First Period: Coach Ruskowski is watching the game from the stands right in front of the press box while Jeff Bes and Adam Rivet handle duties behind the bench tonight. ... Bes, Rivet, Petert-James Corsi, Lance Monych, Nick Williams, Jarred Mohr, Cody Hamilton and Alexander Eaton are the Bucks' listed scratches tonight, but that can't be entirely right because Igor Agarunov and Mike Looby are both sitting this one out. ... Gerry Festa is in net to start for the Bucks. ... Couple early penalties, but Poinstreak isn't up yet and not all the Bees are numbered, so I'm a bit lost. Evan Schwabe took one for hte Bucks. ... Justin Styffe just introduced himself to Laredo, and a Bees skater, by absolutely wrecking the latter party in a fight. That was actually quite impressive work. ... After taking a lot of early shots, the Bees were quieted for a bit then got back in Festa's face and managed to score on a point-blank shot by a person whose name is not listed with his number. Bees lead 1-0, up 8-6 on shots. ... I have to say, the fact that both teams' rosters are wrong is not making this very easy. But the Bucks just scored with 1:58 to play in the period, and Ruskowski is headed downstairs to talk to his coaching staff during the break. Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel scored the goal, and I'm really not sure who got the assists. Game tied 1-1. ... The period ends with the same score a couple of nice glove saves later.
Morning Quotes: As promised, here is what Coach Ruskowski had to say about tonight's contest after the skate this morning: "I want to see the kids play. It's like I said yesterday, the Tom Landry theory is, 'Do I want to win? Absolutely. Is that the top priority? No, it's to see if these guys, if they can play. If they want to make my team, they have to show me. Play someone else. I'm going to watch from the stands because tonight and tomorrow, this will be my last chance to see them, and Sunday I'll be making some decisions. I expect to see why I brought them here, the physical guys play physical, the scorers score, the defensive guys play good defense. They're here for a reason, and they know the reason why they're here. They have to show me they're better than anyone else on the team at that position and that duty that I give them. That's what they're proving, that's what they're trying to prove now in these two games. And, let me tell you, these next two games are crucial for a lot of these guys. They have to show me something really quick."
Second Period: Festa is back out to start the second. Wonder if they'll manage to pull him at exactly the halfway point. ... Bucks went on a power play and are utilizing it very poorly, but it gave Festa a chance to show his stuff with a nice sprawling save on a Bees player who broke away from the pack. Admittedly, the team focused more on everything other than the power play/penalty kill in camp this week, but this is still a sad showing. ... Josef Fojtik, the speedster, just had a chance for a great breakaway, but the puck was stolen from him around center ice. He brought it back toward the Bees' goal again quickly but couldn't get a clean shot off. ... Festa got eight extra seconds of ice time and used it to make a pretty glove save. Kyle Gajewski is in goal for the Bucks with 9:52 to play in the period. ... On a 3-on-1 break, Fojtek took the last pass and failed to get the shot off... ouch. Matt McKeown is throwing his body around out there, for sure, but I'm kind of weirded out by the fact that there's only been one fight. ... Apparently Kevin Flather got my memo, because he and Justin Kanigan just went at it in a corner. Flather was doing well, but then seemed to pause for a minute, giving his 6-foot-5 opponent the advantage. Refs pulled them apart before anyone could earn a definitive victory. ... Andrew Schembri just sent one past Gajewski on an assist from Zac McClellan. Bees lead 2-1. ... And now they lead on momentum, as Kyle Sheen just wrecked Blair Hawes. I don't think Hawes even got a punch in. Styffe definitely seems to be the best fighter out there for the Bucks tonight, but there's still time for someone to prove that idea wrong. ... And now they're up 3-1 as Sean Muncy sent a rebound from a slap shot right over Gajewski, who was still down from making the previous save. Justin Ofstetter took the original shot from the left point and got the assist. ... Fojtek finally capitalized on one of his breaks to get the puck in the net. I'm standing by that whether they call it a goal or not. It rimmed around up top and bounced out, but it definitely got past the crossbar. Okay, the officials got that right. Bees lead 3-2. McKeown and Lincourt got the assists. ... End of the period, still 3-2 Bees.
Second Intermission: Apparently, the Bucks have new uniforms this season... pretty sure no one mentioned that to me, haha. But Igor Agarunov and Darryl Smith are out there modeling them right now. I'll post pictures once the Bucks share them on their site. ... The Pointstreak box score is finally up, but it isn't terribly helpful, as many of the Bees are labeled as "New Player."
Third Period: It appears that having screaming fans behind him has pushed Ruskowski up to press row, but he's not actually in the press box. Maybe I can catch him for quotes before he goes downstairs when this is over. ... Ian Clarke just made a nice defensive play, clearing the puck from the crease while his goalie was down. That would have put the Bees up 4-2 for sure if he hadn't whacked it out in time. ... The Bucks just put the puck in the net again... but not before a Buck went in there and knocked the goalie into his goal and the net off its pegs. I think it was Fojtek again, but I was watching the goalie, so I'm not positive. ... Ryan Salvis just scored during a 4-on-4 to tie the game. at 6:24. Styffe and Tomas Sample got the assists. ... Schwabe and Fojtik had the assists on Dieude-Fauvel's goal, by the way. ... Little scuffling in the corner after a shot in the Bees' end, but nothing big came out of it. ... Right after the Bucks announced that they have broken a preseason attendance record, the Bees took back the lead on a goal by Muncy, his second of the game. Both came right around the net, so this guy seems to be pretty good at picking up the trash, as they say. Bees lead 4-3. ... McKeown just had a great chance to tie it on a juicy rebound right in front of the net, but his shot was stopped by Andy Franck, who is in net for the Bees tonight, by the way. ... Drew Kivell and Kanigan just had it out with 4:59 left to earn their tickets off the ice for the evening. Pretty lame fight; they danced around for a long time before a punch was thrown and refs broke up their hugging before anyone could do any real damage. Kanigan did land some mean punches on Kivell's skull, though. ... Fojtik just went to the box with 1:40 left to play, so I guess he won't be the one knocking in the tying goal if the Bucks happen to knot this up. His penalty was a hooking call made at the same time as a slash was called on the Bees. Barring any excess penalties, the game will end 4-0n-4. ... The Bucks took a timeout and are now giving Gajewski even less ice time to empty the net in favor of an extra attacker. ... No use, as the Bees have closed this one out with a 4-3 win. ... Sorry, it seems the Bees' final goal was scored by Matt Sweazey. Quite a name.
2 comments:
Joy, thanks for your live blog! I think I like yours best.
I thought it was a good game, players that impressed me were Josef Fojtik, Gerry Festa, Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel, and of course Justin Styffe. Lincourt and Evan Schwabe seemed like they couldn't get into the groove. Those are the guys that stood out to me. Joy I didn't have a chance to see the new jersey so if you could post them up that would be awesome, thanks.
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