Brand New Year, Same Brutal Luck
It’s one thing to get beat and know that you deserved it. It doesn’t make anyone happy when that happens, but nevertheless…it happens. But when you get beat and deserve a better fate, those are the games that are extremely difficult to take. On Monday night at the Centennial Civic Centre, the Lloydminster Bobcats might have deserved better in their 5-2 loss to the Bonnyville Pontiacs. On Friday night, the Bobcats played an even better game against the Camrose Kodiaks and got the better of the play (5 on 5 in particular). Yet it still went unrewarded, as despite outshooting the Kodiaks 35-25, the Bobcats fell 4-3.
The Cats came out flying in the 1st period, dominating the play early and got on the board first as Ty Mosimann got the puck off a won draw by Chance Adrian. His first shot was blocked, but he got it back and rifled it top shelf on Kodiaks netminder Cole Tisdale to make it a 1-0 game. The Kodiaks managed to get that one back at the 11:32 mark of the period as Damon Zimmer put what appeared to be a harmless shot from the left boards on Josh Dias, but the puck found its way to the back of the net to tie the game. The Kodiaks gained a lot of momentum from that goal and made it 2-1 shortly after as Jarret Timmerman had a puck bounce perfectly to him in the slot off the backboards and all of a sudden the Kodiaks had the lead and would carry it into the intermission.
In the 2nd the Cats took back control of the game and were rewarded for it at the 11:24 mark of the period as Mack Stewart picked off a Kodiak pass and was able to walk in all alone and put a nice move on Tisdale to tie the game at 2. The line of Adrian, Mosimann and Stewart were tremendous for the Cats all night long as they not only produced a couple of goals, they looked dangerous every time they were on the ice producing numerous scoring chances. The Stewart goal was the only one we’d see in the 2nd, so the two teams headed to the 3rd all evened up.
In the 3rd, the Bobcats continued their strong play and you talk about getting rewarded for strong play, Jared Miller had been playing very strong hockey of late for the Cats and he finally got rewarded for that with his first AJHL goal to give the Bobcats a 3-2 lead. A similar goal to Stewart’s in that he picked off a Kodiaks attempted zone exit and took a heavy wrist shot that found its way through Tisdale. It looked as though it was the Bobcats night, but then a nightmare 3 minute stretch after the Miller goal did the Cats in as they ran into penalty trouble. A Lane Brockhoff goal on one power-play would tie it for the Kodiaks, and then a Connor Brock tally on the other power play would put the Kodiaks up 4-3 with just 4:53 to play. The Bobcats pushed hard, especially in the final minute of play, but were unable to get the equalizer and the Kodiaks escaped with the win.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, there’s a lot of positives you can take out of that game. But the minor details cost us again tonight. We out-chanced them, out-shot them, but we have to turn that into numbers on the scoreboard. A lot of positives, but they’re stinging more and more when you’re that close but you’re not getting rewarded at the end of the day” coach Nigel Dube said after the game. One of the brightest spots on the night was obviously Jared Miller getting his first AJHL goal and I got Dube’s thoughts on that. “Millsy’s done a lot of good things. He’s a sound, 200-foot player, and he’s been making some plays. Systematic wise, it was a great read, broke it up, and has a good shot on goal which he’s capable of doing. So it was good to see”.
The Bobcats are back in action next weekend as they hit the road for a Southern road trip starting in Calgary Friday night. Start time for that one will be 7 PM. If you’re unable to make the five hour trip for that one, all the action will be available on Hockey TV. The Cats will be back in action at home exactly a week later on Friday, January 17th as they play host to the top-ranked team in the CJHL, the Brooks Bandits. Puck drop for that one will be 7:30 at the Centennial Civic Centre. As always, if you can’t make it down to the rink, Shane Tomayer and myself will have the call for you on Hockey TV, and on the MixLR app!
Subscribe to the Podcast
Follow me on Twitter @TJ_Soups
Like the fan page on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram @Soups_on_Hockey
Thanks for sharing. I read many of your blog posts, cool, your blog is very good. https://www.binance.com/el/register?ref=OMM3XK51