Tonight's game obviously carries negative overtones stemming from the hit on Andrew Dommett in La Ronge Sept. 19. While I do think it will be a chippy affair, with a scrap or four, I also believe Larry Wintoneak is doing all he can to keep his team's focus on the two points.
I just got a Samsung Galaxy S smartphone today, so I'll be putting out updates on Twitter tonight and will do that when I can for the rest of the season. Even on a smartphone, maintaining a game blog isn't the easiest thing, so from now on check my Twitter for in-game updates and the blog for previews and recaps.
La Ronge Ice Wolves
Believe it or not, the Wolves have played only two games since that fateful Sunday evening game on opening weekend.
They lost to Humboldt Sept. 24 and last night, they were the victims as Battlefords finally got their first win of the season, 3-2.
La Ronge got a big boost this week when star forward Logan Herauf, acquired from Melville over the off-season, returned from his stint with the NAHL's New Mexico Mustangs.
Doug Lindensmith, Travis Eggum, Marc-Andre Carre are obviously the guys to watch up front, along with secondary scorers Aaron Enns, Philippe Cliche and Richard Cameron.
Dayton Fossum and Phil Belanger are arguably the Wolves' top two defencemen. Ben Bula looked fantastic against the Klippers last month.
In goal, Adam Bartko will get the vast majority of the starts this year and tonight probably won't be an exception.
Kindersley Klippers
Kindersley native D. Jay McGrath was cut by the Everett Silvertips yesterday and assigned to the Klippers (he's an auto-protect). Quite a surprise. Sure, he didn't have a terrific rookie season (53-2-3-5) but by all accounts the club had bigger plans for him this year.
McGrath put up good numbers in midget as a 16-year-old, producing 20 goals and 32 points in 37 games with the Contacts in 2008-09. Where he'll slot onto this team, with three lines rolling, is anyone's guess, and I'm sure Larry will try him in a number of spots to start off. He's a natural centre, but I won't be surprised to see him move to the right side. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds tonight. At only 18, McGrath is a huge asset to the Klippers moving forward and should play a massive role next year after the loss of four 20-year-old forwards.
Other than that, I look to a guy like Johnny Calkins to have a big game tonight. No doubt there's an impulse to avenge his friend and teammate, but if I were a betting man I'd say we'll see Calkins torch the Wolves on the scoreboard.
On the back end, it doesn't look like Riley Down will play tonight, so the same six of Flanagan-Leedahl, Sonntag-Bartel, Tabin-Haaf will suit up.
The Klippers could use a big, strong kid like Downer in a game like this.
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