Despite the loss I thought the Tigers played a good hockey game, with the exception of the opening minutes. The Tigers didn't allow Regina many quality shots on net as Kenny Cameron saw his first start since December 10th.
I thought Busenius, Parkkonen, and Lewington had pretty good games for themselves on the back-end.
The Tigers were missing Shinkaruk,Valk,Kessy,Hurley and Tyler Bunz was on the bench. That is a massive chunk the Tigers were without tonight and they played well enough to win. The young guys got a lot of ice-time and played pretty well. Spenser Jensen is adapting extremely well being moved up to forward.
The Tigers also dressed Call-up Gavin Broadhead and Chad Labelle. Labelle looks like he has a real good set of wheels. I liked that hit he threw which prompted a round of applause.
I thought Kenny Cameron got better as the game went on. That second goal he probably wanted back but other than that he stopped 25 of 27 shots and played well.
Regina
Regina's goalie Matt Hewitt was frequently playing a couple feet outside his crease stopping shots, and the Tigers couldn't find away to get him moving side to side, or generate rebounds. Regina was also pretty aggressive on their forecheck at times.
Injuries
Darren Kruger mentioned that Valk and Shinkaruk are questionable/unlikely for the weekend games against Moose Jaw. Hurley has 2 games left on his suspension. Kessy is listed as out for 2 weeks yesterday on the whl injury report.
Even though Injuries aren't what you want to see, their are a lot of positives with these young guys getting a lot of icetime.
6 comments:
I feel bad for Kenny, for some reason Tigers fail to score in front of him. And correction with his last start - WHL stats show his last start was Dec 10, Jan 12 did not start but played when Bunz pulled. If last start was in Dec it is like starting over (2 mths). For mostly a rookie line up I thought they did well, focused, competes. Kenny Cameron needs more games in order to be game ready, 2 GAA is pretty good though.
Changing it... he made a releif appearance on teh 12th my bad
Cameron made some real good leg saves in the second period that kept it close. I'm sure he would like the first goal back but otherwise did a nice job. The ceremony before the start of the game probably didn't help his nerves any.
Cameron also had a 3 minute stint on Jan 8th vs Kootenay when Bunz made an equipment change.(no shots against though)
Realistically both goals he probably wanted back. That first one he was deep in his net and the second one he looked screened.
But he gave the Tigers a chance to win.....just no scoring with the 4 forwards out.
What are Bettauer and Konan doing in their own zone? Two oldest players back there; they are being outplayed terribly by the other four defensemen. Do they not understand defensive zone coverage? Seldom do they stick with their checks or know where they are!!
If these two don't figure it out soon, playoffs will be short and sweet. They both need to be physical, clearly they are not a first pairing that will lead the charge.
A puck on the wall just inside the offensive zone, Konan had a step on A hulking Jordan Weal, and backed off the challenge to win the puck. Konan had lots of coverage behind him to support him, if he lost the one on one battle.
He has to be tougher than that. Good to see the coaches give them a blast on the bench a couple of times. Coaches used the Commercial break in the third , as well as the Regina T/O to remind both of them what they are suppose to be doing back there.
As for our forwards , stand up and give them a now. They have been playing very well the last couple of weeks with the absence of four key forwards out.
Does anyone think some of these injuries come from over playing our top guy and not playing our younger guys enough, like Sheen? It seems that our top guys get double shifted a lot, in addition to playing on the first power play and penalty kill..... wonder if we are shooting ourselves in the foot? Thoughts?
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