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Mika_Kandinsky · 05-12-2019, 02:13 PM

St. Louis Scarecrows Vs. Vancouver Whalers Whalers

St. Louis

S47 Game 91 Link

Final Score: STL 4 - VAN 1
Shots: STL 26 - VAN 35

3 Stars of the Game:

1 - Billy Sorokin

2 - Niolaj Muller

3 - Noah Gallagher

Game Analysis:

Tonight's game saw the top two teams in the league facing off against each other in an important match up in the race to take a stronghold on first place in the league. Both the St. Louis Scarecrows and the Vancouver Whalers were on winning streaks of four games each. An unstoppable force met an immovable object in tonight's bout and the unstoppable force of the St. Louis Scarecrows showed us that the object wasn't so immovable after all!

The Scarecrows won the game 4-1 lead by an unbelievable performance by their goaltender, Billy Sorokin who was also the first star of this game. Sorokin saved 34 out of 35 shots for a .971 save percentage in this game. He was worked hard across all three periods and was able to keep the game out of reach for the Whalers, frustrating them at every turn. The Whalers' goalie, Casimir Stevens, saved 22 of 26 shots for a .871 save percentage. The Whalers would have liked to see a better performance from their goaltender on such a big game night, but he couldn't fend off the relentless and even attack of the Scarecrows.

This was a game that the coaches of the Scarecrows love to see from their guys. Depth scoring is integral to winning hockey games and the Scarecrows are getting tons of depth. Their third line consisting of Gaspard Boone, Noah Gallagher, and Nicolaj Muller teamed up for a total of 5 points on the night. They scored half of the goals in the game. That kind of performance, if consistent, wins championships. The Scarecrows have to feel confident seeing that performance from their third line, in a game which saw them take their winning streak to 5 in a row, and also ending the Whalers. This game allowed them to jump them in the standings to take first place in the league.

The Scarecrows coaches should be applauded for the way they managed this game. They knew that Vancouver was hot coming into this game and they adjusted their lines accordingly. Looking at time on ice stats you can see that the Whalers played their 4th line 3 more minutes than the Scarecrows played theirs. This allowed the Crows to get their third line on the ice more. That paid dividends for the team with the 2 goals that they scored. The Whalers couldn't keep up while seeing the top 3 lines for 90% of the game spread very evenly between them all with a slight edge to the top line. This is the X factor for this game. Had the Scarecrows played their 4th line more in favor of getting the 3rd on the ice, the would have missed out on some big goals.

The Scarecrows were strong at even strength throughout this game. They did not score on any of their 3 power plays, but they didn't need to. All of their goals were scored at even strength, sending the majority of the Whalers team into the negatives for +/- on the night. The one goal the Whalers did score came on a power play opportunity. Getting dominated during 5 on 5 play lost the Whalers this game. Even though they were able to take 35 shots, they were mostly from the perimeters and they had a hard time penetrating into the middle of the ice. When they did, they ran into Sorokin who was a brick wall all night. The Scarecrows are looking very strong and are truly in mid-season form. It will be exciting to see if they can hold on to the top spot in the league, or if they will be challenged for it.

Comment below to let us know what you thought and saw in tonight's game!

*Buster* · 05-12-2019, 03:20 PM

Comment One - Championship Pedigree

The St.Louis Scarecrows have won the past three Four Star Cups. Their championship pedigree provides a huge bonus to this team and their room. In games like this past game with the Vancouver Whalers, it definitely shows how much that experience matters. St.Louis came into this game facing a tough opponent in Vancouver and throughly impressed against 9-3-1 Casimir Stevens. Where most teams may have an issue facing a goalie with a hot hand, St.Louis was poised and showed no cracks. They only put 26 shots on net versus Vancouver's 35 but they made their shots count. With more games like this, St.Louis is showing no signs of slowing down.

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Comment Two -Balanced Offence

Balanced offence was the key to victory in this match tonight and one team showed this more than the other. St.Louis had no one player take over the game but rather led the way with all players contributing. The charge was led tonight by both Nicolaj Muller and Noah Gallagher who were the second and third stars respectively in this game. Each player added a goal and an assist. Muller's marker was St.Louis' second goal of the game off a sick feed Gallagher, which held up as the game winning goal. Late in the third, Gallagher was repaid for his favour by receiving a sick feed from Muller to put the game out of reach for the Whalers.

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Comment Three - Billy Sorokin

While both Muller and Gallagher were second and third star, the first star of the game was unquestionably the Scarecrows goaltender Billy Sorokin. Coming into this game, Sorokin was a very solid 11-4-1 for the defending Four Star Cup champions. He was the biggest star of the game turning aside 34 of 35 Whalers shots with only Bernik Vrzala finding the back of the net for his first of the season. This is the type of performance that gives the team in front of you the utmost confidence to play their style of game. The Scarecrows responded to the huge goaltending performance and that shows in the final score.

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Bruins10 · 05-14-2019, 10:20 AM

SOROKIN STEALS THE SHOW
The Scarecrows goaltender really came in clutch for the team from Saint Louis considering that the Whalers outshot them by 9 shots, a total of 35 versus 26 shots in the game. He posted a .971 Save Percentage and only allowed a goal on the Power Play which is something to consider when looking at the teams stats. The Scarecrows did dominate the game when it came to limitting the Whalers shot chances and Billy did his part as to stopping everything that came in his way. he has now posted a 12-5-1 record in the SMJHL and is one of the top tier goaltender in the Juniors this season.

TheFlash · 05-14-2019, 12:29 PM

1) Another matchup of two top teams. The second post game show thread for these two teams, and the second loss for the Whalers! That four points could come back to haunt them come play offs. But Simon T is a fickle program, and despite both teams having lots of talent, this is the second game where the Scarecrows have stolen the show. And it's the second game where the Scarecrows goaltending has stolen the show for them, this time it was their starter Billy Sorokin. The Whalers are going to need to find a way to score in games like this if they want to make some noise in the post season.
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2) On that note, lets discuss Billy Sorokin's performance. The Whalers have some real offensive firepower. They're a veteran team with a good number of capped players. But Sorokin pays no mind to your foolish TPE, as he treats the whole Whalers team as if they are 155 TPE newbies in this one. 34 saves on 35 shots is an outstanding game against anyone, especially when it is a rival team like the Whalers. This is a championship caliber team (again) and Sorokin is the main reason why. Give this guy MVP already!! The Scarecrows need Sorokin to keep this play up in the post season if they want to win another championship
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3) Depth and five on five team was another integral factor in the outcome of this game. The third line of the Scarecrows, featuring Boone, Gallagher and Muller were terrific. They combined for five points and two of the three stars in this game went to these fellas (Gallagher and Muller). The depth of both teams is really impressive, but the Scarecrows depth came up bigger on this night. Five on five was also a big deal, as it's where the Scarecrows did their damage. The Whalers need to be better and not rely on special teams. When you have even strength, you can't allow the other team to pin you in your own end. That's what the Whalers did tonight and that cost them two points.
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Huck24 · 05-15-2019, 12:36 PM

Best third line in SMJHL?

All season long, the third forward line for the St. Louis crows have quietly been putting up some very solid numbers. The trio of Nicolaj Mueller, Noah Gallagher and Gaspar Boone were once again highlighted in this match up. Nicolaj kicked off the scoring for this trio at the start of 2nd period, putting the Crows up 2-0, scoring his 5th of the season with assist by Gallager and Boone. The final goal of the game was scored by Gallagher, his 7th goal of the season, with Mueller adding another helper to his totals. The line finished with a combined 5 points (2G, 3A). These three players are all having career years and should definitely be considered for the best 3rd line in the SMJHL.

Lemonade · 05-16-2019, 11:06 AM

1. PLAYER VS. PLAYER

This player vs. player will include first line defenseman Basil Magnicotta of St. Louis and Bernik Vrzala of Vancouver. We will compare the efforts by the two players and see which one did more to contribute in this game. First category is always points, so let's compare goals and assists. Basil had 1 assist in the game with no shots on goa and a 0 +/-l, he assisted the final nail-in-the-coffin goal in the 3rd period. Bernik had 1 goal this game, on the power play, this was the only goal Vancouver scored in the game. Bernik had 3 shots on net and -1 +/-. This is an easy category to judge, Bernik Vrzala wins the points category for Whalers

. The next category will be defensive stats which will include hits, shots blocked and PIMs. Basil had an amazing 5 shots blocked, 1 hit and no penalty minutes. Bernik had 2 hits, 1 shot blocked and 0 PIMs making the winner of the second category, Basil Magnacotta of Scarecrows

. The third and final category will look at the time on ice for each player to decide who the overall winner of player vs. player is today as the first two categories see different winners. TOI is usually the tie breaker as both players are so close in statistics, we can see who accomplished what they did in the least amount of time. Basil's TOI was 20:07 and Bernik's 16:41. Bernik Vrzala edges out for the win with significantly less time on the ice, winner is Vancouver Whalers' Bernik Vrzala Whalers

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2. GAME CHANGING MISTAKE

Tonight's game changing mistake comes just before the Scrows second goal in the second period. This goal scored by Nicolaj Muller turned out to be the game winning goal for St. Louis. Prior to Muller's puck finding the twine, the Whalers defense looked absolutely lazy on the ice or possibly just confused. A bad line change occured causing Volkov and Ackroyd to be paired together for the first time this season and neither one knew what the other was planning to do. Both players could be seen on the replay marking the same guy and bumping into eachother. St. Louis' Noah Gallagher, who was hot in tonight's game really took advantage of Vancouver's confusion on the ice as he was able to fire off 1 shot after the other on net with nobody able to knock him off the puck, just sit back and watch. After Gallagher's second shot on goal, Muller was then able to collect the rebound with a third unanswered shot in a row for the team, this time it was fatal and went right in mid blocker side.

3. THREE STAR ANALYSIS

Three star analysis is where we take a look at tonight's three stars of the game and see why they were given the honour.

1. Billy Sorokin Scarecrows

: Billy Sorokin is St. Louis' starting goaltender tonight and he had an amazing performance in net, without him this game would have gone very differently. He had a .971 save percentage allowing just on goal in a game where he saw 35 shots!

2. Nicolaj Muller Scarecrows

: Muller who was mentioned above in the game changing mistake scored St. Louis' game winning goal so it's easy to see why he was given second star honours. On top of the GWG, Muller put up an assist for 2 points total, a +/- of +2 and he did it all with only 14 odd minutes on the ice from the third line!

3. Noah Gallagher Scarecrows

: Gallagher was also mentioned above in the game changing mistake where we talked about his relentless shots on net, one after another where he contributed an assist to the game winning goal. On top of this, Gallagher scored a goal of his own for 2 points, a +/- of +2 and 2 hits during 14:30 of ice time all from the 3rd line where he plays alongside Muller.

nubbedindaribs · 05-18-2019, 12:10 PM

COMMENT 1:

Billy Sorokin Stands Tall

Billy Sorokin is a force to be reckoned with in the SMJHL league. He saved 34 of 35, posting a .971 save percentage. Although the Scarecrows did receive the larger number of shots Sorokin stood tall and helped lead the Scarecrows to victory. There's a reason he's been called up to the big so many times and this game is just another reason for him to be called up again. You can tell when a team has complete confidence in their goaltender because it changes their structure immensely. This game it allowed the Scarecrow's defense to push all shots to the outside and let Sorokin gobble them up, making for a very defensively tight game.

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COMMENT 2:
Casamir Stevens' Performance a Concern

Casamir Stevens performance this game left a lot wanting from the Vancouver Whalers' players and coaching staff. The defense did their job by limiting the St. Louis Scarecrow's shots to 26, but Stevens let in 4. This is not the kind of showing that the Whalers wanted to see down the stretch heading into the second half of the season. The Whalers are looking to try to be poised for a cup run, but if there's doubts about their goaltending how far can they really go? Is there going to be a goalie controversy with Kasperi Braulin up and coming?

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COMMENT 3:
Where is the Offense?

This game is another entry in the worrying trend of the Whalers not being able to put pucks in the net. Whaler stars like Borromini Cannellini were kept off the scoresheet. Cannellini didn't even register a single shot on goal! Without the Whalers stars scoring it seems that this game they would have to rely on their rookie and depth scoring... which also didn't show up. The Whalers have to figure out a way to get their scorers to score, or in Borromini Cannellini's case get their scorers to shoot the puck. We know that the Whalers have the punching strength of a power house, but this game it seemed it was on vacation.

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MrStennett · 05-31-2019, 06:50 PM

Brick Wall Alert

What more can be said about Scarecrows starting goaltender Billy Sorokin that hasn't already been said this season? I mean, the man is an absolute force of nature most nights, and tonight was once again one of those nights. He faced a strong thirty-five shots from a tough Vancouver Whalers offense and escaped with only one blemish on his record. It becomes clear by looking at his record that this kind of performance is no stranger to Sorokin. At this stage in the season, he's 12-5-1, and although the Crows field an incredibly potent offense, you don't win that many games if you're a bum. You also don't end up with a .971 save percentage against one of the best teams in the J if you aren't one of the best yourself.

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