By the looks of this post, most forum readers stayed away from Summerside tonight, so I'll try to be fairly detailed in my recap. It was a very entertaining game tonight. The first period was sloppy and Gelinas let in a weak goal by Baca to open the scoring. It was similar to goal #2 on Wednesday, but not quite as much of a floater. By and large the first period was pretty sloppy, with both teams being pretty tentative offensively.
From the second period on, the Rocket seemed to wake up. They used their physical play to combat Moncton's speed and it worked very effectively. Players like Kana, Paynter, Main and even Locke hit hard and hit often.
I was sitting in the Rocket end in the second, so I was a long way from Kana's goal. From what I saw it resulted from goal mouth scramble with lots of hard work in front resulting in Kana eventually sliding it in.
As far as DesRoches vs. Morehouse. It devloped right in front of the Rocket net (right in front of where I sat) after a goal mouth scramble. Lots of pushing and shoving after the whistle, and as per usual, Morehouse waits till the linesmen are in and grabs onto someone from behind and starts throwing (DesRoches). With all the bodies in the scrum, DesRoches actually manages to get turned around and get free the they break out of the scrum. At this point I'm basically jumping out of my seat because I'm finally seeing someone get to Morehouse in a situation like this (rather than watch Morehouse jump on a guy's back and punch him in the back of the head). DesRoches fed Morehouse pretty good with right hands, both over top and from underneath. Morehouse got a couple of good shots in too (DesRoches wasn't fighting defensively, he was just trying to throw haymakers) but I'd say DesRoches shots outnumbered Morehouse's 2-1. Certainly as satisfying thing for a Rocket fan to watch. I'll first hand say that I recognize Morehouse for being very, very effective in the role he plays, but I certainly do relish watching Morehouse get what we always hope is coming to him. It's enough to make me want DesRoches on the team, right now.
Though the shots in the 2nd were 16-7, it was a more equal period in terms of play. There was a lot of special teams play during the 2nd with some 5-3's, 4-3's and even a stint of about a minute of 3-3.
In the 3rd, Matt Lachaine's 2-1 goal was a beauty. Gervais bounced it off the boards through center and Lachaine was behind the defence. At the hash marks he buried a wrister beyond Riopel's glove hand.
Later on, Lachaine did some really good work behind the Moncton goal and made a nice feed to MacLean who buried #3 from the doorstep.
With the score 3-1, of course, the teams were tied in their total goal series, so at the end of regulation teams went to a shootout. It was actually a best of 5 shootout, for some reason.
....As an aside, I always thought the NHL made a mistake having the shootout a best of 3. I always loved the old best of 5 in international hockey. A best of three can be over with one mistake, but the best of 5 has some momentum that can build or be taken away over the 5 shooters....
Anyway, the Rocket shot first. First shooter was Kris Schmidt and Riopel outwaited him and made the stop. I remembered Gelinas looking shaky in the shootout vs. Halifax so I wasn't expecting much. The first Moncton shooter scored (I forget who) but Gelinas made the stops all the way through. Cliche was shooter #2.... interesting choice... and didn't offer much more than Schmidt. By this point, I figured we were done, for sure. Moncton's #2 didn't score and Doyle was #3 for us. Doyle has quite a checkered shootout past, dating back to the night last year in one of his first games he bobbled the puck as shooter #3. Since then I haven't seen him do much better than that in the shootout. Tonight, he skated to the hash marks, wound up and... boom.... top corner, blocker side and we're all tied up. Latal shot #4 for us and turned turned Riopel inside out and backwards with a sick backhand move I would have loved to have seen way back in April vs. Le Titan in game seven with about 2 and a half minutes left. Anyway, was a beaty for sure. Lachaine was our last shooter and tried to beat Latal with another wrister but Riopel stopped it. Gelinas made the last save on Morehouse to give the Rocket the victory.
After the game they had teams lineup and Robert Irving presented the Cavendish Cup trophy to Gervais. The team didn't really known what do do with it and kind of gathered at the blueline and all sort of looked at it.
I know it is a measly preseason total goals series, but it was so satisfying to see the Rocket actaully win something of meaning against Moncton... particularly in come from behind fashion. I know the Moncton fans, in all their smugness will be all over this talking about it being a nothing preseason made up series (of course it was!) but still... it was satisfying. We have had such a lack of success against Moncton in the last 4 years, both regular season and playoffs that this is finally something... just a small thing.. .for Rocket fans to be able to relish. They have eliminated us from the playoffs, lambasted us in rebuilding years, smoked us big time in games at the Coliseum when they were strong and we were at a low point in building a team.... even the year we counted on them sucking... after the Memorial Cup they went out, somehow built a winner, finished ahead of us and lasted longer in the playoffs.
Don't get me wrong... I hate.... with a passion... I really, really do. But I have to acknowledge how good an organization they are from top to bottom. They must have strong personel in every depeartment, because they always, always, always seem to be successful. Of course, money... big money... has a part to play in their success. But their willingness to spend is what makes them a winning orgnanization all the time. I've always regarded the Mooseheads as my opinion of the "most successful" junior hockey team in the CHL. I'm thinking earlier years before we had the Q on PEI. You look at how the Q came into an untapped market and put a team hundreds of kilometers away from everyone else. The team plays in a 10 000 seat building and has great attendance. They build winning teams early and host the Memorial Cup. Then comes a very successful World Juniors. In recent years, I think the Mooseheads have kind of regressed in terms of their place in the Halifax market place (really... it's probably due to the "where do we go from here" syndrome... like how can they sustain the success their franchise has). Anyway, where I'm going from here is that I think Moncton has sort of taken over as the franchise "of most significance" in the Q from Halifax. Westerners would argue Quebec with Patrick's flair and winning teams packing the Colisee (again, big spenders), but I think the Wildcats are a little ahead (because of the successful Memorial Cup in 2006).....
... anyway, with that... we finally beat the Wildcats in something over the course of a couple of games!!
As far as individual performances go....
Gelinas... well... he looked a lot better than the Halifax game technically. He wasn't all over the place like last week. The first goal was a softie, but he came back very strong and made some dynamite saves. He handled the heavy Moncton crease traffic well and a made a great breakaway stop in the 2nd when the game was tied. In my opinion, both of his games were better than Mosher's last night. I guess where we go now is, now what? He's a year older than Mosher. If we were to take him, I don't think he would be ready to take over next year at 19 if Lafleur isn't back as an overager (way to early to speculate one way or another about that). I see him as a marginal Q 20 year old goalie. But he's definitely been better than Mosher in games since arriving at camp. How though, do you justify cutting a 17 year old goalie who's a work in progress to keep an 18 year old who's likely a career major junior back up at best. If the only answer is to start the season carrying three goalies, that's the route I would take with the situation. Gelinas is playing too well and Mosher hasn't yet shown that he's a better backup option (both for now and for the future as a starter).
Gervais was better tonight. I guess he's adjusting to playing with the injury.
I've been aboard Malouin a couple of times in preseason. He played much stronger tonight. Just played his keep it simple game and didn't make any glaring mistakes.
Main played most of the game up front. He started the game and absolutely lambated someone with a hard hit on the first shift. I really like Main starting the game because early on he's always out there hell on wheels looking for a huge hit. At 10:22 of the 3rd Deighan took a 10 (goaded in by Morehouse after a scrum).. .on the Q site it is listed as Main... that's a mistake. After that Main moved back to the blueline to finish the game.
MacLean played with more confidence tonight. He had a lot of icetime with Lachaine (who was hot) and Latal.
Doyle wasn't at his best again tonight. He took a couple of undisciplined after the play penalties.
Schmidt played about the same as last night. He really needed to stand out again in these games and didn't. I'd say his status is in question. I don't see much to his game other than offense.. and he won't play on our top lines and the offense is falling off.
DesRoches played better tonight than last night. I can see him starting out effectively as a defensive forward (similar to how Paynter and Greg O'Brien got their start with the team in their respective rookie years). He was very sound defensively and I think has an inside track on a job (not just because of the Morehouse fight!).
Kana... another consistent performance... hitting, skating, killing penalties.
Lachaine played what I thought was his best game ever in a Rocket uniform. As well as scoring the go ahead goal and working hard to create the chance for the 3-1 goal (to tie the goals series 4-4) he was always working hard down low cycling the puck, skating hard and he was throwing the body around too. He smoked Zach Sill hard in the 1st. Lachaine had a lot of ice time and made the most of it.
Swit... about the same as other nights.
Deighan played very well again tonight. At least as well as last night. His confidence seems to be growing with each game. He lost his cool with Morehouse and was goaded in to his tactics....a mental error on Deighan's part. But I definitely think he's Q ready. Personally, I think he should be playing ahead of Clow and Malouin, but that's unlikely.
Coon-Come played very little. Probably the end of the line for him.
Locke had limited ice time for a vet. He was better as far as physical play, but didn't see much action at all in the 3rd.
Little was nothing to write home about. He is big.... really big. You really notice his size on the back end. His mobility is ok, but he isn't overly physical. He certainly didn't go looking for the rough stuff like I had hoped he would. Maybe he isn't a tough guy project after all. If this was his only game action audition he didn't really show many attributes that make him worth keeping. His size and wingspan is what makes him most impressive. I'd say his status likely depends on what the plan is with Main as far as whether he's used up front or on D.
cb
