The first game without their previous captain in Cole Sanford turned out to be the most exciting games of the season. Their was a game at the old Arena 3-4 years ago where the Tigers were up 5-1 and ended up losing, tonight was some revenge for that one.
Blazers Take Advantage Early & Chad Butcher
Chad Butcher had an early wakeup call when his line was victim to some poor defensive play for the Blazers first goal. He turned into a machine for the rest the game. His performance tonight was pretty incredible to watch.
The Tigers had quite a few off-sides but were juggling their lines up.
Shields Down
The Tigers Mack Shields didn't have his best game and was pulled after the Blazers went up 4-1. He probably would have liked 2 or 3 of those goals back.
After Two Periods 4-1 Blazer Lead
At this point I felt the Tigers deserved a much better fate. Shots were near even, I thought the Tigers had the better scoring chances, but they couldn't beat Connor Ingram. The blazers seemed to have the puck luck going their way. It wasn't a 4-1 game, if anything I thought the Tigers probably should have been leading.
The Comeback
The Blazers luck continued early in the third with a quick goal. The Tigers didn't quit an kept pushing. They scored 4 unanswered goals in the next 15 minutes, as well as hitting 3 posts. If the third period was another 2 minutes longer, the Tigers probably would have won it outright.
Overtime
Nail Biter. Both teams had some chances. The Tigers Chad Butcher had a last second breakaway, but couldn't beat Ingram.
ShootOut
It took 6 rounds, and 5 consecutive stops by Nick Schneider to stop the door.
Playoff Watch
Edmonton, Saskatoon both lost and Regina is trailing by the time of this post. Tigers are 3 points back with 1 game in hand. The Tigers face their biggest game of the year Friday against the Oil Kings. It will be their 5th game in just over 1 month.The Tigers are 4-0 against the Kings this season.
12 comments:
Tonight the tigers showed, the young guys have good attitudes and will fight for the team. They do not need Sanford.
Good show of determination and the never give up on this team attitude tonight. Was nice to see. Sometimes trades are good!
Like the never say die attitude of the young kids tonight - Rassell, Shaw, Quen, Schultz etc. Hope we create a good attitude in the room
Great game against Blazers. Come backs are great!
Don't discount the acrobatic save Schneider made when the score was 5-1. If the Blazers go up 6-1 its over. Tigers came right back down and scored after and it seemed to change the momentum.
thought the team played better as a team when Sanford was injured earlier in the season
What a great character win by the tigers, Mr.Rassel, Mowbrey, Bradley, Shaw, Schneider!!! you guys ROCK!!!
Crap, hope Quen is not hurt too bad. We can not afford to lose him. Another character win. Schneids is playing awesome!
Baddock suspension tbd on the whl site. Guessing anywhere from three to five games. Really dangerous play close to the boards. Was his play though that got the Tigers back in the game. Schneider stole this one, they had no business getting a point out of that game.
And once again I ask, why do we have a twenty year old back up?
I agree that Ideally we'd rather see a younger backup, but hopefully sheilds can prove to be a good mentor. Lotz/Shields was their answer to poor systems/defensive play. Now that they have reigned that in, I don't think it is a coincidence that schneider's confidence is shining.
I almost think their crappy start to the season was a blessing in disguise.
1. Very likely CLouston would not have traded their overagers, meaning the Tigers wouldn't have gotten kirichenko, haden, 2 2nds, 2 3rds, 5th. The young guys would not be getting prime ice-time as they are now.
2. 7th spot seems like a sweet spot. Brandon has had injury troubles, if they limp into the playoffs its possible their is grounds for an upset. Although they are playing well right now and 7th/8th spot both seem like a deathwish atm.
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Maybe if Clouston had patience at the start of the season with Schneider we would have a useful third overage. I think it's a little of a stretch to look at Shields/Lotz as mentor to Schneider in anything outside of being an older guy in the league. Lotz was a very average goalie before he came to the Tigers and Shield was a very hot/cold Calgary for the Hitmen to the point they got tired of it and got Burke. Schneider has a NHL contract he earned after not getting drafted after riding pine to a very good goalie for a few years.
I've always had the belief you can tell a good coach from a great coach with the way they handle a goaltender situation. I think Clouston made a huge mistake blaming Schneider for the start of the season instead of the structure on defense with having so many new players learning the system. Even know people are saying Schneider is great and this and that only because he's stood on his head for the last few weeks. He is a great goalie and was in September when he was "struggling" and everyone was pointing figures at him. I'll always remember the quote Quennvielle had in the paper when Lotz just got here "it's nice to have that confidence in goaltending", ironic considering the way this defense plays you could put in McBride and he wouldn't save this team
Sorry for the grammatical errors, working 18 hours out on a rig causes a tad bit of fatigue! Fantastic blog though makes it easy to follow the team while I'm out of town.
CHEERS!
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