Here are the rosters for tonight's rookie game against Battlefords in Eston.
For Kindersley:
A. McDonald ('92) / Johnson ('93)
Howell ('94) - Webb ('93) - these two fought last night and are now D partners
Bartel ('92) - Thiel ('93)
Schmaltz (Kadin is a local guy who played with the midget Wheat Kings last year - '93 I believe)
Gourley ('92) - Penner ('92) - Kissick ('93)
Long ('92) - Gerwing ('92) - A. McDonald ('93)
Olson ('93) - Schwark ('94) - McBride ('93)
Daniels ('94) - Bosovich ('93) - Shofner ('93)
For Battlefords (courtesy of Dan O'Connor):
35 Blair Mahon 94 - G
02 Connor Gulka 93
03 Reece Fenrich 94
04 Dillon Forbes 93
05 Eric Pfeifer 95
06 Robin Yew 95
07 Andrew Peeyachew 92
08 Regan Yew 95
09 Joel Blaquiere 95
10 Chad Tichkowsky 92
11 Derek Pfisterer 92
12 Bryden Serafini 94
14 Justin Lund 94
15 Ryne Keller 94
16 Jesse Gerbig 93
17 Cody Antos 92
19 Blake Young 94
21 Jordaan Braun 94
22 Tim Rollins 92
39 Garrett Montour 92 - G
Should be a good one tonight. Both sides are dressing a few players with a good shot at cracking the roster. The Stars' roster has a bit of a local flavour - the Yew brothers were at the Klippers' summer camp last month, and Andrew Peeaychew played with the West Central Rage in Kerrobert last year.
I'll be live blogging again, so check back here at 7:30. Hopefully the laptop battery has a little more stamina tonight!
Monday, September 6, 2010
The Adamyk-Dommett-Calkins Show
As promised, here's the video interview we shot the other night. Apologies for the background noise... it's a rink.
Camp Day 4 Notes & Reactions
Before I move on to impressions from last night, I think I may have finally cracked the code to upload interviews onto the blog.
Eureka!! This is John Sonntag after last night's Blue and White Game.
Eureka!! This is John Sonntag after last night's Blue and White Game.
Taylor Wasden talks about what it's like to get back into things after recovering from torn knee ligaments (and how the fight with Webb came about):
On to last night's game. First, a correction. Although Nick Eliason was listed as #81 on the game roster, that number was worn by Martensville's Brennan Bosovich, who made his training camp debut. Hence the confusion over Eliason being up front. He has actually reported back to the Saskatoon Contacts - a surprise to say the least. More on this tonight.
With the departure of Eliason, one player I think has a real shot at making the team (if he wants to make the jump) is Cody Thiel. This is his second training camp with the Klippers and I think he looked solid this weekend. He's a 6'2" blueliner who needs to fill out some, but still uses his size well. He threw some good hits last night and did a good job separating opposing forwards from the puck. Whether he's willing to play third-pairing minutes at 17 years old is a good question.
I thought Ryan Benn looked great last night. He moved his feet, got to loose pucks and created a lot of chances for Team Perkins, especially in the early going. It's not the first time I've seen that from him, but it would be nice to see it more often. He's got the skill to be a top six player, no question. He and Beau Taylor feed off each other well. Wouldn't be surprised to see them stick together to start the year.
It was a great night for Taylor Wasden, with a Gordie Howe hat trick. He scored Perkins' second goal late in the first period and also pummelled Eric Webb in a fight to start the second. (As he explains in the video above, Webb wanted to fight Dommett. He also tussled with Howell off the opening puck drop. The kid's got guts... and after seeing his face last night, maybe a couple of scars too).
Kamloops Blazers draft pick Mitchell Schwark made his training camp debut. For a 16-year-old, he was pretty effective on the physical side, throwing a few hits and even knocking over Sonntag - the biggest player in the organization - late in the game. Schwark also got a penalty shot early in the first period after being tripped by Lance Tabin. He dinged the left post. Schwark is a Blazer in midget AAA as well.
It's going to be interesting to see the roster for tonight's rookie game against Battlefords. I don't think there are enough rookies in camp to ice a full roster, so we may see a handful of returnees in the line-up. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
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I went to a Labour Day gathering to watch the Riders yesterday, but the real deal is today. Go Argos. Yeah you heard me. Go Argos.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Whoa!
I was planning to write a game recap when I got home from Eston. That all changed pretty quickly when I got here:
This is the back of Pharmasave in Kindersley, on the same block I live in (about 30 feet away). I arrived home around 10:30 pm to discover my parking area blocked off by police tape. Bystanders said a drunk driver was doing donuts on Main and hit this wall at 130 kph. There are two dumpsters in that area, the one you see in the photo and another one that was crushed like a pancake. As far as I know, the driver survived - which is incredible in itself.
This is the back of Pharmasave in Kindersley, on the same block I live in (about 30 feet away). I arrived home around 10:30 pm to discover my parking area blocked off by police tape. Bystanders said a drunk driver was doing donuts on Main and hit this wall at 130 kph. There are two dumpsters in that area, the one you see in the photo and another one that was crushed like a pancake. As far as I know, the driver survived - which is incredible in itself.
Blue & White Game - Live Blog
Team Shea defeated Team Perkins 7-5 in the Blue & White Game on Sunday. Here's the game blog:
It'll be interesting to see what line-up changes are made for tonight's game. The rosters were the same over the last two nights.
Speaking of interesting, I filmed a video interview with Andrew Dommett, Braeden Adamyk and Johnny Calkins after last night's game. If my camera card hadn't filled up, we easily could have been there till after midnight with the way those guys yap at each other. I'll try to get that up tomorrow.
6:51 p.m. Hardly any roster changes for tonight. Walker Wintoneak is playing D for Team Shea, and Daniels moves to Shea to replace Tyndall (Kindersley's Ryan McBride takes Daniels' spot for Perkins). Jordan Braid is playing again for Perkins.
7:01 p.m. Another scrap right off the draw and it's Webb again, this time fighting '94 defenceman Howell. Not much of a fight, more of a wrestling show.
7:02: 42 seconds in and I nearly got decapitated by a puck. Great start to the night.
7:04: Great opening shift for Ryan Benn. He can play like a man possessed when he wants to. He and Beau Taylor have good chemistry.
7:07: Real solid shift for Johnny Calkins, stealing the puck from Tabin and then setting up Dommett for a pair of can't-miss chances... that Dommer missed.
7:10: Schwark hits the post on a penalty shot after being tripped by Tabin. Game remains scoreless.
7:11: Jeff Olson opens the scoring for Perkins (white) after taking a bank pass from Braid at the blueline and sniping the top right corner from close range. BTW - goalies are Hellyer for black, Patrick Johnson for white.
7:15: Ryan Benn might be the best player on the ice so far. Calkins, Duzan also look good.
7:18: For a guy described as stay-at-home, Nick Eliason isn't afraid to rush the puck.
7:20: Taylor Wasden finds the back of the net on a wrister from between the dots. White leads 2-0. 1:40 left in the 1st.
7:22: First period is over. See you back here in 10 minutes.
7:40: Wasden just said he was going to fight and he murdered Webb right off the draw. Webb will have no brain cells left if he keeps this up (although some here would say he's got n...no. I won't make that comment). At least he isn't bleeding this time.
7:44: Kerrobert's Tanner Kissick gets Team Shea on the board with a quick five-hole shot that beat Johnson. Perkins leads 2-1.
7:47: Wasden is an assist away from a Gordie Howe hatty in the blue & white game. Nearly had a second goal there. Get 'er done Wazzy.
7:50: Switch-up time for the goalies with 8:49 left in the second. Justin McDonald (Perkins) and Corey Webb (Shea) enter the game.
7:52: Riley Down breaks free and rips a wrist shot stick side on McDonald to tie the game 2-2. Seconds later, Mysiorek gets a dangerous chance on a 2-on-1 with Duzan but McDonald holds the fort.
7:55: Cody Thiel is looking solid on the Perkins blueline. The '93 defender was at camp last year too. Competition for the last three spots is wide open so he could have a shot.
7:57: Nick Eliason is playing up front the last few shifts. Interesting. He also just got hauled down on his way to the net by Flanagan. Penalty shot time... and he glances a high shot just off McDonald's mask and out of play.
8:01: McDonald robs Tanner Exner on a breakaway. Kid's having a solid night.
8:19: Shea leads 3-2 entering the third. There was a goal scored late in the second that I missed because I was typing instead of looking up. Multi-tasking ain't easy...
8:20: My battery only has about 20 minutes left. If anything noteworthy happens after that, it'll be on my twitter account (which you can get to on the left side of the blog).
8:22: Sanfred King taps in a beauty cross-ice feed from Tanner Exner to put Shea ahead 4-2. No chance for McDonald.
8:24: Braider gets on the board! Fires a shot past Webb from between the circles to make it 4-3.
8:26: Webb makes a solid stop on Adamyk breaking in from the left side. 13 minutes left in the third. Good game.
8:30: Adamyk just rubbed out Duzy along the boards. So strange to see these guys battling each other.
8:31: A beauty of a play to tie the game for Perkins. Braider took the puck behind the net, hit Wasden in front and he redirected it across to Adamyk for an easy tap-in. Gordie Howe hat trick for Wazzy.
8:33: Game is tied 4-4 with 7:11 to go. Only six minutes of battery time left. My nerves...
8:35: 16-year-old Schwark just knocked over Sonntag. That ain't easy to do.
8:36: A Perkins clearing attempt deflects off a stick and gives Dommett a clear breakaway. Tried to go five-hole and it closed up awful quick.
8:37: Duzan breaks in alone and sneaks a wrister past McDonald to give Shea a 5-4 lead. 4:23 to go.
8:38: OK, pop over to my twitter account for the last few minutes of the game.
It'll be interesting to see what line-up changes are made for tonight's game. The rosters were the same over the last two nights.
Speaking of interesting, I filmed a video interview with Andrew Dommett, Braeden Adamyk and Johnny Calkins after last night's game. If my camera card hadn't filled up, we easily could have been there till after midnight with the way those guys yap at each other. I'll try to get that up tomorrow.
6:51 p.m. Hardly any roster changes for tonight. Walker Wintoneak is playing D for Team Shea, and Daniels moves to Shea to replace Tyndall (Kindersley's Ryan McBride takes Daniels' spot for Perkins). Jordan Braid is playing again for Perkins.
7:01 p.m. Another scrap right off the draw and it's Webb again, this time fighting '94 defenceman Howell. Not much of a fight, more of a wrestling show.
7:02: 42 seconds in and I nearly got decapitated by a puck. Great start to the night.
7:04: Great opening shift for Ryan Benn. He can play like a man possessed when he wants to. He and Beau Taylor have good chemistry.
7:07: Real solid shift for Johnny Calkins, stealing the puck from Tabin and then setting up Dommett for a pair of can't-miss chances... that Dommer missed.
7:10: Schwark hits the post on a penalty shot after being tripped by Tabin. Game remains scoreless.
7:11: Jeff Olson opens the scoring for Perkins (white) after taking a bank pass from Braid at the blueline and sniping the top right corner from close range. BTW - goalies are Hellyer for black, Patrick Johnson for white.
7:15: Ryan Benn might be the best player on the ice so far. Calkins, Duzan also look good.
7:18: For a guy described as stay-at-home, Nick Eliason isn't afraid to rush the puck.
7:20: Taylor Wasden finds the back of the net on a wrister from between the dots. White leads 2-0. 1:40 left in the 1st.
7:22: First period is over. See you back here in 10 minutes.
7:40: Wasden just said he was going to fight and he murdered Webb right off the draw. Webb will have no brain cells left if he keeps this up (although some here would say he's got n...no. I won't make that comment). At least he isn't bleeding this time.
 |
| Wasden pumps Webb to start the 2nd. Webb wanted to fight Dommett. |
7:44: Kerrobert's Tanner Kissick gets Team Shea on the board with a quick five-hole shot that beat Johnson. Perkins leads 2-1.
7:47: Wasden is an assist away from a Gordie Howe hatty in the blue & white game. Nearly had a second goal there. Get 'er done Wazzy.
7:50: Switch-up time for the goalies with 8:49 left in the second. Justin McDonald (Perkins) and Corey Webb (Shea) enter the game.
7:52: Riley Down breaks free and rips a wrist shot stick side on McDonald to tie the game 2-2. Seconds later, Mysiorek gets a dangerous chance on a 2-on-1 with Duzan but McDonald holds the fort.
7:55: Cody Thiel is looking solid on the Perkins blueline. The '93 defender was at camp last year too. Competition for the last three spots is wide open so he could have a shot.
7:57: Nick Eliason is playing up front the last few shifts. Interesting. He also just got hauled down on his way to the net by Flanagan. Penalty shot time... and he glances a high shot just off McDonald's mask and out of play.
8:01: McDonald robs Tanner Exner on a breakaway. Kid's having a solid night.
8:19: Shea leads 3-2 entering the third. There was a goal scored late in the second that I missed because I was typing instead of looking up. Multi-tasking ain't easy...
8:20: My battery only has about 20 minutes left. If anything noteworthy happens after that, it'll be on my twitter account (which you can get to on the left side of the blog).
8:22: Sanfred King taps in a beauty cross-ice feed from Tanner Exner to put Shea ahead 4-2. No chance for McDonald.
8:24: Braider gets on the board! Fires a shot past Webb from between the circles to make it 4-3.
8:26: Webb makes a solid stop on Adamyk breaking in from the left side. 13 minutes left in the third. Good game.
8:30: Adamyk just rubbed out Duzy along the boards. So strange to see these guys battling each other.
8:31: A beauty of a play to tie the game for Perkins. Braider took the puck behind the net, hit Wasden in front and he redirected it across to Adamyk for an easy tap-in. Gordie Howe hat trick for Wazzy.
8:33: Game is tied 4-4 with 7:11 to go. Only six minutes of battery time left. My nerves...
8:35: 16-year-old Schwark just knocked over Sonntag. That ain't easy to do.
8:36: A Perkins clearing attempt deflects off a stick and gives Dommett a clear breakaway. Tried to go five-hole and it closed up awful quick.
8:37: Duzan breaks in alone and sneaks a wrister past McDonald to give Shea a 5-4 lead. 4:23 to go.
8:38: OK, pop over to my twitter account for the last few minutes of the game.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Team Shea wins second straight
Team Shea (black) dodged a bullet tonight. Leading 4-0 after the first period, they let Team Perkins come all the way back to tie before waking up long enough to score the winner late in the third for a final of 5-4.
In fairness, the main difference in the first two periods was goaltending. With only three puckstoppers, they rotated in and out each period, switching teams in the process (FYI - Patrick Johnson is the one not available, due to a back injury. Webb is at camp after all).
Hellyer started the game in the Shea cage, with Webb playing for Perkins and surrendering the four goals. In the second period, Webb switched to Shea and Justin McDonald came in to tend goal for Perkins. In that frame, Perkins scored three times on Webb to cut the deficit to 4-3. For the third period, Hellyer played for Perkins and McDonald switched to Shea. Each goalie allowed one goal, first when Braeden Adamyk beat McDonald to tie the game with 11 minutes left, then when Hellyer surrendered the winner to John Sonntag, of all people, a few minutes later (it was the only goal Scott let in all night).
For the second straight night, the Dommett-Calkins-Adamyk line combined for four goals. In this case, it was all the offence their team mustered. Just before the second period started, I leaned over the glass and told Calkins to go get me a goal. Literally less than 30 seconds in, he wired one past Webb's left pad. Dommett scored top shelf a few minutes later and Calkins added another one immediately after that.
In the first period, Pearce Gourley scored twice for Shea, along with singles from Sanfred King and Taylor Duzan. Gourley looks good every time I see him.
Ex-captain Jordan Braid laced up tonight, wearing #55 on the Perkins blueline. He was there because the camp roster is short on defencemen, but it's funny to see after how well he did in his blueline stint last season.
Speaking of Braider, he's heading down to Georgia to play with the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League. It's great to see him find a place in the pro game. He told me he's going in as a forward, but wouldn't be opposed to playing D if needed. It's quite remarkable how quickly he adapted to defence late last year - so much so that CIS coaches who considered signing him liked him better as a defenceman than a forward.
There were a few returning players who really looked terrific tonight. Jesse Mysiorek was a force, laying the body and also looking pretty damn good with the puck on his stick. He was with Duzan and Hoffman, which gave him a little more freedom in the offensive zone. He keeps that up and he might push for a top six spot. You never know.
When I got to the rink, Nancy Ternes (who retired from the marketing manager role this year) said Lance Tabin looked like a new player last night. It didn't take long into the game for me to agree. There's a lot more intensity in his game. He was a major physical presence tonight and made some nice outlet passes too.
Sanfred King told me a few nights ago that he feels 100% and it shows. You can tell he's got that extra gear, that spring in his stride that he hadn't gotten back yet last year. No goals, but he looked terrific and I'm told it was the same last night.
Another guy who I was impressed with was Beau Taylor. For a kid who only left Australia to play hockey five years ago, has he ever come a long way. In a situation like that, skating is usually the most important thing to work on and that's the case for him. I could tell tonight he's been working hard on it over the off-season. He plays in Australia's main league in the summer (his team plays in a shopping mall...) - not much of a challenge, but every minute on the ice is time well spent for a late starter. He flitted all over the ice tonight, established himself as a physical presence and seemed to be right in the middle of every scramble around the net.
Finally, he isn't a returnee, but Austin McDonald looked fantastic. The person who commented on the blog earlier today about his skill was bang on. He's got speed to burn and great hands. The younger brother of goalie Justin, he'll go back to Beardy's this year, but I'm tempted to already pencil him into next year's line-up.
After two days of training camp, Larry Wintoneak said it best tonight: "We got some real tough decisions to make."
Tomorrow night is the annual Blue & White Game. 7 p.m. at the Complex. Be there or I'll swear.
In fairness, the main difference in the first two periods was goaltending. With only three puckstoppers, they rotated in and out each period, switching teams in the process (FYI - Patrick Johnson is the one not available, due to a back injury. Webb is at camp after all).
Hellyer started the game in the Shea cage, with Webb playing for Perkins and surrendering the four goals. In the second period, Webb switched to Shea and Justin McDonald came in to tend goal for Perkins. In that frame, Perkins scored three times on Webb to cut the deficit to 4-3. For the third period, Hellyer played for Perkins and McDonald switched to Shea. Each goalie allowed one goal, first when Braeden Adamyk beat McDonald to tie the game with 11 minutes left, then when Hellyer surrendered the winner to John Sonntag, of all people, a few minutes later (it was the only goal Scott let in all night).
For the second straight night, the Dommett-Calkins-Adamyk line combined for four goals. In this case, it was all the offence their team mustered. Just before the second period started, I leaned over the glass and told Calkins to go get me a goal. Literally less than 30 seconds in, he wired one past Webb's left pad. Dommett scored top shelf a few minutes later and Calkins added another one immediately after that.
In the first period, Pearce Gourley scored twice for Shea, along with singles from Sanfred King and Taylor Duzan. Gourley looks good every time I see him.
Ex-captain Jordan Braid laced up tonight, wearing #55 on the Perkins blueline. He was there because the camp roster is short on defencemen, but it's funny to see after how well he did in his blueline stint last season.
Speaking of Braider, he's heading down to Georgia to play with the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League. It's great to see him find a place in the pro game. He told me he's going in as a forward, but wouldn't be opposed to playing D if needed. It's quite remarkable how quickly he adapted to defence late last year - so much so that CIS coaches who considered signing him liked him better as a defenceman than a forward.
There were a few returning players who really looked terrific tonight. Jesse Mysiorek was a force, laying the body and also looking pretty damn good with the puck on his stick. He was with Duzan and Hoffman, which gave him a little more freedom in the offensive zone. He keeps that up and he might push for a top six spot. You never know.
When I got to the rink, Nancy Ternes (who retired from the marketing manager role this year) said Lance Tabin looked like a new player last night. It didn't take long into the game for me to agree. There's a lot more intensity in his game. He was a major physical presence tonight and made some nice outlet passes too.
Sanfred King told me a few nights ago that he feels 100% and it shows. You can tell he's got that extra gear, that spring in his stride that he hadn't gotten back yet last year. No goals, but he looked terrific and I'm told it was the same last night.
Another guy who I was impressed with was Beau Taylor. For a kid who only left Australia to play hockey five years ago, has he ever come a long way. In a situation like that, skating is usually the most important thing to work on and that's the case for him. I could tell tonight he's been working hard on it over the off-season. He plays in Australia's main league in the summer (his team plays in a shopping mall...) - not much of a challenge, but every minute on the ice is time well spent for a late starter. He flitted all over the ice tonight, established himself as a physical presence and seemed to be right in the middle of every scramble around the net.
Finally, he isn't a returnee, but Austin McDonald looked fantastic. The person who commented on the blog earlier today about his skill was bang on. He's got speed to burn and great hands. The younger brother of goalie Justin, he'll go back to Beardy's this year, but I'm tempted to already pencil him into next year's line-up.
After two days of training camp, Larry Wintoneak said it best tonight: "We got some real tough decisions to make."
Tomorrow night is the annual Blue & White Game. 7 p.m. at the Complex. Be there or I'll swear.
Training camp - Day 2
"This is the greatest thing about sports. You play to win the game....Hello? You play to win the game! You don't play it to just play it. That's the great thing about sports. You play to win. I don't care if you don't have any wins, you go play to win. When you start tellin' me it doesn't matter, then retire. Get out. 'Cause it matters."
Wonder if Larry pulls out something like this over the weekend?
(If you still don't know what this is about, go educate yourself.)
The second intra-squad game in Eston was this morning. I'm heading down to the Complex in a couple of hours to catch the third game (6 p.m.) so I'll have that info then. I'll try to live blog tonight's game, but I've had issues with the wireless in Eston before, so no promises.
UPDATE: If there's nothing on here by 6:30 or so, head on over to my twitter, where I'll be posting updates from my phone.
Wonder if Larry pulls out something like this over the weekend?
(If you still don't know what this is about, go educate yourself.)
The second intra-squad game in Eston was this morning. I'm heading down to the Complex in a couple of hours to catch the third game (6 p.m.) so I'll have that info then. I'll try to live blog tonight's game, but I've had issues with the wireless in Eston before, so no promises.
UPDATE: If there's nothing on here by 6:30 or so, head on over to my twitter, where I'll be posting updates from my phone.
I'll be keeping a close eye on the two young tenders tonight, McDonald and Johnson. Nick Eliason will be another one to watch, now that we know the Klippers are so high on him. '94 forward Jesse Shofner is another interesting case... he's been at camp the last two years (last year as a 15-year-old) and, in Larry's words, "he's going to play for this team" at some point, most likely next year.
Eliason and Shofner both scored clutch goals in last year's midget AAA playoffs. In Game 1 of a semifinal series between the Contacts and Beardy's, Eliason scored the winner at 8:58 of double OT. Shofner, at only 15, was called up during the semis by PA and scored a goal against Notre Dame (that one also went to double OT).
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