The fourth-oldest hockey rivalry in Canada is featured prominently tonight, with Queen's taking on the McGill Redmen. Things just got underway here in Kingston at the Memorial Centre, and the game's already heated: a Queen's forward collided with McGill's starting goalie, Jake Jarvis, and one of their defencemen early on and the whole tangle slid into the boards, sparking a bit of a dustup. Jarvis hobbled off afterwards favouring his arm and was replaced by rookie Danny Mireault.
(Correction: LeagueStats indicates that it was Hubert Morin who was the original goalie, not Jarvis).
First period
14:00: We're six minutes into the first period now and it's been pretty even so far. Plenty of checks and big hits, and some strong penalty killing from McGill. Queen's looked all right on the power-play chances they've had so far, but they couldn't produce a goal and we're back to five-on-five.
11:43: The Gaels are going on the power play again. Brandon Perry was taken down in the corner, and the Redmen pick up a hooking penalty.
10: McGill is again doing a nice job of penalty killing. The Gaels' shoot-ins are cleared almost immediately, and the Redmen even get a 2-on-1 shorthanded rush. It comes to naught thanks to a bad pass, though.
9:24: McGill gets a power play and they waste no time. Veteran defenceman Ken Morin drills home a slapshot from the point. 1-0 McGill.
8:16: Another after-the-whistle scrum breaks out in the McGill end, and Gaels' forward Brock Ouellet gets his helmet knocked off. He and McGill's Yan Turcotte are both sent to the sin bin.
CFL update: Calgary hung on to beat B.C. 22-18. I'll have a full post on that later tonight at Out of Left Field.
5: Not too much going on offensively for either side here, but still plenty of hits. Good atmosphere: there's around 100 McGill fans who made the trip down, and probably 200-300 from Queen's. All are quite into the game, which is good to see.
2: Another power play for Queen's thanks to a penalty to Turcotte, and they get some good chances. Defenceman Brendan Bureau blasts a slap shot from the faceoff circle, but Mireau makes a nice save. McGill kills the rest of the penalty off.
1: Queen's forward Jeffrey Johnstone picks up a penalty, and McGill is back on the power play. Queen's kills off the first part of it as the period comes to an end.
Second period:
19: Queen's kills off the rest of the penalty and we're back to five-on-five.
17: Morin turns it over in his own zone and Queen's gets a two-on-one, but they can't get a shot off.
16: Johnstone takes another penalty for slashing. McGill power play.
15: Queen's forward Brandon Perry steals the puck in McGill's end and walks in alone shorthanded, but his shot misses the top left corner by a good foot and sails wide.
14: Queen's kills off the rest of the penalty, but McGill gets another chance soon after when a Marc-Andre Daneau shot is deflected towards a scrum in front of the net. Gaels' goalie Brady Morrison makes a nice diving play to cover the loose puck.
This Don Campbell profile of Queen's assistant coach (and former NHL star) Alyn McCauley in the Ottawa Citizen is well worth a read. I spoke with McCauley briefly after a Queen's game earlier this year, and I was impressed; he's obviously got a lot of hockey knowledge, but my sense was that he can also communicate it, an important quality in any coach.
11: The Gaels get another two-on-one from Blake Pronk and David Chubb, but Mireault makes a good stop on Pronk to preserve his shutout.
9: Still plenty of physical play here. Queen's is getting chances off the rush, but not a lot of shots.
8: Good chance for McGill in close and Morrison has to make a sprawling stop.
7: McGill's Alexandre Picard-Hooper bangs a loose puck home. 2-0 McGill.
6: And McGill follows it up with another nice one. I believe it was forward Leonard Verrilli who drilled home a one-timer from the slot while being checked to the ice by a Queen's defenceman. Good goal for the Redmen, and it's now 3-0 McGill. The pro-Gaels crowd is noticeably quieter now; I wouldn't be surprised to see the building empty out a bit after this period.
Gaels update: Well, men's hockey might be losing, but the women's volleyball team pulled off a straight-sets win at home tonight against the Lakehead Thunderwolves.
NHL update: Canucks are leading the Leafs 4-0 at the end of the second period on Hockey Night in Canada. Good to see that at least one West Coast team had a good day. The Lions, not so much.
2: McGill's Serbian forward Marko Kovacevic gets a good chance in close, but Morrison makes a nice save to deny him.
1: McGill's Maxime Langelier-Parent takes a holding penalty with 13 seconds left to go; Queen's will be on the power play to start the third period.
That's the end of the second, and it doesn't loook too good for the Gaels. Attendance is announced at 920, which may be a little optimistic, but not by too much: more people have trickled in since I gave the initial figures earlier. That's a pretty decent turnout for an off-campus hockey game, especially given that the Leafs are playing right now and the CFL West final also ran into this time slot.
Hilarious intermission contest; obstacle-course racing, and the McGill guy wins. The Queen's student managed to miss six shots at an empty net from the top of the faceoff circle. Usually, there's a joke available about how the losing home team should sign one of these contestants, but not tonight.
Third period:
19: Queen's starts on the power play, but they aren't able to create much off it. McGill kills the rest of the penalty off without the Gaels really even getting a good chance.
18: Shot totals through two periods: McGill 23, Queen's 12.
17: It's not really that surprising that McGill's doing so well in this one. Yeah, they're 2-4-1 on the year, but they beat Queen's 4-1 just last week. Part of that record is a slow start for the Redmen; another part of it is the quality of their division. Their overtime loss is to the 10-1 UQTR Patriotes (on Nov. 5) and several other losses have been close ones against good teams like Carleton and Concordia. Meanwhile, Queen's is 5-5-2 and tied for the division lead, but that's with wins over some weaker opponents like Ryerson and UOIT.
15: McGill penalty to forward Andrew Wright. Queen's power play gets another chance: let's see what they do with it.
13: Queen's sets up well this time and passes the puck around, but the Gaels then succumb to Canuck-itis and fail to get many good shots off. McGill kills off the penalty.
12: Well, one good sign is that the arena's still largely full, contrary to my previous prediction. Nice to see some decent fan support; it's not all that common these days.
12: Picard-Hooper walks in alone on goal, but Morrison makes a nice save.
11: McGill eventually jams a puck by Morrison after a protracted scramble in front, but the goal's disallowed.
11: Special teams are not helping the Gaels this game. According to LeagueStats, they're 0-6 on the power play and 3-4 on the penalty kill.
9: Five-minute penalty and a game misconduct to Brock Ouellet, served by Jarrod Thomson (and no, not that J. Thomson. That probably kills Queen's chances of any comeback.
8: Johnstone takes another penalty, giving McGill over a minute of a 5-on-3 advantage.
6: Queen's defends well though, and kills off Johnstone's penalty. Morrison had to make a few good saves, but decent penalty killing this time around.
5: These guys really have to learn to stop taking bad penalties though. It probably didn't make a difference here, but it killed their comeback hopes, however faint they were. More discipline is needed.
5: McGill gets a good power-play chance when a Kovacevic shot is tipped in front by Sam Bloom, but Morrison makes a nice save.
4: NHL update: Now Vancouver 4, Toronto 1, but that should still be a safe lead. 4 minutes left in that one too.
3: McGill gets a great chance on a one-timer, but Guillame Doucet fires wide from the slot.
3: Starting to run out of power here, so I'll have to shut this down pretty quick. Should have some post-game thoughts and reaction up later tonight or early tomorrow though.
3: Another scrum after the whistle, and Langelier-Parent gets into a fight with Johnstone. More of a shoving match than anything, though. There's plenty of passion here for this rivalry, and the Queen's guys must be frustrated to lose to McGill yet again.
2: It's offsetting penalties, so no change there. Thought Queen's had the extra one for a moment.
1: McGill's fans are doing the classic "Na, Na, Hey, Goodbye" serenade, and we'll shut it down on that note. The game comes to an end. Final score, McGill 3, Queen's 0. Thanks for tuning in.
Showing posts with label Jon Lawrance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jon Lawrance. Show all posts
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Campus Corner: Thoughts from the Carr-Harris Cup
I watched a great match over at RMC's Constantine Arena tonight between the Gaels and the Paladins. As previously mentioned, RMC's arena is far too small for these sorts of games: fans were crammed into the rink in sardine-esque fashion, including those of us from the Journal: the press box was overflowing (Mike and I, Brock Harrison from the Whig-Standard and the CFRC guys broadcasting the game were all forced into regular seats). As this was the last regular-season game between Queen's and RMC, the Carr-Harris Cup (named after a prominent local family who had members play for both teams) was up for grabs, which meant even more people wanted to come to the game. I don't think the arena could have taken any more, though: all the seats were long gone by puck drop, and students lined the standing-room area around the glass as well.
On the plus side, there was a great crowd and atmosphere: both the Queen's and RMC bands were out in force, along with students from both schools. Also, we had five Journal editors at the game, which is surely some sort of record: three of us were just there as fans though. Mike will have the full story in Friday's paper, so check out that for all the details. Queen's pulled off a rather nice 4-2 win to take this year's edition of the Cup. Here's a few of my thoughts on the game.
1. It was downright disturbing watching RMC's Luke Pierce get concussed off a Pat Doyle hit. I didn't see the hit well enough to definitively declare if it was clean or not (Brock and Mike both said it was), but the results were certainly ugly. Pierce went flying into the boards with a solid thunk, and then lay unmoving on the ice for about eight minutes. After that time, the trainer and several RMC players got him up and carried him off, leaving some blood behind. Obviously, my work this year has broadened my knowledge of concussions and influenced my views on how dangerous they are, however, I would have classified the Pierce incident in the "sickening" category without any prior knowledge. It's tragically ironic that this happened on the same day as CBC's the fifth estate aired a documentary suggesting that wrestler Chris Benoit's murder-suicide may have been partly caused by the damage repeated concussions did to his brain.
2. Among the other bothersome parts of the Pierce situation: there didn't seem to be a stretcher available, so teammates carried him off while the RMC trainer stabilized his head. That's a seriously bad move in head/neck injury cases, as it can cause further damage. This definitely should have been handled better.
3. Final weird thing from the Pierce case: he got stiched up in the dressing room, and returned to the ice in obvious pain partway through the second period. He didn't play a shift after that, and had to be helped to the dressing room after the second, but the real question is why he was allowed to return. I can understand why he'd want to watch the rest of the game, as it was his last game for the Paladins, but he never should have been allowed to. As Richard Rothenberg (men's hockey student trainer) pointed out in my article, there's a good reason to have a regimented system to deal with concussions or suspected concussions: it does a lot to prevent further injury. If it wasn't clear that Pierce had a concussion, I'd be okay with him watching the game: however, this guy was motionless for eight minutes! For his own good, he should have been shipped straight to the hospital, not the dressing room.
(Aside: Dave Ross, Queen's co-ordinator of athletic therapy services was at the game: he probably wasn't too thrilled with the way this was dealt with, given his worries about concussions and their potential to cause internal bleeding)
4. Ryan Gibb is an amazing goalie, but he needs to improve his puckhandling skills. There were several times when an error on his part caused problems for the Gaels, and one directly resulted in an RMC goal (another goal off a Gibb giveaway was called off for goaltender interference). Gibb did make 28 mostly impressive saves (according to the OUA, which hasn't always been too reliable), and had a strong game in the net: he just needs to get better when he ventures outside the crease (much as Roberto Luongo does), or else stay at home more.
5. The Gaels can put together some impressive offence. Jon Lawrance had two goals, including a nice breakaway deke (not sure if it's TSN-quality, though) after Jeff Ovens was sent sprawling in the neutral zone, while Pat McDonough added one off a faceoff and Ovens added another off a lovely through-the-legs pass from Jon Asselstine. They didn't rack up the shots (the OUA gives them 19, which may be generous), but they made the ones they had count.
6. RMC, on the other hand, won the physical battle. Queen's made few meaningful checks, apart from Doyle on Pierce, a couple of Alberta-style crunches by Grant Horvath and a few here and there from T.J. Sutter. RMC pounded Queen's for a good bit of the game, and even looked like they might swing momentum to their side with a string of solid hits early in the third period. The Gaels looked a bit rattled, but they ultimately hung on.
7. Speaking of McDonough's goal: it wouldn't have happened if today's goalies didn't feel a compulsive need to freeze the puck. Ryan Gibb fired the puck the length of the ice, and it went straight to RMC goaltender Matt Hartney. With no one from Queen's closer than the blue line, Hartney froze the puck, Jeff Ovens won the draw, and the Gaels got the winning marker. I wish I could lambast Hartney more thoroughly for this, but he probably was just following what most of today's goalies seem to be taught, freeze the puck at all costs. Not only does this kill the pace and flow of a game, it also leads to the chance of a faceoff goal as happened tonight. Defensive-zone faceoffs should only be conceded when absolutely necessary, in my opinion.
8. Lastly, T.J. Sutter showed he's a worthy bearer of the name, even if he isn't actually related to the famous clan. He got badly high-sticked in the third, and a penalty was immediately called on RMC. As he was skating to the Queen's bench, the RMC bench started heckling him, with one forward a particular culprit. Sutter paused in front of the RMC bench, did a Palmeiroian finger-jab, and called out his critic in a most effective manner, which quickly shut him up. That was some impressive courage displayed in hostile territory. He had a solid all-around game, too, and showed why he's my favorite player on the Queen's team: he works ridiculously hard on every shift, finishes every check and is solid defensively. He doesn't score a lot, but guys like him (c.f. Sami Pahlsson or a modern Trevor Linden) are still a valuable ingredient on any team.
On the plus side, there was a great crowd and atmosphere: both the Queen's and RMC bands were out in force, along with students from both schools. Also, we had five Journal editors at the game, which is surely some sort of record: three of us were just there as fans though. Mike will have the full story in Friday's paper, so check out that for all the details. Queen's pulled off a rather nice 4-2 win to take this year's edition of the Cup. Here's a few of my thoughts on the game.
1. It was downright disturbing watching RMC's Luke Pierce get concussed off a Pat Doyle hit. I didn't see the hit well enough to definitively declare if it was clean or not (Brock and Mike both said it was), but the results were certainly ugly. Pierce went flying into the boards with a solid thunk, and then lay unmoving on the ice for about eight minutes. After that time, the trainer and several RMC players got him up and carried him off, leaving some blood behind. Obviously, my work this year has broadened my knowledge of concussions and influenced my views on how dangerous they are, however, I would have classified the Pierce incident in the "sickening" category without any prior knowledge. It's tragically ironic that this happened on the same day as CBC's the fifth estate aired a documentary suggesting that wrestler Chris Benoit's murder-suicide may have been partly caused by the damage repeated concussions did to his brain.
2. Among the other bothersome parts of the Pierce situation: there didn't seem to be a stretcher available, so teammates carried him off while the RMC trainer stabilized his head. That's a seriously bad move in head/neck injury cases, as it can cause further damage. This definitely should have been handled better.
3. Final weird thing from the Pierce case: he got stiched up in the dressing room, and returned to the ice in obvious pain partway through the second period. He didn't play a shift after that, and had to be helped to the dressing room after the second, but the real question is why he was allowed to return. I can understand why he'd want to watch the rest of the game, as it was his last game for the Paladins, but he never should have been allowed to. As Richard Rothenberg (men's hockey student trainer) pointed out in my article, there's a good reason to have a regimented system to deal with concussions or suspected concussions: it does a lot to prevent further injury. If it wasn't clear that Pierce had a concussion, I'd be okay with him watching the game: however, this guy was motionless for eight minutes! For his own good, he should have been shipped straight to the hospital, not the dressing room.
(Aside: Dave Ross, Queen's co-ordinator of athletic therapy services was at the game: he probably wasn't too thrilled with the way this was dealt with, given his worries about concussions and their potential to cause internal bleeding)
4. Ryan Gibb is an amazing goalie, but he needs to improve his puckhandling skills. There were several times when an error on his part caused problems for the Gaels, and one directly resulted in an RMC goal (another goal off a Gibb giveaway was called off for goaltender interference). Gibb did make 28 mostly impressive saves (according to the OUA, which hasn't always been too reliable), and had a strong game in the net: he just needs to get better when he ventures outside the crease (much as Roberto Luongo does), or else stay at home more.
5. The Gaels can put together some impressive offence. Jon Lawrance had two goals, including a nice breakaway deke (not sure if it's TSN-quality, though) after Jeff Ovens was sent sprawling in the neutral zone, while Pat McDonough added one off a faceoff and Ovens added another off a lovely through-the-legs pass from Jon Asselstine. They didn't rack up the shots (the OUA gives them 19, which may be generous), but they made the ones they had count.
6. RMC, on the other hand, won the physical battle. Queen's made few meaningful checks, apart from Doyle on Pierce, a couple of Alberta-style crunches by Grant Horvath and a few here and there from T.J. Sutter. RMC pounded Queen's for a good bit of the game, and even looked like they might swing momentum to their side with a string of solid hits early in the third period. The Gaels looked a bit rattled, but they ultimately hung on.
7. Speaking of McDonough's goal: it wouldn't have happened if today's goalies didn't feel a compulsive need to freeze the puck. Ryan Gibb fired the puck the length of the ice, and it went straight to RMC goaltender Matt Hartney. With no one from Queen's closer than the blue line, Hartney froze the puck, Jeff Ovens won the draw, and the Gaels got the winning marker. I wish I could lambast Hartney more thoroughly for this, but he probably was just following what most of today's goalies seem to be taught, freeze the puck at all costs. Not only does this kill the pace and flow of a game, it also leads to the chance of a faceoff goal as happened tonight. Defensive-zone faceoffs should only be conceded when absolutely necessary, in my opinion.
8. Lastly, T.J. Sutter showed he's a worthy bearer of the name, even if he isn't actually related to the famous clan. He got badly high-sticked in the third, and a penalty was immediately called on RMC. As he was skating to the Queen's bench, the RMC bench started heckling him, with one forward a particular culprit. Sutter paused in front of the RMC bench, did a Palmeiroian finger-jab, and called out his critic in a most effective manner, which quickly shut him up. That was some impressive courage displayed in hostile territory. He had a solid all-around game, too, and showed why he's my favorite player on the Queen's team: he works ridiculously hard on every shift, finishes every check and is solid defensively. He doesn't score a lot, but guys like him (c.f. Sami Pahlsson or a modern Trevor Linden) are still a valuable ingredient on any team.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Campus Corner: Can hockey keep it up?
In the final installment of Campus Corner for this week, here's my thoughts on the hockey teams. First, the men's team pulled off a very nice come-from-behind victory against RMC on Wednesday: the Journal was well-represented at the match, with Mike, Josh and myself all making the cross-town trip to Constantine Arena. I mentioned in a comment on Neate's blog earlier that I wasn't too impressed with the arena: to me, it felt way too small and cramped (the section we were sitting in was packed to the brim, and there were constantly people moving around looking for seats). Also, the penalty boxes weren't glassed in, which I haven't seen in a hockey rink before, and the whole arena's covered by white netting, making visibility pretty limited. Others think differently, though.
Anyways, on the game itself: it was a pretty impressive performance from the Gaels. What amazed me the most was one particular coaching decision on the part of Brett Gibson. Pat Doyle was flattened by RMC captain Luke Pierce, got up, skated up behind Pierce, reached around and yanked him down with his stick, taking an obvious and unnecessary penalty away from the play. As Mike pointed out in his article on the game, many coaches would have benched Doyle then and there. Gibson, who had already suspended Doyle for two games following an earlier pattern of poor play, took the opposite tactic though and moved Doyle to the top line with Brady Olsen and Jon Lawrance. The move paid off, with that line accounting for every Gaels' goal.
The other impressive factor was Olsen himself. He scored three times for Queen's, including a second goal that was one of the prettiest I've seen in a long time. Gibson's description of it to Mike was perfect.
“At any level you won’t find a nicer goal, and I’m not exaggerating one bit,” he said. “I stood on the bench and was in awe, I just couldn’t believe it. … There aren’t many kids that can do that.”
This is the third year I've seen Olsen play, and he's improved each year. He's doing particularly well this year, and is third in goals scored in both the OUA and the CIS. Unfortunately, he's in his fourth year of eligibility, so it will be interesting to see if he comes back next year, and if not, what happens to the team in his absence.
This weekend's games for hockey should be pretty good. Tonight's road game against Toronto is huge for the men: the Blues are only two points back, with a game in hand, so it could be decisive in terms of determining the division title. They also play Carleton Saturday night in Napanee. Oddly, despite the similarity in the teams' records (Queen's is 11-10-3 and Carleton is 11-10-2), their playoff positions are hardly similar: Queen's leads a weak Mid-East Division, while Carleton's in third in the Far East (and only a couple points ahead of Concordia and Ottawa). If Queen's can pull out two wins, they'll be in great shape: anything else will make the stretch run very interesting.
The women's team also plays this weekend, after a disappointing tie with UOIT last weekend. They take on two pretty strong teams in Windsor and Laurier. Queen's is currently in the middle of the standings, so a repeat of last year's OUA silver isn't looking all that likely at the moment, but as teams like the Edmonton Oilers and New York Giants have shown, seeding can become irrelevant once you get into the playoffs.
Anyways, on the game itself: it was a pretty impressive performance from the Gaels. What amazed me the most was one particular coaching decision on the part of Brett Gibson. Pat Doyle was flattened by RMC captain Luke Pierce, got up, skated up behind Pierce, reached around and yanked him down with his stick, taking an obvious and unnecessary penalty away from the play. As Mike pointed out in his article on the game, many coaches would have benched Doyle then and there. Gibson, who had already suspended Doyle for two games following an earlier pattern of poor play, took the opposite tactic though and moved Doyle to the top line with Brady Olsen and Jon Lawrance. The move paid off, with that line accounting for every Gaels' goal.
The other impressive factor was Olsen himself. He scored three times for Queen's, including a second goal that was one of the prettiest I've seen in a long time. Gibson's description of it to Mike was perfect.
“At any level you won’t find a nicer goal, and I’m not exaggerating one bit,” he said. “I stood on the bench and was in awe, I just couldn’t believe it. … There aren’t many kids that can do that.”
This is the third year I've seen Olsen play, and he's improved each year. He's doing particularly well this year, and is third in goals scored in both the OUA and the CIS. Unfortunately, he's in his fourth year of eligibility, so it will be interesting to see if he comes back next year, and if not, what happens to the team in his absence.
This weekend's games for hockey should be pretty good. Tonight's road game against Toronto is huge for the men: the Blues are only two points back, with a game in hand, so it could be decisive in terms of determining the division title. They also play Carleton Saturday night in Napanee. Oddly, despite the similarity in the teams' records (Queen's is 11-10-3 and Carleton is 11-10-2), their playoff positions are hardly similar: Queen's leads a weak Mid-East Division, while Carleton's in third in the Far East (and only a couple points ahead of Concordia and Ottawa). If Queen's can pull out two wins, they'll be in great shape: anything else will make the stretch run very interesting.
The women's team also plays this weekend, after a disappointing tie with UOIT last weekend. They take on two pretty strong teams in Windsor and Laurier. Queen's is currently in the middle of the standings, so a repeat of last year's OUA silver isn't looking all that likely at the moment, but as teams like the Edmonton Oilers and New York Giants have shown, seeding can become irrelevant once you get into the playoffs.
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