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Post by aj0512 on Dec 2, 2007 12:38:30 GMT -5
First meeting of the year between the Spirit and the Knights. Both teams did play last night...Saginaw a 2-0 winner over the Kitchener Rangers and London a 5-4 overtime winner against the Owen Sound Attack. Both teams assumingly had to travel overnight in very poor weather conditions, so hopefully everyone made it to London safely.
Saginaw comes in to today's game with a record of 11-11-2-1, good for 25 points, 5th in the West Division and 7th in the Conference. London is currently 17-9-0-2, good for 36 points, 2nd in the Midwest Division and 4th in the Conference. Even though the 7, 8, and 9 seeds in the West are very close together right now, it should be noted that Saginaw has played the fewest amount of games out of anyone in the Western Conference. You could say the same for every team in the entire league, but with the Kingston situation going on, the Fronts now have that notion. The Spirit have 4 games in hand on 8th place Owen Sound, 3 on 9th place Guelph, and 3 on 6th place Sarnia.
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Post by aj0512 on Dec 2, 2007 14:41:26 GMT -5
0-0 after the 1st period. Shots are 19-16 in favor of Saginaw.
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Post by aj0512 on Dec 2, 2007 15:35:02 GMT -5
1-0 Knights after the 2nd period. Justin Taylor has the lone goal, coming with exactly 1 minute left in the period.
Shots are 33-28 in favor of Saginaw. Each team is 0/5 on the powerplay.
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Post by aj0512 on Dec 2, 2007 15:55:17 GMT -5
2-0 Knights, Adam Perry scores early in the 3rd. 14:27 left.
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Post by aj0512 on Dec 2, 2007 16:38:09 GMT -5
Saginaw battles back but loses 4-3 in overtime. The Spirit scored all 3 of their goals in the final 9 minutes of the game, starting with Nick Crawford scoring on the powerplay to make it 2-1, and Jan Mursak tied it 2 minutes later, getting his 6th goal of the season. London re-took a 3-2 lead when Akim Aliu scored his first of two goals on the day. Saginaw tied it up 3-3 when Crawford scored yet again with 2:06 left. Aliu got the game winner for the Knights 1:09 into overtime for a 4-3 win.
Overall not the best game we've played obviously but I'll take the point for sure. Final shots were 49-38 in favor of the Spirit. Saginaw was 1/6 on the powerplay while London went 0/6.
Saginaw earns 3 out of 4 possible points for the weekend. The Spirit next play on Friday on the road against Patrick Asselin and the Oshawa Generals. Game time is 7:05 PM. Saginaw then plays back to back games against the Guelph Storm, playing at Guelph on Friday and in Saginaw on Sunday afternoon. The Storm do play on Saturday night, so we'll be rested for them.
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Post by Sparky on Dec 2, 2007 17:15:07 GMT -5
...Overall not the best game we've played obviously but I'll take the point for sure. Final shots were 49-38 in favor of the Spirit. Saginaw was 1/6 on the powerplay while London went 0/6. I strongly disagree! The game I listened to sounded like Saginaw took it to the Knights pretty well. Shut down the Knight's power play, shut them out until late in the 2nd. Out shot them 49-38. And all after an all out effort against the no. 1 team the night before. Oh, and did I mention they came back from a 2 goal deficit only to take a momentum blow a few mins later and go down 3-2. I give this team lots of credit for a well played game last night and tonight, if they can keep putting in efforts like these two, they will do well the rest of the season. |
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Post by aj0512 on Dec 2, 2007 17:26:57 GMT -5
You make it sound like I said we played absolutely terrible today. We played good today, but we have played better this season before, which is true, and that is what I said. Today was a great effort, but we can't always count on a huge rally in the final minutes. I'd like to see us balance out our scoring a little bit more, if that makes sense. But rest assured I am happy with the point we earned today.
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Post by sagspiritsfan on Dec 2, 2007 22:04:29 GMT -5
Great effort by the team today. 3 out of 4 against London and Kitchener is a phenomenal weekend.
Sidenotes - its nice to see Nick Crawford get rewarded with 2 goals for his good play of late. Also, Ryan Daniels shutout streak ends with 1 minute to go in the 2nd period at 139 minutes.
Hopefully the team can get on a bit of a roll now and pick up some much needed points.
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Post by MidlandSpiritFan on Dec 2, 2007 23:01:37 GMT -5
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Post by johnt on Dec 3, 2007 18:54:54 GMT -5
Crawford's 2nd goal was a thing of beauty. Nick dug a loose puck out of the corner, stickhandled out in front of the net, and backhanded it past Mason. SWEET!!!!
BTW, Steve Mason is an awesome goaltender. He made many key saves against the Spirit yesterday. Looks rock solid. If the Knights can pick up some more scoring, they'll give Kitchener a real run for the Western Conference title. A fellow from Kitchener told me Saturday night that the Rangers' #1 goalie, John Murray, is due back very soon. He was injured at the NHL Prospects tournament in Traverse City in mid-September and hasn't played since.
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Post by hockeyfollower on Dec 4, 2007 9:02:02 GMT -5
With the exception of Crawfords first goal from the point the Spirit had very little traffic in front of Mason. He could see almost every shot. Over the last 3 games are PP is 3 for 23 .
It seems to be a perimeter PP with no traffic in front of the net. In comparison to Londons where #87 stands right in front of the goalie(not off to the side). The same with Kitch. The D did a great job of blocking shots & passes on the weekend & clearing rebounds.
I hope we improve on getting traffic in front of the net and guys driving the net on the offensive rush . It will make for some easy goals.
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Post by aj0512 on Dec 4, 2007 14:09:49 GMT -5
Me thinks this "goon" thing isn't going to happen, and probably never was. If I'm wrong I'll eat my words of course.
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Post by Sparky on Dec 4, 2007 21:42:59 GMT -5
You make it sound like I said we played absolutely terrible today. We played good today, but we have played better this season before, which is true, and that is what I said. Today was a great effort, but we can't always count on a huge rally in the final minutes. I'd like to see us balance out our scoring a little bit more, if that makes sense. But rest assured I am happy with the point we earned today. sorry, over reacted |
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