Re: SLU 2009-2010 Season
Game 3 otta be a doozy, just like the last 2. LGT
Vic........I love you like a brother and you are one of the nicest Cklarkson (or any team) fans I know........so don't take anything I say in this post personal.
As to the game. Clarkson deserved the win and played well enough to win, but, so did we.
Clarkson was the sharper team with more jump in the first and we played as if we could win without our best effort. We got better as the game went on. To me, the story of this game was the officiating or lack thereof. We played the majority of the first period shorthanded which contributed to Clarksons effectiveness. A couple of our penalties were deserved, the majority were not. The first call on Drewiske looked like a clean but hard hit and he gets called for boarding. I think the official called the result of the player looking hurt as opposed to the hit. The charging the goalie penalty on Bollig was a real stretch...he was shoved in there. One of the penalties on Curran was a travesty.....he is breaking out of our zone with the potential for a partial breakaway and the referee does call Rufenach for holding but while Curran is squirming to get free he takes Alex too for elbowing. I thought the trip call on Dewey was very borderline as the Clarkson player was trying to jump over his stick.
To me (although Clarkson deserves kudo's for coming back) the difference in the game was all the penalties that SHOULD HAVE BEEN CALLED ON CLARKSON that weren't. To be fair we got away with a few too but no where near as many as Clarkson did. The game got very chippy and nasty at times and we were guilty of our share. Bollig absolutely crucified a Clarkson player with a cross check after Clarksons third goal.
But the most egregious non call was near the end of (I think it was the third) when Flanagan was absolutely tackled and darn near slew footed and taken down right in front of the official and nothing was called. Not to be overly dramatic but it was arguably one of the most obvious penalties I have ever seen take place where an official did not call it. It was a travesty.
While Beca is clearly a great player and one of Clarksons best.....to me he is a piece of sh_t. He woofs, he complains, he is just as dirty as anyone on the ice, he is a showoff and has no class. After he scored his goal he went by the SLU bench with his arms up in the air (for those old enough to remember a la John Wensink of the Bruins trying to take on the whole Canadians bench to a fight) Sorry Vic but to me he is the epitome of bush league. (Off line you can ask me how I really feel)
Karpowich played well again tonight and the thing I am most scared about heading into tomorrow is I keep waiting for the stinker Karpowich to show up (that Vic and others talk about) but so far we haven't seen that guy show up at Appleton. He made a game saving save when we had the 4-3 and frankly had we been able to finish our chances We could have won.
Nothing between these two teams is ever going to be easy and I think tomorrow is going to be based on several factors.
1. Luck will play a big part. Tonight it went Clarkson's way. Their third goal they got an absolutely unbelievably lucky bounce to go their way to even get the puck in our zone which led to a score. I turned around to Tim U and we both said how in the hell could a bounce like that happen???
2. Survival of the fittest. It will be a battle of wills and who wants it more. Friday Clarkson didn't even belong on the same ice as us. Tonight it was much more even. We had several players who looked pretty tired to me and I am concerned that Child (just coming back off his injury) may be running on empty.
3. Goaltending. So far as well as Alex has played, the edge has clearly gone to Karpowich. (Particuarly on Friday) Will Joe dare make a change to Tisi to change up the karma?????
4. The officiating. In the series so far the calls have significantly favored Clarkson (and I am trying to be as unbiased and fair as I can be.) The amount of infractions Clarkson has committed against us that have not been called in the last two nights numbers in double digits. In this regard Murphy is the most useless excuse for a referee I have ever seen. Bad and obvious stuff happens right in front of him and if anything gets called at all, it's McDonald from afar making the calls. The missed icings, offsides (all these both ways) are really disappointing.
If we want our season to continue we have to play more like Friday night and come out with more intensity and jump........we also have to be more disciplined and not put ourselves in a position to let the officials put us in the box as much as they did tonight. We also have to make some adjustments. While Friday we lugged the puck and carried it into the Clarkson zone with relative ease....tonight Clarkson formed a 5 man Maginot line in center ice and at the blue line forcing us to play more of a dump and chase game.
I still think we are the better team, that had more and better chances, but as we saw tonight that doesn't always mean you win a hockey game.
