Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Game No. 62- Bucks vs. Jackalopes

Starters: Bucks - Igor Agarunov (F), Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel (D), Todd Griffith (F), Ryan Lehr (D), Pier-Olivier Pelletier (G), Evan Schwabe (F); Jackalopes - Kenny Bernard (F), Alex Dunn (D), Garrett Gruenke (D), Joel Martin (G), Troy Ofukany (F), Mike Ramsay (F).

First Period: The Bucks are playing their fifth game in seven days and going with 14 skaters. At least that's better than 13, I guess. ... Bucks actually got a chance on the first shift, but Agarunov couldn't get his stick on a backhand attempt of a rebound quite hard enough. For some reason, the first shot hasn't been registered yet. ... Jackalopes just got a 2-on-0 chance on Pelletier, but the shot went wide. ... A Bucks player, I believe Lehr, was just down on the ice for a minute and had to be checked on by Bobby Moore before heading over to the bench. He seems to be okay. ... Pelletier just made a couple quick saves on the Jacks. ... After a couple more quick saves by Pelletier, Philippe Plante gave the Jackalopes an early lead with a wrist shot from the top of the circle through a lot of bodies that went top shelf on Pelletier. Dave Van Drunen and Dominic Leveille get the assists. Jackalopes lead 1-0 at 4:02. ... Bucks just got a chance and were able to get Martin out of the net chasing a puck but couldn't capitalize. They will go on the power play now, though, with Collin Circelli going to the box for roughing at 4:45. ... Bucks will get a very brief 5-on-3 now with a tripping call against Plante at 6:38. They've only managed one shot in 1:52 of power play time so far. ... Sylvain Deschatelets a way of being in the right place at the right time to one-time the puck past pretty much any goalie, and he just did it again, beating Martin top shelf from right outside the crease. Jeff Bes made a nice pass from the opposite circle to set that one up. Game tied 1-1 at 7:37. ... Lehr just took a mighty slap shot from the point during a nice 5-on-5 rush by the Bucks, but Martin made a glove stop on it. Eric Giosa was the one who got the puck in the zone for the Bucks, taking on three Jackalopes fearlessly despite the injury he's been nursing. Reminds me that I forgot to mention Coach Ruskowski calling Giosa a "character kid" and saying he'd be playing today no matter how much pain he was in, not always the case for some players. ... Griffith just missed the puck on a shot attempt on a 2-on-1. Schwabe tried to follow in and take the shot but couldn't quite do that. ... Martin just made a great save on a point-blank shot by Maxime Lincourt. ... Billsten just backhanded the puck on a wraparound attempt and flipped it over the net rather than into it. Very close chance there. ... And now Billsten has drawn a penalty, and the Bucks will go on the power play with Van Drunen in the box for hooking at 16:42. ... Lincourt just stopped the puck with his skate and tried to take a heavy shot but had it blocked. ... Right after that power play ended, the Bucks have jumped out to their first lead of the game on a great garbage goal by Agarunov, who was one of a couple players hanging around the net with Martin practically doing the splits on a save attempt. Giosa and Billsten get the assists. Dieude-Fauvel was the other player in Martin's face and probably helped out a bit on keeping him from stopping that puck. ... Pointstreak has the assists on Deschatelets' goal as Mike Looby and Bes, in that order, so I may have been wrong about Bes making the pass to Deschatelets. I really wish they were consistent about showing goal replays here. ... Lincourt and Schwabe just got a bit of a break, but Schwabe could not settle down Lincourt's pass to take a shot. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 2-1, up 13-7 on shots. That was a pretty fast-paced period, and the Bucks have been pretty lively for a team in their current situation. We'll see if they can keep it up.

Second Period: Lincourt made a great play early to get the puck away from Dunn and race in on Martin, but Martin made the poke check, and Schwabe, the man trailing Lincourt, couldn't quite get his stick on the puck. ... The Bucks have done a decent job keeping the puck away from their goalie since early in the first, and Pelletier has done a good job stopping it when it does make it to him. ... Looby is headed to the box for slashing at 2:38 to put the Jackalopes on their first power play. This unit was not something Ruskowski wanted to see tonight, but a kill here could be big for his team. ... Great sprawling save by Pelletier to keep the Bucks in the lead. ... Penalty killed. ... Nice defensive play by Darryl Smith to keep one of the Jacks from taking a shot on a nice tic-tac-toe play. ... Martin just made a beautiful save on a shot by Bes on a 2-on-1 with Smith. ... Pelletier just made a pad save on Brian Swiniarski only to have Swiniarski grab the puck and slip it behind him to tie the game. Game tied 2-2 at 9:34. ... And now the Jacks are going on a power play, with Adam Rivet headed to the box for hooking at 10:15. I'd say this might be a crucial two minutes. ... Smith just got a shorthanded chance and whipped the puck high and wide. ... Jackalopes back in the shot lead at 20-19. ... Billsten and Giosa are working hard down in the Jackalopes' zone, and Giosa just took a shot that got caught on the outside of the net. A lot of people thought that was a goal, but no such luck. ... Well, that was. Griffith just snapped a shot past Martin, who was being screened, right off the power play to give the Bucks back their lead. Giosa getting what is currently the lone assist. Bucks lead 3-2 at 12:43. ... The Brahmas and Rush are in a scoreless tie at their first intermission, by the way. ... Jackalopes getting another power play with Dieude-Fauvel headed to the box for hooking at 15:57. ... Bucks just missed out on a big opportunity with Martin out of the net and Billsten and Smith rushing the zone. Smith held the puck just a little too long deciding whether to pass or shoot and eventually passed only to have it intercepted. ... Everyone wants a tripping call on the Jackalopes for a play out front of Martin, but no such luck. ... Pelletier just made another great save. He has now faced 24 shots tonight. ... Circelli just wrestled the puck away from Schwabe on what looked to be turning into a great shorthanded chance. ... Penalty killed. ... The Bucks just benefitted from some odd bounces and a bad clearing attempt by one of the Jackalopes but could not get the puck home. ... Shot attempt broken up on a late scoring chance for the Bucks. ... End of the period, Bucks lead 3-2, down 26-22 on shots.

Third Period: Laredo Energy Arena is not full by any means, but it is very loud tonight. ... Just got a little quieter, as the game is tied again on a deflection by Swiniarski. Ramsay and Bernard get the assists. Game tied 3-3 at 2:13. ... Bucks get a power play at 4:17 after Kory Karlander hooked Bes in front of the net. ... Give the Bucks credit for actually setting up and keeping the puck in the offensive zone for most of that power play, but only getting a couple shots and failing to score probably doesn't make them feel so great about it. The Jackalopes got a big break when Korlander got out of the box, but Pelletier made a great save to keep it tied. ... Bucks get another power play now with Van Drunen headed to the box for for hooking at 7:59. ... Penalty killed. ... After being badly outshot early in the period, the Bucks are finally putting some on Martin. ... Looby headed to the box for slashing at 14:32 to give the Jackalopes another power play. ... Pelletier made a big save to start that one out. ... And another big stop not much later. The Bucks might want to try clearing the puck eventually. ... Lucky break for the Bucks as Pierce whiffed on what would have almost definitely been a goal for the Jackalopes right outside the crease. ... Pelletier just gloved the puck and tossed it out to Deschatelets, who couldn't quite win a battle along to boards to get a breakaway, but did get the puck out of the zone. ... Penalty killed. ... One minute left in regulation. ... Brahmas are leading the Rush 1-0. ... Leveille was just all alone with the puck in front of Pelletier and somehow did not get a shot before one of the Bucks took the play away from him. ... End of the period, game tied 3-3, Jackalopes up 39-27 on shots. They outshot the Bucks 13-5 in the third.

Overtime: Pretty crazy play halfway through the OT period with Pelletier stopping multiple shots only to have one of his teammates come close to putting the puck behind him. No such luck for the Jackalopes, though. They are now up to 43 shots. ... Deschatelets just hit the crossbar on a backhand attempt off a rebound on a shot by Rivet, and he thought he had ended the game. Very close. The Jacks returned with a chance of their own, but Pelletier got the puck under control, setting up a faceoff to his left with 34.9 seconds left in OT. ... Icing on the Bucks brings the faceoff back in front of Pelletier with 13.2 on the clock. ... Ruskowski has taken his timeout. ... The puck got caught up on the back of the net to give the Jacks yet another offensive-zone faceoff with 6.1 to go. ... Bucks got control off the faceoff, and Rivet tried to take a last-second shot but missed the net way wide. ... End of OT, game tied 3-3, Jackalopes up 44-30 on shots.

Shootout: The Bucks will shoot second. ... Leveille up first. ... And he snapped the puck past Pelletier to score the first shootout goal against Pelletier in at least eight tries. ... Griffith tried a backhand that was gloved by Martin. ... Ramsay whipped a wrister, and Pelletier made a nice glove save. ... Bes hit the corner of the left post. ... Swiniarski either missed wide or had his shot deflected into the boards. ... Deschatelets couldn't get the shot he wanted as Martin held him off and shot it into the back of the net. ... Pierce lost the puck over the Bucks' bench, then hit the left post with his shot. ... Smith faked Martin out but missed the net on his backhand. ... Sebastien Thinel can win it. ... And he did, beating Pelletier on almost a mirror-image shot of the one taken by Leveille. Jackalopes are the Governor's Cup champs, and the Bucks will have to wait until the game between the Brahmas and Rush is over to see if they have clinched the third seed. ... As if on cue, the Rush just took a 2-1 lead on two consecutive goals. ... The Bucks have clinched thanks to a 4-1 win by the Rush.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Arrived late to the game. Don't remember seeing Lehr out there. Did he play after he got hurt?