1st Period: The game begins uneventfully, as both sides seem to be dedicated to playing a physical and tight knit defensive game. Unfortunately for the Colorado Raptors, rookie defender Jules Watt gets caught by one of Vancouver’s forwards and while attempting to regain positing he takes a holding penalty. The Vancouver power play gets to work immediately, putting a ton of shots towards Ushakov. Eventually Petr Mikulak is able to get the puck and get it into the Raptor's net for a 1-0 lead. The goal is assisted by Cullen Gray and Egor Kucherov. Play continued without many quality scoring chances until 13 minutes in, where Tauras Karazija slides it to William Goose, who then makes a crisp pass to a wide open Theo Morgan for the finish.
1st Period Scoring:
1. Vancouver Whalers , Petr Mikulak 3 (Cullen Gray 2, Egor Kucherov 2) at 2:38 (PP)
2. Vancouver Whalers , Theo Morgan 1 (William Goose 1, Tauras Karazija 3) at 13:58
2nd Period: Similarly to the first, both teams exit the gate and begin to apply pressure, getting pucks deep, and out working their opponents. Some time into the 2nd, Nick Brian of the Raptors takes his first penalty of the game for roughing the opponent. Again, Colorado had to weather the storm that is the Whalers powerplay. The powerplay started off slow, with the Whalers cycling looking for a hole, luckily for the Raptors goaltender Yuri Ushakov held it down and prevented any quality chances from the opposition. Unfortunately for him, the team in front of him was having a tough game, compounded by Duke Nukemstein taking another minor penalty. Again, the Whalers powerplay fails to score, and shortly after they put the Raptors on the powerplay… who also don’t score.
2nd Period Scoring: N/A
3rd Period: This time, Colorado, down 2-0, comes out of the locker room swinging. Everyone on the team contributes as they attempt to push into the Vancouver zone to peper the Whalers netminder. Colorado dominates possession throughout the start of the period, but Vancouver expertly defends against this attack to keep the shutout intact. At around the 10 minute mark, the Colorado player clearly seemed to lose a step, whether it be motiviation or fatigue, Vancouver wasted no time taking advantage of this. Mikulak, the original goal scorer, passed it to Cannellini who then makes a quick pass to get the puck into Russo. Russo took his time and loaded up a strong shot, one the Raptors defence and goaltending weren’t able to stop in time. With that the Whalers took a commanding 3-0 lead, which ends up being the final score of the match. Colorado continues its early season troubles, while Vancouver takes a strong a commanding victory.
3rd Period Scoring:
3. Vancouver Whalers , Carlo Russo 2 (Borromini Cannellini 3, Petr Mikulak 1) at 11:18
Vancouver 3 Colorado 0
Three Stars:
1 - Casimir Stevens (VAN)
2 - Petr Mikulak (VAN)
3 - Carlo Russo (VAN)
san francisco group of cats - mikael koskinen quebec city citadelz - mikael koskinen
The player of the game for this game is none other than the best defender in the game, the goaltender. And that goaltender is from the Whalers, Casimir Stevens. Not only did he win, but he also got a shutout win facing 20 shots and saving all of them. Obviously Colorado may be a great team and it takes guts and eliteness to have a shutout on any team. It is difficult to have a performance like this and be under pressure to not make a single mistake and that is what Casimir Stevens did. The best player in my mind.
Goal of the Game
The goal of the game is the 1st goal of the game by the vancouver whalers. The goal was resulted on the power play and the set up was pretty impressive, It started off with a face off win for Wilson, Mikulak has the puck, a cross pass to kucherov, pass to the point to Gray and then back to Mikalak for the slap shot and there is no chance to stop that. It was like a triangle set up and that made it so impressive. The passing keeps getting more and more impressive as this is the best goal of the game.
Special Teams Analysis
It is certain that the Raptors lost the game because of the penalties they have been taking. They lost possession because of and therefore they lost the game. But they took 5 penalties and successfully killed 4 of the 5 penalties which is really good, if they did not allow the first goal which was very impressive. They learned from the first and they got better. They cleared the puck from the top, they forced the players to make passes and block the passing lanes which results a chance to kill time and scoring chances. Too bad they did not earlier.
This game was no doubt physical. With a combined 44 hits, we actually saw very few penalties. This however was not quite enough for Colorado who gave up 5 of the games 7 total penalties. Vancouvers powerplay was able to use that to their advantage scoring one one of the man advantages earning them a 20% powerplay this game. While this could have been worse for Colorado players like Jules Watt and Parker Smeb certainly arent helping their team, combining for 8 of their teams 12 Penalty minutes (the second period ended on offsetting minors that dont count towards powerplay stats).
Cliches Work: Comment 2
Cliche comments to the media are nothing new to the game of hockey. Almost any interview with a losing team will tell you "We need to play a full 60, end to end, clean game" but nothing is more important than that of "We need to get pucks to the net". Vancouver personified that tonight ending the game a full 6 shots over the losing Colorado Raptors. While hockey is far more than old cliches and just shooting the puck whenever you get the chance, sometimes the Keep It Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S) policy is the best one to keep. While this may have been easier for Vancouver given their extra 3 Power-play opportunities, this is going to have to be something Colorado works on in the future. Failed to show: Comment 3
While no one can prove that Ice Tilt is real, its certainly something that the Colorado Raptors must be questioning. This was the second home game loss of the season for the Raptors, out of two, and while the dominated in hits (25-19) and faceoff wins (45-39) they more or less failed to show for the rest of the game. With 2 key members of the second line of the Raptors, both offence and defence electing to spend a third of their total ice time in the sin bin for some easilly avoidable penalties. As far as I'm concerned this team, aside from their first three centers, and goalie Yuri Ushakov, failed to make it out of their dressing room at the start of the first period
Casimir "Brick Wall" Stevens: Comment 1
The Colorado Raptors only managed to record twenty shots on goal in this game, but Vancouver's Casimir Stevens was ready for them all. Stevens saved all five shots that he faced in the first period and was able to settle in for the rest of game after watching his teammates score two goals in front of him. He was not challenged any harder in the second period, once again facing a total of five shots. In the final period of the game, the Raptors stepped it up a bit and threw ten shots at Stevens, who stayed perfect. In addition to not being able to beat Stevens at even strength, Colorado was unable to beat him on either of their power play attempts either. Stevens' twenty save shutout earned him first star of the game honors.
Game-winning Goal: Comment 2
Today's game-winning goal was also the first goal of the contest. With his third gino of the season, it was Petr Mikulak who gave Vancouver the lead it would maintain until the final buzzer. At just the 2:38 mark of the opening period, the Whalers struck on the power play to take a one to zero lead. Aaron Wilson won the offensive zone face off against Knute Knurtsson, getting the puck to Mikulak. Mikulak then passed the puck to Egor Kucherov and skated to the slot. Kucherov slid the puck over to Cullen Gray, who settled it and sent a pass into the slot towards Mikulak. Keeping his stick down on the ice, Mikulak was in the perfect position to fire a one-time wrist shot over Yuri Ushakov's shoulder and into the back of the net.
Physical Play: Comment 3
This game contained its fair share of physicality. In total, there were 44 hits made and the teams combined for eighteen penalty minutes. The Colorado Raptors brought more of the physicality to the game, registering twenty-five of the hits and twelve of the penalty minutes. Despite the tilt in these numbers favoring the Raptors, it didn't appear to impact the outcome of the game as they suffered the loss. Each team's hit leader for the night made four hits. For Colorado, Parker Smeb led the way while Carlo Russo made four hits for the Whalers. The larger amount of penalty minutes for Colorado ended up giving Vancouver more opportunity to score on the power play, which they managed to take advantage of once.
Game 20 saw Casimir Stevens shut down the Colorado offense, stopping all 20 shots the Raptors mustered throughout the contest. Colorado deployed a balanced attack, with no player firing more than three shots on Stevens:
Parker Smeb: 3
Julio Tokolosh: 3
Nick Brain: 2
Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg: 2
Knute Knurtsson: 2
Akashi SixNine: 1
Eric Vanderberg: 1
Jake Peralta: 1
Jakub Novak: 1
Jules Watt: 1
Juulius Smonk: 1
Loki Odinsson: 1
Michael Scarn: 1
Colorado seemed poised to find the hot hand tonight and locate someone who could sneak one past Stevens, but they proved unsuccessful and none of these 20 shots got past him. Perhaps they'll look to feed their more offensive-minded snipers, like leading scorer heading into the game Jakub Novak, in the coming games in search of more success finding the back of the net.
Family Ties:
Thursday’s matchup between the Vancouver Whalers and Colorado Raptors was their first of the season. It also marked the first game on the first leg of the Whaler’s annual “Dads Trip”. Each season the Whalers’ players invite their fathers to travel with the team for a week, participating in pregame activities, team travel, and other off ice activities. While this is not an uncommon tradition, hosting it this early in the season is certainly different. Vancouver’s coach Luke explained that the Vancouver player’s families have more ties to other leagues than many other teams, and we’re hoping to catalyze quality family time before it overlapped with NHL events. Sami Raanta grinded out 19 minutes of ice time in front of his father. Post game, he was surprised by his cousin, Antii (of Phoenix Coyotes fame), and his hot anime sister. Egor Kucherov and Aaron Wilson sat glumly and held hands in solidarity, as both of their fathers opted instead to attend the LIghtning vs Capitals game in Tampa bay. Jax Duggan’s cousin, Meghan (Olympic medalist), stopped by to support the Whalers as well.
Whalers First Shutout of Season:
The matchup also marks the third game in the last four that the Raptors have failed to get more than twenty shots on net. Not to take away from Cassimir Stevens efforts, as he certainly showed up large in both of the Raptor’s high danger opportunities, gloving a Loki Odinsson deflection from a Colby Weeds slap shot from the slot, and in the third period when a low and away wrister from Julio Tokolosh caromed off of Stevens’ padding and was almost put back in by Ja’Aj Coitus-Wagg. Stevens’ certainly owes his defensive unit a steak dinner, as they allowed just 10 shots to get through after 2 periods. 11 blocked shots certainly helped the cause in Stevens’ first shutout of the season (although it was the Raptor’s second in three games).
Game Film is Never As Bad As You Think (week 1):
After any loss at any level, small battles that were lost in the contest will haunt a players mind. After a win, small victories are glorified as the dopamine rush mixes with the New Amsterdam vodka, or whatever the sponsors sent. Watching game film afterwards is the most humanizing aspect of the game, as coaches point out “Yea, the score was bad, but look at what we did right” or “You think you’re hot shit? Look what would have happened if the other team hadn’t messed up”. It is truly humbling to know that no matter what the simulation churns out, both teams were a few big breaks away from the score sheet looking the opposite and the mixed drinks tasting differently. A winner who will get bag skated: The whaler’s played a complete game, and their biggest risk on the ice was Andy Kerr’s hooking minor late in the second period. This lazy play gave the Raptors a minute, an intermission to plan and then another minute to chip away at the lead, but his teammates bailed him out. A loser who is moving in the right direction: Nick Brain is a great team leader who pulls his weight and gets the job done. He’s known more for his offense, but tonight got his job done in both ends, ending up with an even plus/minus rating, lead the game with 6 hits, and was second on his team with 2 shots on goal. A lot of heart will take this team further in the future.
Comment 1: Balanced Offense
While this was an overall positive performance from the whole Whalers team, one thing that should make management happy is seeing a balanced offense come to life in this game. For a team who relies very heavily on their top line (When they're as good as they are, can you blame them?), this game saw 8 different players get on the score sheet. Considering there were only 3 goals scored, that's exceptional depth and a tremendous effort from Vancouver coming at their opponents every time they stepped on the ice. We have seen the Whalers revert back to their heavy reliance on their top scorers, but if they want to win and be successful, more games like this one will be instrumental moving forward.
Comment 2: SMJHL First!
Welcome to the SMJHL, kid! At 13:58 of the first period Theo Morgan earned himself his first goal of his young SMJHL career. Parked in front of the net, Morgan deflected a shot by William Goose to earn his first. This is a goal Morgan had been waiting for, and he finally found the back of the net. While he hasn't been performing too well since then, the Whalers believe he can be successful in the SMJHL and help them moving forward, which is why he is getting every possible opportunity to succeed by seeing some PP time along with some respectable minutes. A nature goal scorer, Morgan will attempt to contribute for the remainder of the season and turn his season around, even if it means getting to the dirty areas like his first goal of his career.
Comment 3: Shutting Down the Top Line
While the offense was non-existent from the Colorado Raptors, it starts at the top and unfortunately there wasn't much going for the top unit in this game. Knurtsson, Novak and Brain had a combined 2 shots on goal! While that stat is shocking, what makes it worse is the fact that those 2 shots were both from Knurtsson. In a league as competitive as the SMJHL, no team will win games with that type of production from their top unit.
While it's easy to point fingers for their lack of production, let's give credit to the Whalers' efforts at containing the Raptors' top line. Great defensive effort to keep these guys quiet all night. With only 11 blocked shots as a team, the Whalers shut them down with good defensive play and great marking.
JNH Registered
S35 Challenge Cup Champion || Still Drunk
Comment #3: "Hello everyone, it's Pierre McGuire here and I've come to you mid-game to give you an update on one of my favourite things to talk about - players' sticks and their hometowns. Here's a name for you: Parker Smeb. This guy has an elite stick. The length. The strength. The usage. It's a strong stick, I've felt it in my hands myself and I think many others around the league will tell you that Smeb is wielding an absolute weapon out here. Oh man, I can't decide if I do or don't want to catch any action from that absolute meat hammer of a stick that Smeb has in his hands. But you don't have to take my word for it, ask Jax Duggan who took Smeb's bread roller right to the forehead which earned Smeb 2 minutes in the box for slashing. I don't think I can emphasize just how elite Parker's stick is. Girth. Strength. You ask me for an NHL comparison, I give you Sidney Crosby. Now that's a stick I've dreamed about for many nights. Did I ever tell you guys about the summer I spent in Cole Harbour with Sid? Couple nights to remember we had there. Oh right, back to the SHL. Parker Smeb. Elite stick. Big wagon. His hometown you say? Not important because I've already talked about Crosby's hometown of Cole Harbour. Next question. This isn't a press conference? There aren't questions? Than what am I asking you? Once again I'm correct in my analysis. Thanks guys."
03-08-2019, 05:02 PM(This post was last modified: 03-08-2019, 05:15 PM by awils13.
Edit Reason: Changed and added some staff
)
Faceoffs
Total
Whalers: 39
Raptors: 45
Whalers (>= 5 faceoffs taken)
Borromini Cannellini: 14/31 (45%) - 1st line, 4th line, 1st PP, 1st PK
vs Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg 1/8 (13%)
vs Jake Peralta 2/3 (67%)
vs Parker Smeb 2/2 (100%)
vs Michael Scarn 4/6 (67%)
vs Jakub Novak 1/2 (50%)
vs Knute Knurtsson 4/8 (50%)
vs Nick Brain 0/2 (0%)
Andy Kerr: 12/18 (67%) - 2nd line, 2nd PK
vs Michael Scarn 2/4 (50%)
vs Knute Knurtsson 4/7 (57%)
vs Jake Peralta 4/5 (80%)
vs Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg 2/2 (100%)
Aaron Wilson: 9/18 (50%) - 3rd line
vs Knute Knurtsson 4/6 (67%)
vs Michael Scarn 4/7 (57%)
vs Jake Peralta 1/2 (50%)
vs Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg 0/3 (0%)
Carlo Russo: 3/8 (38%) - 2nd PP
vs Knute Knurtsson 2/3 (67%)
vs Michael Scarn 1/4 (25%)
vs Jakub Novak 0/1 (0%)
Raptors (>= 5 faceoffs taken)
Knute Knurtsson: 16/30 (53%) - 1st line, 1st PP, 1st PK
vs Andy Kerr 3/7 (43%)
vs Aleister Crowley 1/1 (100%)
vs Borromini Cannellini 4/8 (50%)
vs Carlo Russo 1/3 (33%)
vs Theo Morgan 1/1 (100%)
vs Aaron Wilson 2/6 (33%)
vs Cullen Gray 2/2 (100%)
vs Rudy Mentz 1/1 (100%)
vs Sami Raanta 1/1 (100%)
Michael Scarn: 11/23 (48%) - 2nd line, 2nd PP, 1st PK
vs Carlo Russo 3/4 (75%)
vs Aaron Wilson 3/7 (43%)
vs Andy Kerr 2/4 (50%)
vs Borromini Cannellini 2/6 (33%)
vs Cullen Gray 1/1 (100%)
vs Rudy Mentz 0/1 (0%)
Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg: 10/13 (77%) - 3rd line
vs Borromini Cannellini 7/8 (88%)
vs Aaron Wilson 3/3 (100%)
vs Andy Kerr 0/2 (0%)
Jake Peralta: 4/11 (36%) - 4th line
vs Borromini Cannellini 1/3 (33%)
vs William Goose 1/1 (100%)
vs Andy Kerr 1/5 (20%)
vs Aaron Wilson 1/2 (50%)
Most faceoffs taken: Borromini Cannellini (31) Most faceoffs won: Knute Knurtsson (16) Most faceoffs lost: Borromini Cannellini (17) Highest percentage: Ja'Aj Coitus-Wagg (77)
Comment 2: The Differentiating Factor
The difference between these two teams this game was definitely the goaltending. Vancouver's goalie Casimir Stevens managed to save all 20 shots earning himself a shutout while at the other end Colorado's netminder, Yuri Ushakov, only managed to get 23 saves out of 26 shots. That's not the worst game for a goalie but when the opposing goaltender is playing that well you really have to step up for your team and try to match him. Even though overall the game was played better by Vancouver I believe the score could have been much closer had Ushakov played to the level Stevens was playing at.
Comment 3: Three Stars
Third Star: Carlo Russo (VAN)
Russo had a good game, managing to get himself a goal, 2 shots on net, 4 hits and finished the game with a +/- of 1. He got the final goal of the game midway through the third period, cementing the victory for Vancouver and crushing any hope Colorado may have had left.
Second Star: Petr Mikulak (VAN)
Mikulak earned himself 2 points, grabbing a goal early on the powerplay and a secondary assist on the goal from Russo. He finished the game with 2 shots on goal, 2 hits and a +/- of 1. Overall, a great game and would be deserving of the first star if not for the great performance from his netminder.
First Star: Casimir Stevens (VAN)
Getting himself a shutout on 20 shots and getting his team another much-needed win, Stevens had a great game and made some amazing saves along the way.
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