Hit of The Game

The Massive Hit

The hit of the game has to be the massive, humongous, earth-shaking check thrown on Morgan Forestier by (Clean) Andrei Kostitsyn, which separated the Kelowna Knights center from the puck, and allowed Slatt Potts to steal the puck and wrist it in past Luca Del Vecchio for the first goal of the game. The Knights bench was up in arms after the hit demanding for a major penalty and a game misconduct as they viewed it to be an illegal check to the head, and Forestier was slow to get up as the impact seemed to have shook him up significantly. The referees declined to call a penalty on Kostitsyn, however, declaring the hit to be clean and legal. Kostitsyn would go on to record a couple more hits during the game, but none had the impact of his first hit on Forestier.

Unsung Hero(es) of the Game

Jukka Timonen deserves this Unsung Hero of the Game award for his valiant attempt to get his team the victory, with 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 shots and 3 blocks. Timonen played a huge 22:22, including 2:13 on the power play and 2:27 on the penalty kill. This ice-time sits just behind the first pairing of Akira Ren and Disisde Dayudie, who were both held scoreless although Akira Ren managed an assist. Rintarou Okabe gets runner-up mention here, leading the forwards with a massive 24:01 of ice-time and potting a goal on the night. He also managed to stay neutral in terms of +/- which is excellent.

Could Use Some Improvement
The Berserkers might want to include some penalty-shot practice at the end of their morning skates, because Luca Del Vecchio has no problems at all stopping the Newfoundland shooters as they came in for their turn in the barrel. The shot selection, speed, and placement were poorly chosen, and obviously the coaching staff had not done any scouting on Del Vecchio as the players seemed to pick where they wanted to shoot at random. That would be excusable if the goalie had been a rookie or someone new, but Del Vecchio is quite well known and has had many appearances recently including in the World Juniors where he put up an excellent showing.

Also, Lucifer Morningstar barely managed to get 2:03 in the game - what is he even doing on the bench? I guess someone has to open and close the doors for shift changes.