Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Game Four: Tigers 2 @ Brandon 5 (Dauphin)

Brandon Wins 5-2
Series Tied 2-2

Links
WHL GameSheet - Whl Website
Wheaties cream Tigers 5-2, tie up series - CHAT News
Wheat Kings top Tigers to tie series at 2-2 - MH News
Wheat Kings even series at two games apiece - Brandon Sun

Pre-Game Notes
Baron Thompson - Serving Game 3 of 3 of his suspension
Tigers are switching to Michael Bullion for tonight's game.

Dan Baker - Draws in to replace the injuries to  Longo/Nassen/Macpherson
Apparently the Hotel the Tigers were staying at had a pipe burst and they had to scramble. They are spread out among 3 hotels in Dauphin. 

Tiger Injuries

Mason Shaw - Ridley mentioned they talk to him today and Minnesota hasn't assessed him yet.
Elijah Brown - Gametime decision and ended up starting the game but not finishing it. I don't remember seeing him in the third period.
Dylan Macpherson -Likely out for playoffs
Linus Nassen - Day-to-day not dressed tonight
Trevor Longo - Out for a while
James Hamblin - Broken wrist, I apologize I keep forgetting about him

Brandon Injuries
G Logan Thompson remains out of the lineup
F - Jonny Hooker is week to week


First Period
Brandon started the game buzzing around the Tigers zone for the first 7 minutes of the game.
After a tough shift Mark Rassell would come to the bench yelling at the team to pick their game up. The Tigers would get a little bit of momentum off a powerplay, but it was short-lived.

Brandon would get on the board first from an outstanding effort from 16yr old Ben McCartney. McCartney would outmuscle and strip Baxter Anderson off the puck down low. McCartney would attempt a pass out front and missed the first guy, but it found defenceman Daniel Bukac at the point who rifled a shot over Bullion's shoulder. 1-0 Brandon

Brandon would score another one a minute later. 16yr standout defenceman Braden Schneider backhanded a pass across the ice beyond the reach of 2 Tiger forwards over to Stelio Mattheos.  I think 2 Tiger defenceman just came off from a line change and were playing very deep in the zone. Mattheos was able to perform a little toe drag and use Dalton Gally as a screen right in the slot. That shot would beat Bullion in the same spot upstairs blocker side. 2-0 Brandon

Notes:
Brandon completely outclassed the Tigers in the first. This doesn't look good for them as they are being clearly outworked in every way and having lots of trouble generating any offense at all. Hoping they can figure something out for the second

Second Period
The Tigers would come out in the second period with a different lineup. I'm not sure if it was the second or third period when he left the game but I didn't see Elijah Brown on the ice in the third period.
Rassell White Ostir
Preziuso Chyzowski Jevne
Williams Haden Rybinski
Anderson Brown Lockner

  
That seemed to immediately make a difference as the play was a lot more even. The middle part of the period would see them trade powerplay chances, but it was Brandon who capitalized on their chances first.

Michael Bullion managed to stop a good cross-ice pass feed, but the puck sat in the crease. Cole Reinhardt was in between all 4 Tigers and jammed the puck into an open net. 3-0 Brandon

The Tigers would finally get on the board. Off a broken play, Caiden Daley would knock down a high deflected shot with his glove. Josh Williams, who was skating backwards in the slot, one-timed the puck which beat Dylan Myskiw low glove 3-1 Brandon 

Notes:
You can see the hate developing out there. Some frustrated players making hard hits. The Tigers finally found a way to play with Brandon but the puck luck doesn't seem to be on their side.


Third Period


The Tigers would come out with some jump but the puck luck would beBrandon'sdons Favor. A bad giveaway by Tyler Preziuso put the Wheaties up by 3.  Preziuso received a pass along the boards and passed it into the slot right on to an incoming Linden McCorrister who would beat Bullion five-hole.
 4-1 Brandon


The Tigers would get a lucky break that put them back into the hockey game. Goaltender Dylan Myskiw came out to play the puck behind the net and Mark Rassell came steaming in un-noticed. He stole the puck and put it into an empty net. 4-2 Brandon

Brandon again would gain some distance on the scoreboard, but this time it was a brain fart by the whole team.  Gunnar Wegleitner would skate end to end down the middle of the ice completely untouched by all 5 Tigers and beat Bullion stick side 5-2 Brandon   That was a bad goal from the Tigers standpoint. It looked like every Tiger on the ice thought somebody else was going to take the guy.

Thoughts

There is a lot of hate brewing out there. There were quite a few 2nd and 3rd shots being given out after a body check. I'm quite surprised we didn't see a fight develop during game 4, or a player going overboard and making a dangerous hit.

On a positive note, the Tigers learned how to start skating with Brandon late in the second. On a poor note, they made 2 bad mistakes that prevented any chance of a comeback.

Well, we knew this would be a Home Team type series coming in and it appears that is holding true.

Next Up
Friday, March 30th in Medicine Hat




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I said it after game 2 and people said I was being negative but look now. Sloppy play in te defensive end and just some poor defence overall. Weigleitner made everyone look stupid on the one goal. Quennevile got caught standing still. He really hasn't been great and I know he's playing a lot of minutes but I've seen great things from him in the past and he's been struggling.

It's tough when you are missing two of your top 4 dmen so i understand the struggles.
Brown gets hurt and doesn't return. That's not good. White is not a first line centre and I'll keep it at that.

I know I'm being negative right now but I'm just a little frustrated. At the same time I understand we have injuries and we are a young team.

Craven got crushed up high at the end of the game and I never like when a player retaliates in poor way but craven went after him and in glad he did. Show them he's not going to take that.

TigerTurf said...

^ I carried your post over to the new game thread and formatted it. You were right

I was nervous this would happen. Brandon is just a completely different team on Home Ice. Tigers won so handily in the first couple games that it seemed hard to Imagine 7-2 scores being turned into losses especially when Home Ice was in Dauphin and not Brandon.

I fully expect the Tigers to come out hard Friday and be the better team in Medicine Hat to turn the series around.
-----

I really liked seeing Craven standing up for himself as well. If their was ever time for a fight, being down 3-0 or 5-2 in game 4 was a perfect time for it. They needed a spark. Something like that should have been done by a veteran in the first or second period and not by a rookie fairly fresh of an "upper body injury" after he was hit hard.

Anonymous said...

As fans, I know we are frustrated, but can you imagine how frustrated the players must be? Living on a bus for the foreseeable future.

Hopefully some more players step up so we can finish the series.

I also hope that as fans, we show up to support them tomorrow night!

Anonymous said...

It's to bad with all the injuries really. They always say it's no excuse but it was tough enough to lose Fischer and gerlach (I do like those trades though) let alone missing your top 2 centremen and 2 of your top 4 dmen. Not many teams could handle losses like those.
At the same time if they an find a way through this it's really going to help them down the road.

longtimefan said...

Looking at, tickets sales for tomorrow in one word "horrible ".

The Sieve said...

I'm a 2 season ticket holder for 23 years and went to get my ticket today and both seats were given out to the general public (maybe a Brandon fan.)
That's the way they treat season ticket holders. Hopefully my wife doesn't give my recliner away Friday night. Hmmm Maybe next season I will use my recliner in a nice warm man cave. When it is warmer than -10 out I could maybe get 2 seats in the Canalta centre and drive outside of town for a game.