S39 SMJHL Game 1: Colorado Mammoths Vs. Detroit Falcons
Game Link

Tonight the Colorado Mammoths and the Detroit Falcons kicked off the first game of the SMJHL for season 39. The Mammoths won the opening faceoff and pushed the play into the Falcons zone. A centering pass intended for Mammoths forward Ryan Gardiner was intercepted by Bob Bergen who proceeded to ice the puck. The Mammoths took the opportunity to get fresh legs on the ice for the offensive zone faceoff. Markus Meliodas of the Mammoths won the faceoff, and the Mammoths maintained good possession, with tic-tac-toe passing throughout the zone. Markus Meliodas shot wide of the net, but the puck ended up directly on Mammoth defenseman Ti-Guy Emond’s stick and he buried the opportunity only 36 seconds into the game. The goal was assisted by Meliodas and Nico Grøss.

The next goal came 8 minutes into the first after Ti-Guy Emond intercepted a Falcon pass in the neutral zone and passed to Karsten Kadinger. Kadinger buried the shot to give the mammoths a two goal lead.

15 minutes into the first, Ti-Guy Emond turns the puck over to Falcons rookie winger, Tylor Schofield. Schofield passed to Quick Mafs, who briefly lost the puck upon entering the Mammoths zone, but recovered and passed back to Schofield. Schofield fired a hard shot at the net that was tipped by Falcons center Connor Blackwell and trickled past Mammoth goalie Chris Partridge.

The period ended with the Mammoths leading 2 to 1. The shots on net were even 4 a side.

The second period remained scoreless until the 13th minutes of play. With Viktor Kolesnikovs of the Falcons serving a two minute minor for hooking, the Falcons won a faceoff in the Mammoths zone and managed to play keep away from the Mammoth power play. After an astounding ten passes, Falcons winger Viktor Marius buried the short-handed goal after being left open on the back door. Assists on the goal went to Tatu Mäkelä and Filip Armstrong.

For a moment it seemed like the shorthanded equalizer might be the spark the Falcons needed to take back control of the game, but Grease La Roche managed to put the Mammoths back on top only 21 seconds later. Still on the power play from the Kolesnikovs hooking penalty, the goal came on a rebound after a shot by Gustav Helzberg was deflected by Dean Youngblood in front of the net. Goaltender Aleksandr Aleksandrov Jr. made an astounding save, but the rebound went right to La Roache for an easy tap in.
With Colorado again taking a 1 goal lead, it once again seemed that momentum was in their favor, but the Falcons scored their third goal only 23 seconds later. A pass by Mammoths’ Baron O’Beefdip was intercepted by Viktor Kolesnikovs in the neutral zone. He moved the puck to Bob Bergen who passed it to Tommy McMahon. McMahon shot and scored on a rifle from the top of the right circle.

The score would remain knotted at 3 at the end of the second period. The shots were also tied at 11 a piece heading into the third.

The third period belonged entirely to the Colorado Mammoths. Rookie Manuel Gotze of the Mammoths scored the go ahead goal with only 6 minutes remaining in the game. The goal was assisted by fellow rookies Blaine McElroy and Kire Yelkrab.

With 2 minutes and 27 seconds remaining, the Mammoths added some insurance making the score 5 to 3. The goal was scored by rookie defenseman Blaine McElroy, after a shot by rookie Baron O’Beefdip was deflected wide of the net by Manuel Gotze.

The game would end with the final score of 5 to 3. The Mammoths heavily outshot the Falcons in the third, 11 to 4, bringing the shot totals to 22 to 15 for the game.

The overall storyline for the game was the performance of Colorado’s rookies. Colorado’s rookies had 6 points in the game, and Blaine McElroy and Manuel Gotze were given the first and second stars of the game respectively. Grease La Roache took the third star. All in all the game was a low shooting but high scoring affair. Both goalies will want a few of those goals back. Chris Partridge finished the game 12 for 15 for a .800 save percentage. Aleksandr Aleksandrov Jr. finished 17 for 22 with a save percentage of .773.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not quite sure how this works, so if I'm doing something wrong please let me know. Also, for the TPE claim will this be posted or do I just link this post? Thanks!

Three Stars of the Game

Third Star:
The third star of this close matchup was Grease La Roache, Colorado's defenseman on the second line. La Roache had an all around great effort, making contributions on both the offensive and defensive side of the game. On the defensive side, La Roache finished the game with two hits, as well as a blocked shot to boot. From those stats, you can really see the big impact he had on the game for the Mammoths. On the offensive side, La Roache had a crucial goal in the second period on the power play, which made Colorado pull ahead 3-2 after Detroit scored two unanswered goals. Many saw this as the turning point for Colorado, who went on to win the game 5-3. While La Roache only had about fourteen minutes of ice time, he made sure to make the most of it, and this third star award shows that he did just that.
[/b]

Code:

153 Words

Second Star
The next star of the game is another Mammoth, and was a bit of surprise, it is none other than fourth line right winger Manuel Gotze. While he had an extremely limited time on the ice (only eight minutes!, Manuel's contribution to the game was certainly not proportional to his time spent on ice. While he only took one shot all game, he made sure it counted, scoring Colorado's fourth goal to put them up 4-3 with only six minutes left in the third period. Unfortunately for Detroit, Manuel wasn't done just yet. Only minutes later (three and a half to be exact), Manuel sent the puck to Blaine McElroy who promptly scored to seal the game for Colorado. This gave Manuel his second point of the night, tied for the most on the Mammoths for the game. While you usually don't get this kind of a contribution from your fourth liner, I'm sure no one in Colorado was complaining.

Code:

160 Words

First Star
Completing the sweep of the stars, the first star of tonight was none other than fourth line defenseman Blaine McElroy. Strangely enough, Blaine did all of this with even less ice time than Manuel Gotze. He was only on the ice for seven and a half minutes the entire game. You know that its a special night when two of your fourth liners take the top two awards, but I guess that was just the night Colorado was having. Blaine McElroy's first assist game at a crucial point, on the goal that Manuel Gotze scored to take the lead back to Colorado, and put the Mammoths up 4-3. This play really showed the chemistry that McElroy, Gotze, and the rest of the Mammoths fourth line really share with each other. McElroy's second big play of the night was the final goal of the game, coming in with only two and a half minutes left to play. This essentially sealed the deal for Colorado, and of course gave McElroy his second point of the night. His play tonight was certainly first star material, and was only the start of what he hopes to be a burgeoning career in both the SMJHL and the SHL itself.

Code:

204 Words

<a href='index.php?showuser=2950' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-3'>Yurt6</a> - Head on over to the PGS Claim Thread (here), and follow the example there. Link to this post, your player name, and team name. Once you do that and one of us grades it, you can then claim those as TPE.

                     

 

Reginald Rove | LW | Manhattan Rage | 1,322 TPE
-----------------------------------------------------------
SMJHL Regular Season Statistics
S39 DET - GP: 50 / G: 3 / A: 8 / P: 11 / +/-: -20 / PIM: 12 / HIT: 21
S40 DET - GP: 50 / G: 16 / A: 15 / P: 31 / +/-: 9 / PIM: 14 / HIT: 37
Career - GP: 100 / G: 19 / A: 23 / P: 42 / +/-: -11 / PIM: 26 / HIT: 58
-----------------------------------------------------------
SHL Regular Season Statistics
S41 MAN - GP: 50 / G: 9 / A: 10 / P: 19 / +/-: -14 / PIM: 8 / HIT: 43
S42 MAN - GP: 50 / G: 12 / A: 14 / P: 26 / +/-: -15 / PIM: 8 / HIT: 46
S43 MAN - GP: 50 / G: 22 / A: 23 / P: 45 / +/-: -15 / PIM: 4 / HIT: 39
S44 MAN - GP: 50 / G: 17 / A: 17 / P: 34 / +/-: -5 / PIM: 8 / HIT: 49
S45 MAN - GP: 50 / G: 16 / A: 17 / P: 33 / +/-: -22 / PIM: 6 / HIT: 56
S46 MAN - GP: 50 / G: 19 / A: 31 / P: 50 / +/-: 5/ PIM: 6 / HIT: 14
S47 MAN - GP: 50 / G: 15 / A: 19 / P: 34 / +/-: -15/ PIM: 10 / HIT: 21
S48 MAN - GP: 50 / G: 15 / A: 23 / P: 38 / +/-: -11/ PIM: 22 / HIT: 61
Career -  GP: 400/ G: 125 / A: 154 / P: 279 / +/-: -92 / PIM: 72 / HIT: 329
-----------------------------------------------------------
SMJHL Playoff Statistics
S39 DET - GP: 5 / G: 0 / A: 1 / P: 1 / +/-: -4 / PIM: 2 / HIT: 0
S40 DET - GP: 15 / G: 8 / A: 6 / P: 14 / +/-: 8 / PIM: 6 / HIT: 7
Career - GP: 20 / G: 8 / A: 7 / P: 15 / +/-: 4 / PIM: 8 / HIT: 7
--------------------------------------------------------------
SHL Playoff Statistics
S41 MAN - DNQ
S42 MAN - DNQ
S43 MAN - DNQ
S44 MAN - DNQ
S45 MAN - DNQ
S46 MAN - GP: 12 / G: 6 / A: 5 / P: 11 / +/-: 0/ PIM: 0 / HIT: 3
S47 MAN - GP: 5 / G: 1 / A: 1 / P: 2 / +/-: -3/ PIM: 2/ HIT: 5
S48 MAN - DNQ
CAREER - GP: 17 / G: 7 / A: 6 / P: 13 / +/-: -3/ PIM: 2 / HIT: 8
-----------------------------------------------------------
SHL Playoff History
S41 MAN - DNQ
S42 MAN - DNQ
S43 MAN - DNQ
S44 MAN - DNQ
S45 MAN - DNQ
S46 MAN - Lost 4-1 in Semifinals to Buffalo Stampede
S47 MAN - Lost 4-1 in Wildcard to Chicago Syndicate
S48 MAN - DNQ
-----------------------------------------------------------
Transaction History
>(S39): Drafted 13th Overall in the SMJHL Draft by the Detroit Falcons
>(S40): Drafted 15th Overall in the SHL Draft by the Manhattan Rage
>(S40): Signed $8,000,000/3yr deal with the Manhattan Rage
>(S42): Signed $10,500,000/3yr deal with the Manhattan Rage
>(S46): Signed $14,000,000/2yr deal with the Manhattan Rage
>(S48): Signed $31,000,000/5yr deal with the Manhattan Rage
-----------------------------------------------------------
Trophy Case
1x IIHF Silver Medal (S40)
2x IIHF Gold Medal (S41, S47)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Achievements
S44: Ranked #86 in SHL Top 100
S45: Ranked #84 in SHL Top 100
S46: Ranked #90 in SHL Top 100
S47: Ranked #46 in SHL Top 100
-----------------------------------------------------------

Unsung Hero

One thing often overlooked in many of these hockey games are the guys doing the dirty work, the grinders, the “unsung heroes”. In this game I think we had a clear favorite of the Mammoth’s own right winger Gustav Helzberg. Gustav is a forward who gets penciled into third line minutes on the competitive Mammoth’s roster, averaging around fifteen minutes a game. On this particular evening he only saw about eleven minutes of five of five hockey, and just shy of three on the power play unit. Ultimately he was able to take advantage of both opportunities.

At 12:20 of the second period, Detroit’s Viktor Kolesnikovs’ hooking call resulted in a Mammoth power play. After a great job of moving the puck, Helzberg was able to throw a beautiful saucer pass cross ice to La Roche for the Mammoth’s third goal of the game.

Not only was Helzberg active offensively, but also a presence without the puck. Helzberg led a strong Colorado squad with three official hits (with no penalty minutes), helping cause turnovers and changing the momentum of the game with his smart and intimidating play.

Colorado may be one of the deepest teams top to bottom, and players like Gustav Helzberg make their SMJHL success possible.

Mammoths Rookie Watch

The Colorado Mammoths start this season with one of the largest rookie classes in many seasons. The Mammoths selected 9 players in the S39 SMJHL Draft and nearly all of them made the team. The new rookies joining the squad for S39 are Florence Clijsters, Kire Yelkrab, Blaine McElroy, Luuk Kraaijkamp, Grim Wastlund, Manuel Gotze, and Gilmore Tuttle. These seven players look to be the main depth of the Mammoths in the upcoming season. So we will look for stand-out performances from any of these players. With the first game looming heavily over the Mammoths and huge expectations on the team, the rookies were one of the main reasons this game was sealed. The biggest names in the first game of the SMJHL season might be those of rookies Blaine McElroy and Manuel Gotze. Each added a goal and an assist in the contest against the Detroit Falcons. More importantly, these were the deciding goals of the entire game. Manuel Gotze, the power forward out of Germany, was the biggest difference maker as he scored the game winning goal with only 6 minutes remaining in the third. Fellow rookie Kire Yelkrab also made his point scoring debut with an assist on the Gotze goal to win the game. Talk about rookies making bright starts!

(214 Words)

Duds of the Game

We don't like to make people feel bad often but tonight we needed to highlight the absolutely atrocious goaltending play in the first game of the season. We would likely have to give the Goalie of the Night award to Colorado's Chris Partridge, but his performance was a 12 of 15 save, .800 SV% night. So we thought that instead of giving the goalie of the night award we would rather give out the Duds of the Game Award. As mediocre as goaltender Chris Partridge played (sorry buddy, we still love you) he was outdone by Detroit Goaltender Aleksandr Aleksandrov Jr. Junior gave up 5 goals on 22 shots and finished the evening with an abysmal .773 SV%. If this is the goaltending play for the rest of the season we're going to need some barf bags. Because the game is fun when you score a lot but when there is no need to work for the goals then it's not even a game. So we are unhappy to give a share of the Duds of the Game award to goaltenders Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Chris Partridge!

(186 Words)

Names of the Game

Today we are introducing a new Post Game feature to the SMJHL Post Game Network. The SMJHL is filled with interesting and intriguing names and we here are looking forward to analyzing some of these names and giving our take on them and some insight on the player. Our first name of the night is Colorado's Luuk Kraaijkamp. Not many Dutch players have made their way into the SMJHL and Luuk might be the best to join the league in maybe forever. He told us in an interview before the season that his goal was to become the best Dutch player in the history of the league. Good luck on your quest, Luuk! Next we have Detroit's Quick Mafs. Mafs was born in England and grew up on the mean streets. His escape from ganglife was the game of Hockey but not before he earned a nickname of Quick Mafs due to his incredible ability to add 2 + 2 and subtract one from that number. Our final name is Colorado's Baron O'Beefdip. Known to his teammates and coaches simply as Beefy, BoB has quickly become one of the most recognizable names in the league. The most curious part is that Beefy has never taken the time to explain his name. Is it a nickname or was he born to the O'Beefdip's. We may never know but this kid sure knows how to use his name for propoganda. Already having signed a deal with the Beef Council of America to endorse their product.

(252 Words)

Eryk Siniskaya || Defense || Unsigned ||


Timo Haas || Goalie || Los Angeles Panthers || Retired/Hall of Fame

The first game of the season had a number of turning points, but the biggest one in my opinion has to Bob Bergen's holding minor at the 17:45 minute mark of the third period. The game had a number of momentum changes, first with Falcons tying the game with a shorthanded goal, then Mammoths re-gaining the lead with a goal on the same powerplay, than Falcons tying the game again less than a minute later. But Mammoths would take the lead at the 14 minute mark of the 3rd period and get the insurance goal 3 minutes and 33 seconds later. But there was enough time left in the game to tying things up again for the Falcons, but just 12 seconds later Bergen's sent to the box for holding, killing almost any chance the Falcons had to come back and tie things, as they were down a man until 1 minute and 15 seconds left to go in the game. Yes they scored shorthanded earlier in the game, but lightning rarely strike twice, and they weren't able to do it this time. Losing the game 5-3. And as such, I think that's why Bergen's penalty was the turning point in the game.

Code:

204 words

RIP Mac & 701

Player Page  |  Updates