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*leviadan* · 02-15-2020, 04:22 PM

Carolina Kraken vs. Detroit Falcons Falcons

Hello and welcome to Season 52 of the SMJHL! We're just passing the half-way point of the year, and boy do we have a humdinger for you tonight! Two league-topping behemoths will go at it as we bring you the Carolina Kraken, and the Detroit Falcons. The Kraken have largely been leading the league all year with a veteran squad sporting solid goal differentials and all around excellent play. The young Falcons are definitely a surprise to be battling it out for the top spot, with a rookie-heavy squad and a high event style that lends itself to huge swings in games. So far the bounces have gone their way, but can it continue tonight against the stifling Kraken?

1ST PERIOD

As advertised for a top team in the league, the Kraken came out like they were fired from a cannon. They immediately looked dangerous and would not let up. Detroit starter Jobin kept the net clear until the eleven minute mark when a scramble sequence had the Falcon's reeling. An Alexei Rykov shot blocked by Guy O'Shea bounced to a wide open Zbigniew Pokrywka who slammed it into the open cage, putting the Kraken up 1-0. From there until the intermission Detroit weathered the storm. Despite a late period power-play The Falcon's couldn't swing the momentum, and we go to the break with Carolina up by 1.

2ND PERIOD

You have to give credit to the Falcon's coach, because something had clearly changed when they came out of the locker room. Within minutes the Falcons had excellent pressure in the offensive zone. Nurmagomedov earned a turnover with solid physical play before feeding Sutherland who just missed the net. Topalo quickly picked it up off the boards, fired it on, and Sulfurgold tipped the deflection past the goalie. If you're looking for a turning point, I'd say that this is the moment the game really kicked off. Just 20 seconds later the Falcons find themselves in scoring position yet again. In a moment of dramatic irony, a Guy O'Shea shot is blocked, but a lucky bounce gave him a clean look on a second chance. 2-1 Detroit. But the barrage of offence was not over yet! Less than a minute later, the Kraken's right-wing Velveteen Dream caught a nice pass from MacTavish allowing him to split the Detroit defence, take a shot, corral his own rebound, and knock home the next attempt. With three goals in just over a minute, we're tied at 2. Things would cool down for a few minutes with solid defence and timely shot blocks, but the second period had more to give. With just under nine minutes to go Detroit's first line has the Kraken hemmed in. A strong shot from Detroit's point leader Kaarlo Kekkonen missed the net but created room for Jack Kanoff to come streaking in from the point. He picked up the bounce and started digging in front the net! He managed to push it just over the line, and the 3-2 Detroit lead would stand for the rest of the period.

3RD PERIOD

Both teams wanted it bad as the third began, but unfortunately for Detroit, Carolina can't stand losing. Just over a minute in, Detroit right wing Cassidy Lhotsky gets called for interference on a late hit to MacTavish and the Kraken are quick to capitalize. Just ten seconds into the power-play, Fitted grabs a big rebound off the blocker of Jobin, and slides it home on the backhand to tie the game up at 3. Just over 30 seconds later things would turn bad for Carolina in their defensive zone, as Kekkonen would separate their defence from the puck and refuse to get it back. The Falcons would maintain over a minute of offensive zone pressure culminating in a top corner wrist shot from Cal Labovitch. 4-3 Detroit. With this goal, for the second time tonight, we'd be treated to a sequence of three goals in under two minutes. Just over a minute later Tom Fiddler would tie the game at 4's when a rebound found him wide open at an awkward angle on the goal line. But Detroit would respond again within 30 seconds as Kaarlo Kekkonen would come streaking in off the rush and go bar-down to restore the Falcon's lead. After that huge flurry of goals, we're back where we started with Detroit leading by one: 5-4. Realizing the importance of the next goal, each team tried to lock down their defence and wait for the perfect opportunity to strike. Sadly for the Kraken, Kekkonen would not be denied tonight. As if they were acting out a coach's O-Zone dreams: a perfect face-off win by McMaster went to O'Shea at the point, who quickly found Kekkonen backing into the slot. Hroch made a valiant effort on the initial shot, but Kekkonen's own rebound was there for the taking. 6-4 Detroit, and that would be the nail in the coffin.

Final Score:

Falcons

6 - 4

Three Stars:

[Image: goal.gif]

- DET - Kaarlo Kekkonen (2G, 3A)
[Image: goal.gif]

- DET - Luke McMaster (2A, 3H)
[Image: goal.gif]

- DET - Cal Labovitch (1G, 1A)

[Image: pin1_1.gif?ex=661a1734&is=6607a234&hm=b8...1bf5caed8&]

***sve7en*** · 02-18-2020, 05:01 PM

7's Take of the Game
Penalties continue to be Kraken's bane. A team near the top of the league in penalties taken continues their trend as they take 4 more tonight. They have the most successful penalty kills this season but it's a volume thing. Mike Hroch isn't perfect, and on his bad days he needs his team to not let him get shelled for 21 shots and 3 penalty kills in the later two periods. The first period showed that Carolina is capable of holding the momentum and executing their game plan, but they can't let it get away from them like that. How do you win faceoffs 53-31 and not dominate possession with the talent on that roster?

7's Blame of the Game
Rookies are gonna be inconsistent, even all-star rookies, but Ambacas Cuddles needs to be better for Carolina. Three penalties total (two of which led to Detroit power play goals), that disaster of a power play breakout that led to Jack Kanoff's shorthanded goal, and a lack of impact felt elsewhere (17/25 passes completed, no blocked shots, and only two hits over 18 minutes is not a pretty night. I love the guy, and what he brings to that Carolina team's roster, but games like that are going to cost them more games unless he becomes a better skater and sorts out his discipline.

7's Unsung Heroes of the Game
Detroit's top pair, Jack Kanoff and Guy O'Shea were a combined -3 today despite scoring 3 points, but they also were second and third on the team in shots while combining for five blocked shots today, on their 40 combined minutes. Kanoff's shorthanded goal broke the Carolina morale and set the tone for the second half of the game. It was uptempo and their disruption in the neutral zone was paramount in keeping the orange jerseys from building up strong attacks and their pressure in their own zone didn't let the Kraken stay long either.

chirpchirp · 02-18-2020, 05:08 PM

Carolina Controls the Circle
The faceoff circle might as well have been tilted in the Kraken's direction, because they were very dominant on faceoffs during this one. Carolina won 53 of the 84 (63%) draws during the game. They were led in the circle by centers, Michael Fitted (16 of 25, 64%) and Tom Fiddler (19 of 27, 70%). Even on the rare occasions where their centers were kicked out, the other guys usually pitched in with Jimmy Wagner, Kenny Creller, and Scott Hamilton all winning every draw they faced. Even though they were able to dominate the faceoff circle, the Kraken were not able to come away with the win in this one, as the Falcons won 6-4.

Mediocre_Fred · 02-19-2020, 08:55 PM

Comment #1
Carolina's steady offense vs Detroit's late game surge. Looking at the stats, it seems like Carolina has an almost slow and methodical way of scoring points. In this game, and in others in the past, the Kraken have put offensive pressure on their opponents evenly throughout the game. This game looks no different. Detroit, on the other hand, seems to like explosive burts of offensive strength followed by lulls that can last a whole period or longer. In this game it seemed to work out in favor of the Falcons. While the boys from Carolina were able to put up an impressive four points this game, Detroit's explosiveness netted them six goals, securing the win. Thank you for listing to my very high quality analysis.

Comment #2
Carolina's strong first line is balanced out by it's weaker remaining lines. Looking at the stats, you can see that almost all of the scoring or assists came from the first line. Surprisingly, one of there goals actually came from their lowest pairing on defense. Now, one could probably blame this on the fact that Carolina has a lot of rookies, but that excuse won't work for this game. Detroit also has quite a lot of rookies on their team and they all have been pulling their weight, especially during this game. Perhaps the problem for Carolina, then, lies in the pairings. Maybe it would be better if instead of having lines full of rookies they had lines with rookies mixed with veterans. Maybe we will never know.

Comment #3
Penalties. The bane of the Kraken and the savior of the Falcons. Falcons had four power plays and were able to convert on two of them. Meanwhile, Detroit only gave Carolina three power plays and were able to hold them to only scoring one goal during those. The Carolina boys need to learn that their penalty kill units can't handle the amount of power plays they give the other team. Detoit seems to be having no problems on the penalty kill, though. They were actually able to score while down a man against Carolina. Even with a few rookies on their PK units, the Falcons were able to hold their own and even score a goal.

https://simulationhockey.com/games/smjhl...L-133.html

***Rangerjase*** · 02-20-2020, 01:29 PM

Comment #1 (128 words) Game 133
This was a rough game for both of the teams starting goalies. The Falcons were able to get 6 goals by Hroch, and the Kraken were able to get 4 goals by Jobin. Of the 6 goals scored by the falcons, two were scored with a man advantage and one was scored shorthanded. The kraken were only able to convert once on a total of 3 power plays. Detroit put a total of 30 shots on net, giving Hroch a difficult .800 save percentage. He did play the whole game, as the falcons scored their 6th goal with only 5 minutes left to play. The kraken put 27 shots on net, giving Jobin just a .852 save percentage. This was a weak showcase for both goaltenders this game.

Comment # 2 (123 Words) Game 133
This game had a large point distribution for both teams. The kraken scored a total of 4 goals, with 4 different players finding the back of the net. There were a total of 5 players that had assists, and a total of 8 players with points overall. Of the 19 players on the ice, only 42% were able to record a single point. When you look at Detroit’s statistics, they scored a total of 6 goals. 5 players record a goal (Kaarlo scoring 2 goals). Only 7 players recorded an assist (Kaarlo had 3). The top line for the falcons really has been playing over the top. 9 players recorded points this game 45% of the players were able to notice a point.

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