gave the Rockets a breakaway, but I see skills in him which makes me think he will be a pretty valuable player down the road as he is still fairly young at 17.
Tyler Pitlick I thought has been playing pretty good lately as well.
Physical Play
There were some big hits thrown from both sides. Sam Dezman was seeing first/second line minutes tonight until he took a big hit from a Kelowna blueliner, and left the game. Near the end of the game a Rocket player took a big hit from Sebastien Owuya along the boards and immediately headed to the bench during their brief 6-4. Rocket players Zak Stebner and Shane McColgan both took big hits but both returned to the game.
The Rockets were Missing Tyson Barrie, last years whl defenceman of the year, and their head coach Ryan Huska who is an assistant for Team Canada this year.
Links
GameSheet
Regan's Rant - he has had some good stuff on his blog about the Rockets Road Trip. It looks like they have been keeping base camp in medicine hat through the past few days and apparently they love eating at Houston's Pizza.
Kelowna Daily Courier
Bc local News
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Tigers Get CHL Top 10 Honorable Mention
With the Tigers Win last night, the Tigers win percentage is now a hair better than Kootenay and Red Deer. They also Tied Red Deer in the standings. Both teams have a game in hand on the Tigers. Kootenay Remains 1 point ahead of them. However Both teams play tonight while the Tigers remain Idle.
http://www.whl.ca/article/bmo-chl-mastercard-top-10-week-13
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Article About Linden Vey receiving a 6:00 am phone call from Yahoo sports.
http://sports.yahoo.com/juniorhockey/news?slug=ss-firstcuts121410
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