»

November 07, 2005

Konopka Gets His First NHL Goal!

Thanks to a blog reader who emailed us the news this morning, we see that former 67s captain and all-around super guy, Zenon Konopka, scored his first NHL goal last night. Congrats! Hopefully this is just the beginning of a great NHL career. A snippet from the game recap (link):
The Ducks, with goals in the game from rookies Ryan Getzlaf (2) and Zenon Konopka, rallied from a two-goal deficit in the second period to eventually force the extra hockey.

(...)

Konopka’s goal, (1, Pahlsson, Marshall) at 2:08 of the second, was the first of his NHL career.
I've never seen another player with Konopka's work ethic and drive, his leadership abilities. Any team would benefit from having him around. It's really good to see him progressing.

November 06, 2005

Hey There!

Thanks for the intro Sid.

OK - before we get down to business, I'm new to blogging so I apologize now for the fat-finger errrors to come. Also, I'm a relatively new fan to junior hockey. I've watching carefully and lurking around a few discussion boards trying to learn more. One thing I have observed is, like art, the beauty of hockey is somewhat in the eye of the beholder so go ahead and disagree with me but I would really appreciate info from more knowledgeable folks to help me learn to enjoy this game even better.

So, on to today's game - another overtime win by our boys! In fact, the OT goal by Robbie was the only full-strength goal of the game. There were 5 power play goals and a beautiful short-handed goal. At times I thought the team played better short-handed than at full-strength.

The starting line-up was Vojta, Joslin, Hulit, Bickell, Talbot and Battachio. Been reading all about the trade rumours and was surprized to see Bickell on the first line. Saw him play - or rather hang out on the ice on Friday. Starting line today. Things that make you go hmmmmm.

The first period was a penalty parade - 5 penalies against the 67s (one resulting in a goal while McGinn was sitting in the slammer and other one scored while Kewin was cooling his heels) and 2 against the Hounds (where Lahey potted one with an assist from Pleckaitis.) Kyle Wharton, a former 67, got an assist on the first Soo goal. The 67s were lucky to get out of that period only down one goal. Score 2 - 1 for the visitors; shots on goal at the end of the first period - 8 - 16 for the Soo which makes sense since the 67s were spending much of their time keeping the dogs at bay.

Second period: It was the Hound's turn to parade into the penalty box - 5 times actually: 2 each for Chris Lawrence (9) and Cody Thornton (16). Lawrence's second offense resulted in a goal by Joslin with assists from Hulit and Talbot. Thornton's second penalty resulted from too much love on his part of our goalie. Thornton thought it would be nice to spend some quality time with Danny in the goal but in the process rammed our boy up against the pipes. Danny was down for a bit and came up stiff and seemed sore in his neck but was still up for the game. Period ended shortly after that. The period ended 2 -2 with shots on goal - 24 - 31 for the Hounds. Our only penalty was to Robbie Lawrance early in the period that was skillfully killed.

Third period: It didn't take long for the Soo to go ahead. Vojta ran afoul of the law before the first minute was played and less than a minute after that the Hounds got their go-ahead goal. Then our Shea Kewin got into more trouble with with a penalty for hooking with a 10 minute misconduct added for good measure. Seems he was talking when he should have been listening. No worry though. Our boys finally converted a face-off into some exciting action when Jamie McGinn takes it in and scores a beautiful short-handed goal with an assist from Talbot. Yay! We're tied! The period ends with shots on goal of 34 - 41 still for the Soo.

OT: I like our boys' chances in OT and it doesn't take them long to prove it. Let's see if I memory serves me correctly here (others please feel free to correct). Couture takes the puck into enemy territory, takes a shot but it misses (?), McGinn gets it, feeds it to Lawrance who's at the face-off circle to the right of the goalie and he puts it home for the game winner 40 seconds into the OT period. Yay! The fans go home happy; the Hounds face a long bus trip home in the rain. Final shots on goal 35 - 42 for the Hounds.

Three game stars:

3: Robbie Lawrance

2: Jamie McGinn

1: Tyler Kennedy (SSM)

Reported attendance: 8087 but I have to wonder how they count it up.

Thoughts about the game:
I thought Brodie Beard did a good job on defence. I saw him clear numerous rebounds and generally get in the way of the opposition. Joslin seemed to be doing a good job on point in the opposition's end and Bickell was...well...Bickell. There were plenty of hits (and a deft hit-avoidance move by Lahey which left the Soo player with a self-inflicted injury when he threw himself at the boards). There were exciting near goals/misses (depends who you're cheering for), some fast end-to-end moments and great moves on both sides.

That's it for the SSM Greyhounds this year. We've played them twice and won both 4-3. That's also the finish of a home weekend where the boys won both in overtime. And that's it for my first blog. Feedback welcome.

Cheers!

Welcome Our New Contributor!

Subtitle: Does that mean we'll actually see some posts here soon?

Welcome to Blitzen, a dedicated 67s fan, who has given in to our arm-twisting and agreed to start contributing to the blog! Woo Hoo! Looking forward to seeing some posts here!


It has been pretty barren around here so far this season. Even though we've been attending all the games and goings-on, the info just hasn't been making it to the blog. Very bad on our part. So we're very exicted to have Blitzen share some thoughts with us. (And just maybe it will be the kick we need to get blogging again ourselves!)

So much has happened since the last post. ::cringing - was it really -gulp- August!?::

Trades, injuries, exciting new players and changes to veterans. Talbot named captain, the loss of Guadagnolo. The pre-season games out East.

Outside of the current team, we've seen Foy playing BIG in his first game in the NHL, Konopka steadily progressing and also making it to the big ice, Locke having a great season so far. And some sad news as well, with our prayers and thoughts going out to Savage and his family.

Other stories that have been oh-so important surrounding the Spits, with the hazing and the firing, and the fighting between teammates, standing up for yourself - which really means going against your 'group' - and that is pretty powerful to see, especially in a teenager.

And of course, the loss of GG to the Sens has been noticed as well. He did some really great work for the 67s, and he will be missed. Congratulations are in order on the big announcement by Dean and Gord the other night on Sens hockey.

So much has happened in the past two months. The season is now rolling along, and we're all getting to see how the teams and lines are gelling, and maybe - just maybe - getting a sense of who might break out this year and have a highlight reel season.

Now, if only we could capture it for the blog!