With the Exception of the opening 5 minutes where Brandon jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, I thought the Tigers played a really smart game in all areas of the Ice. I am very happy to see the improvements they have made in the last couple weeks, moreso towards their team defense.
The unsung heroes have been playing really well and its taking pressure off on a lot of areas. Two of their 3 top scorers were out and the unsung heroes like Bredo, Mckay, Jensen, Leier, Dieno, Theriau, Parkkonen have been stepping up their game and are winning a lot of the small battles in the trenches and playing well in their own end.
Leier took a couple shots from behind that I thought the refs should have called. He looked banged up by the third period.
Their were a couple spurts where brandon had control of the puck in the Tigers end for a chunk of time and I thought the Tigers kept Brandon to the outside and really played well covering their guys, blocking shots, and limited Brandon's passing lanes.
Hunter Shinkaruk
Hunter Shinkaruk was a scratch for tonights game with an injury.
Injuries
That left Kessy, Hurley, Shinkaruk, and Valk as out of the lineup. That is some pretty significant losses. Hurley has 3 games left on his suspension. On the Radio Kruger mentioned Valk was a probable for Wednesday's game. A little unsure of Shinkaruks return but Kruger didn't think he would be out too long, they just want to make sure he is 100% healthy before he returns. Darren Kruger said that Kessy will still be out for a bit yet with his upper body injury.
Rhyse Dieno
Rhyse Dieno filled in on the top line with Etem and Bredo and played a very strong game again. Dieno now has 3 goals in 3 straight games. With the Injuries the Tigers have had at forward Dieno has had an opporunity to receive a lot more ice-time, and he is flourishing with it. I thought he had been playing an improved game since christmas and its nice to see him getting rewarded for his efforts.
Cole Grbavac also has 3 goals in 3 straight games.
Emerson Etem
It's official 51 goals in 50 games. Etem's also crawled to 1 point back of the scoring leader Mark Stone. 50 goals is an amazing achievement let alone 50 in 50 games.
Here is a 50 in 50 montage the Tigers put up onto their website.
http://www.tigershockey.com/video/index/id/916e5c99c984f8f43acceb0e3111183c
Medicine Hat News
http://www.medicinehatnews.com/local-sports/50-in-50-at-last-etem-hits-what-has-become-a-rare-milestone-in-victory-over-the-wheat-kings-02132012.html
Penalty Kill
Also it looked like the Tigers made some adjustments to their PK. The Tigers had given up PP goals in 5 straight games and they ended that Streak Tonight.
7 comments:
Shinkuruk wasnt even dressed tonight, but i have to agree with you that Deino has excelled since getting more ice time. I hope they dont cut him down too much once the players return, certainly deserves a chance on the PP.
yea I changed that...I got to the game late and someone said he got hit, but I see he wasn't even dressed.
Also could someone please tell Bob Ridley that we can't finish in 2nd place! He keeps saying on the radio that we can catch Moose Jaw, and it's starting to bug me that he doesn't even know the playoff format of the winners of each division finishing 1st and 2nd in the conference!!!
Perhaps he is talking about second place in our division.
Any news on Hunter?
He had a headache! So he went back home to Calgary to see a doctor.
He is listed as week to week....... Wonder what that means for us. Hope he is not actually out for weeks!!! Yikes!!!
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