James Hiebert, who had seemed confident he would play tonight, apparently will not, as he is not on the lineup card. He did skate in practice yesterday, so I imagine he'll be back on Friday.
First Period: Finally getting started at 7:20, but I must admit that playoff video was pretty fun and, dare I say it, cute. Whoever decided to turn off the lights when I wasn't in the press box is not cool, though, haha. Oh, and funny that they were wearing their blues in the video when they're wearing their whites tonight. But skating out with little kids is always gold. And I guess Bucky escaped prison after all, just in time to hear a very theatric rendition of the anthem. ... Garrett Gruenke and Erick Lizon skated over to center ice to throw down after the first stoppage 43 seconds in, and I'd have to say Lizon took that one just one day after nearly killing me. Just kidding, sorta. Both landed a few shots, but Lizon got a couple more and the biggest one of the brawl and got Gruenke to the ground pretty quickly. Gruenke didn't seem to think the fight should have ended that way, so we might ssee another No. 6 vs. No. 6 exchange tonight. ... Jason Dixon is on the top line with Darryl Smith and Brent Cullaton in Hiebert's absence, and the other line for tonight is Bobby Russell-Ryan Salvis-Rick Kozak. ... Gruenke just left the box for a minute to have the Jackalopes' trainer look at his lip. Not sure if that's the best way to show toughness. ... Couple very close calls before the Jackalopes scored to take their first lead of the series at 3:07 in the game. Scoring first is a huge factor in this series, as Coach Ruskowski mentions in my preview for tonight, so we'll see if the Bucks can recover. Jeff Pierce scored that one on assists from Phillippe Plante and Bourbeau. Centomo was getting pulled all over the place as the Jacks kept the puck in the crease and octagon for a while and eventually ended up sprawled across the ice with Pierce's shot flying over him. ... Devin Featherstone just took a boarding penalty for a hit on Mike Ramsay to put the Jackalopes on their first power play of the game. Keeping the Jacks off the advantage was a topic Goupil and I discussed yesterday, as they have one of the league's best power plays, but he did note that the Bucks have been pretty successful in killing them so far. Serge Dube, Rivet, Russell and Salvis out to start this kill. ... They did their part, then Dixon, Snider, Steve Weidlich and Zaore did an impressive job on their PK shift. Dube and Rivet back out now, this time with Cullaton and Smith. ... And now Russell and Salvis back out with Igor Agarunov and Weidlich for the last few seconds of this. ... Paul Kelly sent a slap shot just wide of the net to close out that advantage. ... Kozak and Van Drunen just wiped out together but skated away without any fuss. ... Sebastien Thinel just came thisclose to scoring his first playoff goal in quite some time, but Centomo shut the five hole just in time to catch the puck between his legs. ... Toivonen just managed to poke away a puck he had no way of seeing with Russell screening him as Featherstone slapped one in from the point. ... Bucks get their first power play now as Ryan Palmer is headed to the box for high sticking at 7:49. Cullaton and Dube at the points with Goupil, Miller and Smith up front. ... Ruskowski must have been flipping out during a 30-second span during which his players passed it back and forth beautifully but failed to take a single shot. ... Okay, he might forgive them now, as Miller has tied it up with a falling-down highlight-reel type score from the Toivonen's right circle. Top-shelf score and a nice effort. Goal came 9:49 into the game. Dixon and Rivet with the assists. ... Holy cow, that was one of the coolest goals I have seen in a long, long time. Smith doing the honors this time just 16 seconds after Miller's score. I must catch that on replay. Seriously, wow. ... Great give-and-go between Smith and Cullaton, who has what is currently the lone assist. Cullaton caught Smith's stick perfectly as Smith was getting taken down and managed to deflect the puck right over Toivonen. Smith then crashed the net (awesome phrase) and jumped up for a very enthusiastic celebratory yell. Bucks lead 2-1. ... Dube just destroyed Thinel into the boards, which got some of the Jackalopes shoving around and Kozak freaking out. Dube will serve a boarding penalty for his actions, and Kelly will also head to the box. Thinel is still on the ice and kinda freaking me out. I wish we had a better vantage point for this kind of thing. ... Thinel eventually stood up on his own and skated off about as slowly as you'll ever see a professional hockey player skate. Penalties are being determined, and Tudor Floru is currently over by the Bucks' bench talking to Ruskowski about that situation. ... Paul Gillis got his turn, too, and the end result was a five-minute boarding major for Dube, a roughing minor for Kozak and a roughing minor for Kelly. The Jacks will have a 5-on-4 advantage for five minutes. ... Cullaton just had a great shorthanded chance but got robbed of the puck by Kenny Bernard. ... The crowd is a couple thousand shy of capacity but still quite noisy and very into this game. ... Thinel is back out skating but looked a bit off-balance on his first shift. ... Smith just made a couple nifty plays to get the puck deep in the Jackalopes' zone but had no one to pass it to and had to put the brakes on fast and try to take it Toivonen himsel. No dice, but nice effort. ... Bucks still shorthanded with the first group of guys out of the box. ... Just as I was thinking that it's pretty crazy the Bucks were going to kill off five whole minutes of a power play without Dube on the ice, one of the Jacks hit the goal post and lit the lamp...but only temporarily. No goal, as the puck never crossed the line, and the Bucks have done exactly that. ... This period is taking quite some time, thanks in part to the fact that Centomo is covering every puck he saves and keeps. Not saying that's a bad thing, though...well, other than for the Jackalopes, I suppose. ... Toivonen left his net with the Bucks rushing in and got run into by Miller, who then tussled with Gruenke briefly. Though Miller had no reason to hit Toivonen as hard as he did, the responsible thing to do is to go after the puck, which he did. Toivonen is fine, so we'll have two penalties but not too much harm done otherwise. ... Those penalties will be goalie interference on Miller and roughing on Gruenke. It'll be four-on-four for two minutes with 2:45 left in the period. ... Salvis just overskated the pass on a give-and-go with Russell to cap off a very intense minute or so. I love 4-on-4 hockey. ... Back to 5-on-5 now, and the Jacks get the first shot of the latest even-strength run but are stopped by Centomo. End of the period, Bucks lead 2-1 in spite of purportedly being outshot 17-7. Yikes. ... Oh no, they waited about five minutes before starting the clock, so I'm guessing this will be a long intermission. Hopefully things will speed up a bit for the sake of allowing me to get postgame quotes. ... Awww, li'l chilluns. ... Brahmas lead the Killer Bees 1-0 after their first period, while the Blazers lead the RiverKings 2-1 in the second.
Second Period: Smith has been pretty on fire tonight, not that this is anything new and exciting. That kid is seriously so much fun to watch. ... The Bucks just had quite a bit of trouble clearing a rebound but managed it after a while. That's obviously a big key out there and something they seem to be doing much better during the playoffs than they had at points in the regular season. ... Haha, these little player videos they're showing on the Jumbotron are neat. ... Very nice save on a point-blank shot by one of the Jacks. Collin Circelli, I believe. ... The RiverKings have just tied their game at 2, and Toivonen has just dislodged his net. ... Seriously, these videos are kinda hilarious. ... Pushing and shoving all around, not surprisingly. ... Toivonen just had to make quite a dive to keep a dribbling rebound off a shot by Snider from getting to Goupil's stick. ... Kelly just robbed Dixon of the puck, then Dixon, seemingly incidentally, got tangled up with him and took him down with his stick. That'll be a tripping penalty against Dixon at 6:25. ... Circelli just took Weidlich out behind the Bucks' net, so things are going to get evened up out here. Call is for cross-checking at 6:46. ... Some of the battles along the boards have been pretty sloppy tonight, but the Bucks are doing their best to come away with the puck however they can. ... Nothing doing 4-on-4, time for a mini Bucks' power play. ... Blazers have the lead back, 3-2 after two. Brahmas are up 2-0 now. ... Just as Ruskowski said had been the case in Odessa, the Bucks are getting a few little breaks here and there tonight. Centomo just made a good save but allowed the rebound, which then got wristed inches over the crossbar. That's not the first miss like that the Jacks have had. ... Killer Bees have scored to make it 2-1. ... Rivet just drew a tripping call against Kory Karlander, and the Bucks will be going on the power play with 8:39 to play in the period. ... If the Bucks have really only taken 12 shots tonight, Smith must have made about three quarters of them. ... Smith just lost his helmet, and as a result, the Jacks will lose another player on the ice for a couple minutes. Moyer is going off for elbowing at 12:32 in the period to give the Bucks a 5-on-3 for 46 seconds. ... The Bucks just rocked another set play, this time with Dube getting the goal as the trailer on some nice work by Salvis and Cullaton. Very nice shot by Dube from just ahead of the goal line. But apparently the arena thinks Kozak scored. Oy. Bucks lead 3-1 at 13:46 in the period. ... Not to be outdone, Centomo just made a very theatrical glove save at the other end when play resumed. ... This team genuinely looks nothing like the one we saw for the majority of the regular season. Ruskowski has been on them to no end at practice this week and making them watch tape every afternoon, but I guess they must get how big this is on their own to a certain extent. ... Toivonen just made a pretty nice save, only his 12th of the night overall. ... Whoa, I just noticed the Jacks are being credited for 30 shots. When I spoke to Centomo earlier this week, he said the guys were doing a good job of making sure the shots he faces aren't of the highest quality, which makes having as many saves as he did last week an easier thing to accomplish. Not sure if that's really true or if he's just trying to be nice to his teammates, but it's certainly not as though they are playing poorly in front of him. ... The Brahmas and RiverKings just scored at about the same time to respectively take a 3-1 lead and tie their game at 3. Does that make sense? Just in case it doesn't: Brahmas up 3-1, RiverKings and Blazers tied 3-3. ... Centomo just made another save and had the net ripped off its moorings behind him while trying to control the rebound. ... Rivet and Bourbeau just started shoving each other, and when Rivet stepped away, Kozak came in and dropped the gloves. Quite a battle there, with Kozak fighting much of it with his jersey over his head. Brian Rae is saying Kozak flat-out lost that one, but I'd say it was a bit of a draw. He's also calling for Rivet to get an instigator penalty, but we'll see about that. ... Nope. The fighters are getting five apiece, of course, but they'll serve most of that in the third as there are only 21 seconds left. ... Bucks will take this 3-1 lead into the second intermission in spite of being more than doubled on shots (31-15). The Brahmas scored once more right before their second break to take a 4-1 lead in their game. ... RiverKings have taken a 4-3 lead with 5:07 to play on a goal by Bobby Chaumont. Matt Summers, who scored the RiverKings' first goal, had an assist on that one. ... RiverKings win 4-3 to take a 2-1 series lead.
Third Period: Big pileup in the Jackalopes' crease as the Bucks chased down a rebound no one was there to collect initially. ... Russell is headed to the box for hooking at 3:59 to put the Jackalopes on the first power play of this period. ... Smith got a shorthanded chance early but couldn't quite escape the man who was covering him. ... Jacks only got one shot on that power play, their first of the period overall, and Centomo stopped it. ... Circelli just turned the puck over to Goupil while trailing a play and gave Goupil a one-on-one with Toivonen, but Goupil couldn't quite get a shot off in time. ... Sorry if the blogging is lagging a bit; not quite as much to say, and I'm trying to start my story because it's getting late. ... Brahmas lead 5-1 now. ... Make that 5-2. ... And make this one 3-2, as Ramsay just scored on assists from Pierce and Palmer at 8:40. ... Major close call there, but Centomo managed to keep the puck out. ... Anyone who questioned Centomo's play this season better be praising what he's doing to keep the lead in the Bucks' hands right now. ... Whoops. I didn't say that. Jackalopes just tied it with 6:43 to play on a goal scored on a rebound. Bernard from Ramsay and Karlander. Obviously you can't really fault Centomo too much for allowing three goals on 42 shots. ... Centomo just lost his stick but didn't face any shots without it. ... Time for some 4-on-4 to close this out, as Pierce and Zaore were each called for holding with 1:59 to play. ... Okay, make that elbowing on Pierce. ... Brahmas won their game 6-2. ... Holy cow did Toivonen just come up huge for his team. ... Someone's out to get me tonight; ridiculously long game in regulation, and now we're headed to overtime. I might not be able to get quotes; that's terrible.
Overtime: Oh, right, there's an intermission before OT in the playoffs. No quotes for sure. ... Wow, major sports stress moment there, as Centomo lost a rebound, nearly leaving the net wide open for the Jacks but the Bucks managed to clear it out, thanks mostly to Snider. Seriously, 4-on-4 is intense. ... And the Jacks have completed the comeback, winning 4-3 on a goal by Van Drunen. Time to write quite quickly now.
Game Over: Jackalopes win 4-3; Bucks now lead the series 2-1. No practice tomorrow, which makes it stink even more that I didn't have time to get quotes tonight.
NHL Scores: Capitals 5, Islanders 3; Thrashers 3, Sabres 2 (OT); Penguins 6, Devils 1; Maple Leafs 3, Flyers 2; Blackhawks 3, Blues 1; Coyotes 3, Avalanche 0.
4 comments:
I think the Bucks got a little too comfortable with their lead heading into the third period. Hopefully we can win on Friday and maybe get another win on their ice to close out the series.
I think the Bucks got a little too comfortable with their lead heading into the third period. Hopefully we can win on Friday and maybe get another win on their ice to close out the series.
Wow, way to long of a blog. Sandalow's is perfect for game blogs.
Sandalow won't be blogging for long after Texas sweeps the Bees. Keep blogging away Joy.
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