Casey Rogers made his Klipper debut tonight and, I thought, had a solid outing at both ends playing with Cody Lund. He looked smooth moving the puck and coming out of his own end, got some PP time and he made a good play to break up a 1-on-1 in the second.
Hard to believe tonight's hat trick was the first in the SJHL for Braeden Adamyk. He and Calkins were like clockwork tonight. And I'm not the only one with a bad voice.
Rockie Zinger talks about the win and what he thought of the play of Rogers and Alex Peck. Says he sees Rogers as a top four guy.
Adamyk and Johnny Calkins were in top form tonight. Those games have been few and far between lately but when they're on, there's pretty much no stopping them. Now they need to build on that and string together a few solid outings in a row. Riley Down was with them tonight and I thought he did a great job of banging bodies around and opening up space for them. The thought of putting Down on that line occurred to me two or three weeks ago, but I didn't expect to see it happen.
The Jordon Hoffman line had another excellent showing tonight. Taylor Duzan and Jesse Mysiorek both scored - Duzan kept pace with Estevan's Ryan Andersen, with his 19 goals one behind the SJHL leader - and Hoffman put a perfect pass on Duzy's tape to set up his goal. Mysiorek is playing with a ton of confidence right now and I look forward to seeing if he can keep putting pucks in the net.
As Rockie mentioned, D. Jay McGrath played with Sanfred King and they did look good together. King scored in the second period on a power play when he lobbed a wrister at Rakochy, inside the left post, and it snuck through. It may have hit someone, I couldn't tell.
Kurt Leedahl was a stalwart at both ends, setting up the rush well, making some big plays at the point and protecting the fort. I almost gave him third star over Duzan.
Rogers, as I mentioned, looked like he belonged and did a solid job of moving the puck up ice. His positioning was strong and I figure he'll only play a bigger role as he adjusts to his new surroundings.
Justin Gerwing sat out, serving the first game of a three-game suspension for what referee Jarrett Gelowitz deemed a staged fight against Ian McNulty on Thursday. If it was staged, they sure did a good job of making it look authentic. The thought never even crossed my mind until the suspension was announced. That's one part of the Junior A Supplement I don't agree with, because it's completely subjective and three games is nothing to sneeze at.
With Gerwing out, the Klippers dressed seven defencemen.
In goal, I thought Alex Peck still struggled with rebounds at times, but he made some good stops and did enough in the early going to keep the Klippers in it and help them build a lead.
I think I have to give the edge to Dustin Nickel at this point, but that starter's job is wide open.
The Klippers host Estevan on Wednesday and Weyburn on Friday.
Bump of the game: John Sonntag
Three Stars: 1. Braeden Adamyk, 2. Johnny Calkins, 3. Taylor Duzan
Also of note, Canada West was ousted from the World Junior A Challenge tonight with a 5-1 loss to the United States in the semifinal. Yorkton's Clarke Breitkreuz had the only goal. It's the first time Canada West has not made the final in the five years the event has been held.
Wintoneak, Flanagan and the rest of the team now face Switzerland in the bronze medal game tomorrow at 3:30 pm Sask time. Canada East faces the U.S. for gold at 7:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment