Post-Game Interviews

Here's some of the post-game reaction to the Klippers' 8-3 victory over Battlefords in the annual rookie game tonight. The interviews are with guys who (in my opinion) have been two of the most impressive players in camp. The first is '93 defenceman Cody Thiel, who scored twice tonight and who I feel has an excellent shot at making this team. I had never talked to him until tonight and he seems like a really nice kid, very humble and deferential. The second is Pearce Gourley, who's looked good for the second straight camp. He's making a strong case to join the team as a big, physical two-way winger.

I'll have another post up soon with Larry Wintoneak passing along some info, including a botched trade for a 20-year-old defenceman.

Rookie Game - Live Blog

Kindersley defeated Battlefords 8-3 in the annual rookie game Monday in Eston. Here's the game blog:

l7:31: Justin Lund of the Stars gets called for the first penalty, and a scrum ensues in the neutral zone. You can tell this isn't an intra-squad game... tons of noise in this building.

7:33: Klippers get the first goal. Cody Thiel tucks a rebound glove side on the PP.

7:38: Klippers back to the PP after Jeff Olson was on the receiving end of a cheap shot along the boards.

7:41: Thiel strikes again! Pinching again, he takes a beaut of a cross-slot pass and bangs it home. Klips lead 2-0 and lead the shots 7-1.

7:42: Shofner fans on a partial breakaway. Could have made a case for a penalty shot though.

7:43: I've been told a few of the numbers on tonight's roster sheet are incorrect, so there might be the odd error with these names.

7:44: Blake Young breaks down the left side and beats Justin McDonald with a short side wrister. 2-1.

7:44: Kiley Long gets it right back. That Klipper bench is wired.

7:47: Joel Blacquiere gets hauled down on a breakaway by Bosovich. Penalty shot coming up... and he completely undresses McDonald. That's some dangling right there. Klips lead 3-2.

7:49: Pearce Gourley is a pinball out there. If you ask me, his spot on this team is all but sewn up.

7:55: The Martensville boys, Bosovich and Shofner, were on a 2-on-1. I don't think Bosovich knew his buddy was there. Easy stop for Montour.

7:59: Klippers are on the PK but that doesn't stop Olson from sniping a wrister past Montour on a breakaway counter.

8:01: After 20 minutes, Klips lead 4-2 with a 13-3 shots edge.

8:25: Ryan McBride mixing it up in front of the Stars net. He's got a great shot at playing for the Klippers next year.

8:28: Klippers #19 (not on the roster) dings the loudest post I've ever heard, and Colby Daniels snaps a wrister over Montour's right shoulder moments later. Klips lead 5-2.

8:30: Brayden Serafini gets it right back for the Stars, jamming one past McDonald's right pad.

8:31: Jeff Olson just knocked goaltender Montour into next week! Montour got up somehow, and Olson didn't get called.

8:32: Bosovich beats Montour to make it 6-3 midway through the second. Game's getting chippy. Lots of hits.

8:33: Daniels nearly got another one. Just glanced off Montour's glove shoulder off a breakaway.tttyt

8:36: Jeff Bartel just got decked at the blueline. He's taking some abuse tonight. Meanwhile, the more I see Cody Thiel, the more I like him. I can definitely see him cracking this team if he wants to forego his last year of midget.

8:38: McBride just rang one off the left post. Patrick Johnson and Blair Mahon are now in goal.

8:44: Correction - Montour STILL in goal.

8:46: Brett Blatz just challenged Serafini and the North Star backed away. Great fight. LOL

8:49: Webb stabbed at the puck when he shouldn't have, gave up a breakaway to #27 (not on roster) but Johnson stopped him.

8:50: Klips lead 6-3 after 40. Shots are 27-13. The third will start with 4-on-4.

9:11: Three minutes into the third. My battery is about to die. Twitter it is... again. Bosovich just made a SWEET dangle at the Stars blueline.

9:12: Colby Daniels has been one of the most impressive players in white tonight.

9:18: Bosovich and Penner score back-to-back.

9:21: With under a minute left, Serafini went after Blatz. They were quickly separated by a linesman. Serafini was tossed and he was giving it to the fans on his way off the ice. When he got there... he couldn't open the door! Here's this guy yapping at the fans, then he takes 15 seconds to open this stupid door while everyone's laughing at him. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen at a hockey game.

Rookie game rosters

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.