No offence in the opening 20 minutes of this one. Medicine Hat had a great opportunity to go ahead early when they were given a 5-on-3 power play for just under two minutes. The Canes' managed to kill that off. Despite no goals in the period, we were treated to some excellent goaltending from Dylan Tait and Tyler Bunz. Lethbridge out shot Medicine Hat 14-10 in the first period.
In the second, the game finally got it's first goal. Near the mid-way point in the period, Medicine Hat's Linden Vey fired a rising wrist shot passed Tait late on a Tigers power play to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. Late in the period the Hurricanes would tie the game. Jacob Berglund picked off a pass at centre, moved in a put the puck between the legs of Bunz to even the score 1-1 after 40 minutes. Lethbridge held the edge in shot on goal 26-19 after two periods.
In the third, the Tigers get back that one goal lead. Mike Reddington got caught up with the linesmen at the Medicine Hat blueline and Scott McKay took the puck the other way and put a shot passed Tait to give the Tigers a 2-1 early in the period. The Hurricanes pressed to try and tie the game, but they would fall one goal short in this one and lose the game 2-1.
The Canes' had some great chances in this game. They hit the goal post three times and the crossbar once. The Tigers also rattled one off the post Friday. Those posts, couple with excellent goaltending from Tyler Bunz proved to be the difference. Lethbridge out shot Medicine Hat 35-26. Really, both goalies played very well for their respective teams. The Hurricanes played well enough to win, but fell short again. The power plays looked like this: Lethbridge 0 for 5 and Medicine Hat 1 for 5. The loss drops the Hurricanes two games below .500 with a record of 12-14-2-5. The Canes' have just two wins in their past 12 hockey games, but still hold down that final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Defencemen Reid Jackson and Daniel Johnson will be out until after the Christmas break nursing injuries. On Saturday, the Canes' called up prospect (D) Joel Topping from Midget "AAA" Red Deer. Lethbridge selected the Red Deer product in the second round of the 2010 WHL Bantam draft.
Hurricanes Business Manager Jim Bradley (AKA Santa Claus) was out spreading some Christmas cheer around the ENMAX Centre Friday evening. Jim was handing out candy canes and chocolates to some lucky fans. He even stopped by the broadcast booth to take a picture with yours truly. Good on ya Ol' Saint Nick, or Jim!
NEXT UP
The Hurricanes play their final game before the Christmas break Saturday night in Medicine Hat. It'll be the Canes' first road game since December 1st. After Saturday, the Hurricanes will be off for just over a week for the Christmas break and return December 27th to play the Oil Kings in Edmonton.
Thanks,
Pat
This blog post is brought to you by http://www.clearlylethbridge.com/.
Good job for most of the game by the refs, but HOW THE #@LL do TWO officials ignore the INSTIGATING infraction on the retaliation after the Hood bodycheck on the puck carrier in the third?? Hood only had a chance to regain his balance, and skate from the red to the blue line before TWO Tigers tracked him down and demanded a fight. IF THIS ISN'T INSTIGATING, there IS NO SUCH THING!!
ReplyDeleteBunz definitely is over-rated, and I am getting pretty sick of hearing Fred go on and on and on about him. He IS well positioned most of the time, but he regularly misplays the puck behind the goal line and he gives up good scoring chances to forechecking forwards every game. Truth is he has a team in front of him that is excellent at clearing rebounds and tying up players in the front of the net to cancel scoring chances in the slot.
The Canes outplayed the Tigers at most times in both of these last two games, and lost because they couldn't hit the INSIDE of the posts rather than the outside. If you were there, think of the games. Its not like Bunz made a single great save. The Tigers would have won both games with ANY tender in the WHL.
Bunz looked like the proverbial fish out of water flopping around and was way out of position during the Berglund and Maxwell deeks in the 6-5 shoot-out (which the Tigers won due to the scoring prowess of their forwards, not because of any Bunz brilliance).
Make the Tiger fans BOO their own team tonight, Canes, and get over Bunz, Fred!
Actually, I listened to both broadcasts Sunday and last night and Fred stated both nights that Bunz struggled early in the year and wasn't being used as much because of that, but has found his game the last couple of months. The stats support this. NHL scouts on a poll I read a week or so ago rank him as one of the top 518 year old goalies on the planet.
ReplyDelete1) 1007203 M.H at CAL 2010-11-02 60:00 29 1 28 W 1.00 0.966
2) 1007208 LET at M.H 2010-11-03 60:00 17 17 W 1.000 SO
3) 1007225 SAS at M.H 2010-11-06 60:36 31 4 27 OTL 3.96 0.871
4) 1007244 M.H at BDN 2010-11-11 60:00 36 5 31 L 5.00 0.861
5) 1007251 M.H at M.J 2010-11-12 60:00 29 3 26 W 3.00 0.897
6) 1007284 S.C at M.H 2010-11-20 60:00 26 2 24 W 2.00 0.923
7) 1007289 P.A at M.H 2010-11-21 59:59 27 2 25 W 2.00 0.926
8) 1007319 M.H at EVT 2010-11-27 60:00 32 3 29 W 3.00 0.906
9) 1007327 M.H at POR 2010-11-28 65:00 43 2 41 W 1.85 0.953
10) 1007329 M.H at SEA 2010-11-30 60:00 29 1 28 W 1.00 0.966
November Totals 605:35 299 23 276 8 1 1 - 2.28 0.923 1
Year to Date Totals 1026:59 503 44 459 11 5 1 - 2.57 0.913 1
1) 1007345 M.H at SPO 2010-12-03 63:12 37 3 34 OTL 2.85 0.919
2) 1007350 M.H at KTN 2010-12-04 61:37 30 2 28 W 1.95 0.933
3) 1007366 M.J at M.H 2010-12-08 64:59 27 3 24 W 2.77 0.889
4) 1007380 CWK at M.H 2010-12-11 60:00 24 4 20 L 4.00 0.833
5) 1007389 M.H at LET 2010-12-12 36:40 13 13 W 1.000
6) 1007393 KEL at M.H 2010-12-14 60:00 26 26 W 1.000 SO
7) 1007410 M.H at LET 2010-12-17 60:00 35 1 34 W 1.00 0.971
December Totals 406:28 192 13 179 5 1 1 - 1.92 0.932 1
Year to Date Totals 1433:27 695 57 638 16 6 2 - 2.39 0.918 2
Just more negativity towards this team!!! What else is new.... Ignore it Fred and Pat, you do a great job!
Hey Fred, "Blog-Friend-of-Fred", or Mr Bunz,
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that the numbers prove that you barfed into this blog is that the TIGERS' TEAM struggled at the beginning of the year in the absence of Willie Desjardins, and that the TEAM of Vey, Etem, Hamilton, Pitlick, etc, have ALL improved as this year has progressed.
The Tigers' other goalie, Dubyk, has only lost 3 of 10 starts this year. He lost only to Prince George (leading the BC division at that time), he lost to Tri-City IN Tri-City (The same Tri-City team that rarely lose at home, and who just lit up Vancouver 9-1 last night), and to the Canes, IN Lethbridge.
So, again I offer my opinion that BUNZ is OVER-RATED, and that the team playing style has made him look better than his stats. Despite out-shooting the Tigers, Tait made the more difficult saves in the 2-1 loss while the Canes hit Bunz' logo.
All the numbers you pasted here cannot change the fact that we have watched Bunz regularly give up weak goals over the past couple years. The stats also can't change the fact that we had ONE breakaway (Berglund), and we scored on it. Bunz looked like a fish out of water for both Berglund and Maxwell's shots in the 6-5 shootout loss.
That is nice if he is ranked in the top-5 of 18-year-old goaltenders on the planet. I am sure the fans of the Tigers are proud of this.
As for this Cane-fan, I usually like your commentary, but if you are going to go on an extended rant, I would rather hear about OUR team and player accolades.
GO CANES!
Dude lay off the rum and egg nog. Bunz was really good last night. He was easily the #1 star.
ReplyDelete