Three of the four first round series got underway tonight....only the Tigers-Wheat Kings series did not start tonight, it starts tomorrow night instead.
Calgary certainly made a statement with a 7-1 pasting of the Hurricanes in game one of that series, and they did it without their best player as Brett Sonne did not play due to what the team is calling an upper body injury (which also kept him out of the final game of the Edmonton series). I guess even the 9 day layoff did not allow his injury to heal, so it must be significant.
I wonder if any of the people who picked Lethbridge to win the series would like to revise their pick after this game. Calgary outshot the Canes 36-16 (Zach Boychuk had zero shots in the game) and chased Juha Metsola from the Canes net after the 5th goal on 28 shots. Even the fight went Calgary's way, with Ian Schultz pounding out a unanimous decision over Ben Wright in a great toe-to-toe tilt. We need to see a much better Hurricanes team in game two on Sunday afternoon if we are to believe they're going to make a series of this.
To the Giants-Chiefs game, which I caught most of on Shaw, when they weren't losing the feed and showing interviews with rastafarian musicians, that is. Once you get past the extreme annoyance of the homer Giants announcers, it was a decently entertaining game. Very physical affair, everyone on both teams were finishing their checks, and the Chiefs in particular were instigating scrums after almost every whistle. Nobody even breathed on Tokarski tonight without getting a punch in the head for it. Is he made of glass and they're afraid he might break? For all the post-whistle rough stuff Spokane was starting, I thought Vancouver could have spent a lot more time on the powerplay than what they actually got from the refs.
Vancouver outshot the Chiefs 39-19, which I think is a fairly accurate description of how the game went. The Chiefs have to find a way to generate more offensive chances than what they had tonight....their only goal tonight was a centering pass deflected off a Giants defenceman's skate.
Oh, and I have to comment on the 8th wonder of the world that is Levko Koper's playoff beard. How is it that an 18 year old kid can in two weeks grow a beard that men two or three times his age could not dream of having, ever.
And in the third game, Tri-City beat Kelowna 4-3 in a see-saw game, with the winning goal coming with less than two minutes left in the third period. I didn't see any of this game or any highlights so.....not much more to say there.
1 comment:
The two clowns who broadcast for the Giants are so nauseating it makes me sick! From what I see everybody is playing for second place. The Hitmen are so much better than anyone in the Dub right now.
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