Royals fall to Hitmen 5-2

 
  The Hitmen finally looked like a first place hockey team tonight and not the team that got murdered and made a joke out of against Medicine Hat a few weeks ago. They beat the Victoria Royals 5-2 in a game that could of been a lot worse if it wasn't for the great goaltending of Calgary native Coleman Vollrath. When I fist seen this kid was starting in net I assumed it was because he was from Calgary. A goalie that has only played 3 games (1-2) and having Polivka (6-5) obviously your main guy. One would assume you would start your main goalie against the first place team in the East. But Vollrath made some great saves which could of been more embarassing for the Royals than it already was.
  Before any scoring even took place it looked scary for the Hitmen as they were on a 5 on 3 and Jamie Crooks had 2 break aways and great scoring chances and Driedger shut the door.

  Alex Roach recieved his player of the month award for the month of October tonight and he proved that he deserved it scoring 2 great goals and potting an assist to boot. Also deservingly he was the first star. Best game I have seen him play or from any Hitmen defender so far.
   Other goal scorers for the Hitmen were Brassart, Padakin, and Petersen with his first ever career dub goal. Stahl scored on a point shot for the Royals in the second and Hodges scored a beautiful goal with 1.5 seconds remaining.
  Fights were Kanzig vs Rissling, Franson vs Henry, and if you count it Virtanen vs Carroll but all that was was them throwing off their gloves and Virtanen falling down which was probably for the better as Carroll is alot bigger.
  This is the first time I have ever watched the Victoria/Chilliwack franchise ever play. One thing that I am amazed that wouldn't drive a coach nuts is the lack of effort #19 Logan Nelson puts in when he is skating off from a shift. Now I can't say he does this every game maybe he was lazy. But he skated off the ice while play was going on his end numerous times like he was skating out to a fucking tea party. It was like public skating time when he was getting ready to come off  If I was the coach screw his second on the team 16 points his ass should be benched. Total disrespect for the game and his team mates and the uniform he is wearing. I am not the only one in the crowd that seen that numerous fans beside me also pointed it out.
  Former Hitmen Gogolev looked good out there. Probably the best skater the Royals had and was held to an assist. Its still up for debate but if Zane Jones continues to improve and the fact that he is 2 years younger than Gogolev it may prove to be a winning trade for the Hitmen.
  I heard lots of great thing about the Royals Magee but he was pretty silent out there tonight. You could tell watching him that he has the skills and the heart but the wheels and the bounces just weren't going his way.
 Shots were 29-26 for the Royals.
  Tonight was also Cross Iron Mills night for those of you who don't know Cross Iron Mills is a mall north of Calgary I have never been there yet nor have no need to. But anyway in the second intermission they dropped baloons from the ceiling containing 5 and 10 off coupons at stores at the mall. This is a mall that costs the average Calgarian 10 in fuel just to get out. Anyway this quarter ton welfare woman with almost no teeth was sitting a few seats behind me. When kids were going for the baloons she was doing the classy thing and reaching her blubber past them and she ended up getting about 5 or 6 baloons. See as fun as I have at these games I also have to point out the things that irk me at them too. I still hate the fact that instead of having good looking girls go out and clean the ice they have old fat men do it. This makes no sense especially for a team with a budget like the Hitmen's. Also the Jumbo tron showing clips of people and grabbing me with a big wad of Copenhagen.
 Oh well still the best possible way I can imagine to spend a friday night ( Now I feel older than dirt).
  Next home game is Monday which was changed from Sunday against the Kootenay Ice so people can watch the Stamps play in a sea of green in Calgary. As much as I like Stamps games I am not going in -20 weather I will watch the game in the comfort of my home. Its going to be weird not cheering for Kootenay a team I watched for the last 3 years as much as I could. The Ice have some issues this year and should be a win for the Hitmen who are now on a 5 game winning streak.

Hitmen Beat Warriors in a shootout

  Morgan Rielly is going to be an amazing NHL player someday. Too bad its for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was dominant everytime that he touched the puck last night in the Warriors 2-1 shootout lose to the Hitmen.  The one thing that I can not understand for the life of me is the fact that he was getting a normal shift. The coach ran all 6 defenceman almost virtually equally. Now this in no way is a knock towards the other defenceman on the team they all looked like great players. but Rielly was easily in a class of his own. Albeit there could be a reason but a player like that should be out on the ice at least every second shift or when he is not tired. Rookie Brayden Point was also very entertaining to watch for the Warriors and at 16 he already has 15 points in 20 games.

  The game started out with a scoreless first period with the Hitmen only getting 2 shots and the Warriors not doing much better with only 6. But then in the second Carter Hansen opened up the scoring which basically was Rielly walking around a bunch of Hitmen players like they were pee wees and then using Hansens stick to deflect the puck into the net. Then what seemed like seconds later Brendan Hurley replied for Calgary roofing it upstairs past Paulic with everyone in the building at first except for Hurley and the ref realizing it was in. Hurley was also solid laying the body and creating chances every shift he had. Along with Macek those were the 2 best looking players for the Hitmen.

The Hitmen also missed on 2 open nets which could of got of got Kornelson his first of the year. Like he had the whole net and then seconds later Sylvester had the same scenerio and fanned.

  The game was fairly physical with 3 fights. First fight was heavyweigths Helgeson and Edmundson which it looked like Edmundson got the better of Helgeson but then when you seen Edmundsons face he was the one gushing and Helgeson looked as if he just put on make up. Elliot Petersen and Warriors Braiden Doucett also had a quick little tussel. The one fight which alot of people were talking about after the game was when Darian Henry wanted to fight Morgan Rielly and Rielly wanted nothing to do with it and it looked as Rielly signaled with his stick for Travis Brown to Fight Henry and the 2 fought. When Henry seen Brown dropped his gloves he didn't look as eager. But he ended up doing alright against the big d man Brown.

Final shots were 28-19 Warriors. Macek and Chase scored in the shootout for Calgary.

Next home game is Friday against Victoria.

  On another note before the game I seen 2 elderly people in Warriors jerseys getting harrased at the train station by these guys that just reeked like listerine or mouth wash. I walked up and the guys stopped pestering them and I walked to the game down the corridor with them. I asked them if they were from Moose Jaw (they said yes, I wasn't sure even with the Warriors jerseys on they could have a grandkid on the team after all there 6 Warriors from the region) I said crazy in the big city. And they replied Moose Jaw isn't much better. Now I haven't been to Moose Jaw in almost 10 years and I remember it as a safe great city. Has it changed or are these people just paranoid?