Players to watch – 46-Wood, 55-Cobb, 17-Reilly
Still struggling with penalties and blind passes. Overall – we played well. Officiating wasn’t on our side
Keener’s Analysis: Being positive however, we played one of our best defensive games ever and besides the PP goals that sunk us, you would think stat wise we had one.
Achilles heel was really organized offensive play and passing in the neutral ice as the defensemen and the forwards played big in our zone. Impressed by the lack of errors especially in the 3rd on that end of the ice. Though it was clear we were fighting a battle we couldn’t win, no one lost their heads and for the most part we played good hockey.
for what its worth, their Power Play was far better organized than ours was. they set up quickly and cycled the puck until the shot lanes opened, if only briefly. We had one powerplay where we got organized enough to mimic this, but otherwise were a bit ragtag on execution which you see translated as errant passes in the O zone.
However, they played great games and generally smart hockey, despite the odds, and that is a huge victory.
Game 1
Saturday, Nov 2, 9:15pm – WCC, Black Rink
Lost 3-5
Blind passes plagued us.
PK – Need to work on one player forechecking with the other looming at center ice.
Canes did a good job of having a player at the front of the net – we need to make sure we have a body on those guys.
We need to do a better job of using bodies to protect the puck.
Third period we were skating defeated – chasing. Attacks need to be on the outside – we tried to hero the situation and skated at players rather than controlling their zone.
Lots of whiffing on pucks – passing is critical
Game 2
Sunday, Nov 3, 12:45pm – WCC, Black Rink
Lost 3-2
Great response to the previous game – we started with a 2-0 lead in the first period, and kept it close through the next period, but penalties put us in bad positions which the Canes capitalized on to edge us out at the end.
