Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Broncos / Cougars Tonight

Not a great effort in Edmonton last night... the fact the coaching staff sat down the top line of Tassone/Dowling/Dansereau for the third period spoke a lot about how they felt the team was playing.

The game was 2-2 after the 1st period. The 2nd period belonged to the Oil Kings who connected three times in the frame - once on a five minute major powerplay assessed to Derek Claffey for boarding. The hit on Michael Burns deserved a minor penalty perhaps, but a major/game misconduct as a bit much from my vantage point.

The league will review the hit today. There's word Claffey may sit out tonight with a league imposed one game suspension. I'll know more once it's confirmed.

The Oil Kings 4th goal chased starter Mark Guggenberger from the Broncos net. It's the 2nd time Guggenberger has been pulled this season, both games have been against Edmonton.

The Broncos showed some life early in the third period on a PP goal from Eric Doyle just 4:00 minutes in. An Oil King PP goal midway through just as a 5-on-3 powerplay expired sealed the outcome.

It was good to see Jordan Peddle back in the line-up just two and half weeks from his 2nd concussion of the season. He was one of the best Broncos on the night, accounting a goal and an assist in the 6-3 loss.

Ryan Molle scrapped Oil Kings forward Jeff Lee midway through the third period. Not a lot of big shots in this one but Molle would have won on the Olympic style boxing scoring system 4-1. It's Molle's 2nd scrap in as many games.

Here's some pics from high above the ice surface at Rexall.


My broadcast location. About 45 minutes prior to face-off.



Oil Kings pre-game festivities.




Oh Canada

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The bus ride Northwest to Prince George following the game went better than expected. There wasn't any snow in the air but a recent dump made conditions a little slick in some places.


The 700 km trek was slow going in some places and wide open in others.

A moose paid a visit to the side of the road about midway through the trip. It caused some heavy braking and a couple reactions but that was probably the most alarming part of the journey. Although I swear we rode a rumble strip for 100 kms straight. Jeez.

A full moon lit up the sky enough to see the mountain peaks and tall trees which flanked the highway.

You could see the lights of Prince George light up the sky about an hour out already. The team made the journey in about 7.5 hours. Not bad.

The team unloaded at the CN Center and quickly checked in to the downtown hotel. I hope everyone gets a good rest for tonight's contest

Tonight, it's the Prince George Cougars.

For the fifth time in six years the Broncos play in Prince George at the CN Center. They've had good success here recently. Last year they won 6-1 early in the season. Two seasons ago they blanked the Cougs 4-0 in their barn.

The Cougars are coming off back-to-back home ice wins over the Everett Silvertips.

We're on the air at 8:30pm with the pre-game show. Play-by-play at 9pm. Kelowna Rockets General Manager Bruce Hamilton will join us before face-off to talk a little about the Rockets/Broncos game Friday night.

Jon


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good grief, Keener, that's a long ways up for your beady little eyes, lol. You must have had binoculars to see the players numbers!

Jon Keen said...

Ever had that feeling you were failing an eye exam?