Tigers 3rd game in three nights and I thought the Tigers deserved a better fate than the score indicated. Nathan Lieuwen (Kootenay's goaltender) put up a phenominal effort. Tigers could easily of had 4 or 5 goals, Lieuwen stopped a penalty shot against Hunter Shinkaruk, and 4-5 desperation type saves, that I'm not sure on how he stopped the puck. The Kootenay players owed him for this game, he stole that victory.
I thought the Tigers were doing a much better job at finishing thier checks. I liked the Tigers penalty kill for the most part. They were more aggressive when Kootenay didn't have control of the puck, they had one lttle brain cramp where everyone collapsed to the front of the net and wasn't keeping an eye on passing lanes, but besides that 2 of the 3 PK's were well killed off.
Goal Summary
The Kootenay Ice would strike First. Tiger winger Dylan Bredo couldn't handle a good pass from James Bettauer at Center Ice. Kootenay Defender John Neibrandt would quickly feed it back up the Ice to James Martin who fed it to a streaking Brendan Hurley. The Tigers Dmen were just getting into the ice from a change and it allowed Hurley a little more room than usual. Hurley would fire a hard wrist shot low glove side past Tyler Bunz from the top of the circle.. 1-0 ICE
The Ice would strike again. I'm not sure how this goal went in but Sam Reinhart would get his own rebound and somehow lifted another backhand over Bunz....was hard to see how it went in from the video. 2-0 ICE
Tigers would get one back on the PP. James Bettauer made a nice move to avoid an oncoming player and passed the puck under a stick right on Emersons tape. Etem would cut through the middle of two defenders and shot the puck over Lieuwens shoulder to put the Tigers on the board. 2-1 ICE
Fight
Boston Leier vs Jagger Dirk
Not sure how this developed but Leier tagged Dirk with a good shot as they came together, which popped off his helmet and knocked him to his knees. Dirk managed to get up and put himself in an advantageous wrestling position, however Dirk couldnt make use of it. After some short shots missed Leier would land another good punch and they toppled over. I give this one to Boston Leier.
The TIgers took 2 unessecary penalties in the middle of the third. Grbavac would chop at a Kootenay Players feet along the boards. This penalty was killed off and a very nice job done by the Tigers penalty killers. A few minutes later Emerson Etem would bowl over Joey Leach into the Kootenay Goaltender. Emerson would go to the box for 2, and Matt Konan also got a 10 minute misconduct.
Kootenay would scored on the PP as the pass came down low to Jesse Ismond. Ismond would do a little waiting and the TIgers bunched up in front of thier net.
Ismond gave a short pass over to Elgin Pearce in the outside slot area who made no mistake putting it past Bunz. 3-1 ICE
Tigers would pull thier goaltender for a 6 on 4, but couldn't score.
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Thoughts
Like I mentioned above the Tigers played a pretty good game. A couple brain cramps penalty wise in the third period, but they deserved a better fate. I was suprised to see Bunz play all 3 games this weekend. Its so hard mentally for a goalie to do that, yet he still put up a .915 save percentage.
Also here is the Gavin Broadhead vs Craig Leverton fight from Lethbridge...was a wierd start having leverton undo Broadheads chinstraps.
9 comments:
Think the Tigers should be sellers and not buyers. Etem and or Bunz would bring a good return on prospects and draft picks. The team hasn't had a top ten pick in the bantam draft since before 2004. I don't see this team with the current roster making to much noise in this years playoffs so lets build for the future.
They are in a tough position. The Tigers have a lot of above average depth/grinders, with some goaltending and scorers, but their missing that middle ground of consistent secondary scoring, and consistent physical play.
Your right though The roster as it stands right now would be hard pressed to get past the second round..the first round may even be tricky.
I think they are very close though in getting a team that has finals potential. I'm kinda hoping for a multiplayer deal potentially sending an 18 yr old forward out and getting some scoring in return.
With Lethbridge getting a first and secon pick for overager Braes the asking price seems as high as it was last year. Going to be tough for teams to get anything done without paying a huge price.
Scorers, tigers need someone who can score a goal and support what we have.
Bunz has has been a bit weak and we TIGERS need someone to help up front.
Give the backup goalie a chance, he looks good and has only lost because tigers fail to score, and the tigers loose by one goal games too often. Not because of goaltending. But Bunz is not the answer, he cannot score , saves yes... but loosing by a goal sucks no matter who is in net.
Just an opinion.
I have a question for you Tiger Turf. Why do you think the coaching staff insists on playing Bunz each and every game with no rest? I think playing him all 3 games this last weekend was insane. Not to mention how little experience we will have in goal next year. I'm just interested in your opinion on this.
Catfan i think goaltending is going to be a big issue next year with Bunz gone. Cameron has barely played and McCauley has only played 7 games in the sjhl. I wasn't impressed with what I saw out of him in training camp either. He was pegged as the back-up this year and him not winning the job had to be a disappointment. With Bunz starting all 3 games this weekend it tells me the coaches don't have a lot of confidence in Cameron.
Will Bunz be gone for sure tho? Goaltenders tend to stay in junior for their 20-year old year (like Liewen, Pickard, Cam Ward, to name a few). There just aren't as many spots to place a goaltender so who knows?
Bunz is a great Goalie and I think you can play him more than average because he can handle it. He is very good with his emotions and mental ability.
However I think their playing him a bit too much.
I think at this point I would have liked to see Cameron play about 3-4 more games.
CatFan, I don't think the coaches are making the call whether Bunz plays. I think it is Bunz? and may be a bit selfish in this regard. Cameron is showing good Tiger spirit, competes hard every practice, and appears patient, confident. I imagine it's not easy being in Bunz's shadow.
my 2 cents.
Have to agree with tigerturf, Cameron should have a few more games, game experience would help the kid a lot.
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