Spirit at Belleville 10/6/07

[aj0512]

The Spirit head back to work tonight with a matchup against the Belleville Bulls, who are currently 2-1 on the season with 2 wins over Kingston and a loss to Oshawa. Saginaw comes in at 2-1-2, and have gotten at least a point in every game since the home opener. Hopefully our dominance against Eastern Conference opponents carries over to this season and gets us a win (or at least a point, lol). Go Spirit!!!

In other OHL news...

London is now 0-4 to start the season, this time losing to Sudbury 3-2 at home. I could be wrong but it's starting to look like their big names might be staying in the NHL or AHL this season.

Sault Ste. Marie finally loses tonight, in OT, against Kingston 4-3. The Hounds are 6-0-1.

The Mississauga St. Michael's Majors made their "debut" tonight at the Hershey Centre, beating the Windsor Spitfires in a shootout 5-4. The attendance was 2570 for the Majors' first game in Mississauga.

Sarnia beat Oshawa 6-2. Tavares already has 9 goals on the season.

I know it's early and all, but we're already 5 points out of 2nd place in the division. Not that I'm expecting us to win it or anything this year, but hopefully we can get a win tonight to keep pace a little bit.

Okay I'm done

[teamspirit08]

Sounds like a little tension about being "5 points behind already" in the division.

The OHL West Conference is the only division in the entire CHL that has/had three (3) teams in the Top 10 this year - Sarnia, Soo and Windsor.

The CHL has 60 teams. No other CHL division has had more than one Top 10 team this year!

For the Spirit to be in the mix with these three teams (and have had solid performances against all to date), I'd now consider the hand-wringing of July now officially over.

So much for the various theories of having to hire an "NHL Coach" to give us any hope! Keep up the great work Mr. Watson!

[donjohnson]

we don't need to worry about keeping pace with the first place teams, we just can't get into a rut in the middle or end and have to worry about keeping pace with the last place teams. all we have to do is make the playoffs in any position...then, as everyone knows, it's all goaltending from there and if daniels plays as good as it sounds like he played the other night, we'll be just fine and probably make it further than our "all-star" team last year!

[spiritfan8]

Wow--Spirit are outshooting Belleville 30-9 partway through the second. I guess the way we got outshot early in Windsor left an impression.....2-1 Spirit as Asselin converts on the PP.

[MidlandSpiritFan]

Deuces are wild with a few minutes left in the 2nd period. All tied at 2 apiece.

[MidlandSpiritFan]

I noticed on the OHL on-line scoresheet that Asselin is the captain and Ryan McDonough is an alternate/associate but there are no other players with A's. Has that the way it has been all season so far??

[kivpit]

midlandspiritfan said:

I noticed on the OHL on-line scoresheet that Asselin is the captain and Ryan McDonough is an alternate/associate but there are no other players with A's. Has that the way it has been all season so far??

Yes...

[MidlandSpiritFan]

Saginaw guarantees itself another road point. Going to OT. Sounds like the Belleville goaltender Mike Murphy is the only reason this game isn't already in the win column for the Spirit. Has anyone heard of this Murphy kid before?? SOG are 46-22 in favor of Saginaw through regulation.

OHL On-Line Scoresheet: www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=14509#

[spiritfan8]

Was he LaLande's backup last year?? Or did they pick him up in a trade? Don't know, but he played the game that Daniels played on Thursday night (except MM ended up winning) 4 on 3 in OT is never a good sign. Watson won't be happy. But I'm giving these guys credit. They just have to learn how to finish.

[MidlandSpiritFan]

I just checked Belleville's 06-07 roster on the OHL website and along with Lalonde, Murphy and Ed Pasquale are listed as the goaltenders. Murphy is an 89.

Tough way to lose after dominating the game. Agree sf8, they need to finish. Sounded like Asselin got robbed by Murphy just before the Zaborsky penalty that led to the Bulls PP game winning goal. I'll bet I know who the #1 star is going to be!!

[aj0512]

Well, at least our unbeaten streak continues!

Anyone watch the Wings/Hawks game tonight? Patrick Kane (London) had his first NHL point and scored the only goal of the shootout as the Wings blew a 3-1 lead in the 3rd and lost 4-3.

[spiritfan8]

I don't think we need to worry about seeing Patrick Kane in London this season.........

[binque]

I'm watching the archive of the game right now and Asselin (as well as the rest of the guys) need to learn how to get the puck up. Almost every shot that the Spirit make is on the Ice. Yes you can make over 40 shots per game and not score goals until you learn to shot the puck into the upper half of the net.

There should not have been a penalty on Zaborsky. P.K. Subban skated right into the back side of the net (he stepped on the bar on the back of the net) and lost his footing. Bad call!.

The winning goal was a flipping (rotating) air puck that was off the ice and Daniels (who was able to stop about 5 shots on the ice during the PP) was unable to stop it.

Murphy said it right in the post game interview, "We (Belleville) take more quality shots, I think"

Remembering back to previous powerhouse teams in the past, it is noticeable that the teams that seem to win a lot, have players who can power-shot a puck off the ice. Get it into the top half of the net and you will have a much higher goal score when you take 49 shots on goal.

[Sparky]

binque said:

Murphy said it right in the post game interview, "We (Belleville) take more quality shots, I think"

This should be posted on the Spirit locker room walls, in big letters. Maybe that would motivate them a little, comming from a goal tender they just played.