With a huge win over The Bears in their season home opener, the pressure was on the Blue Tongues to once again prevail over the league leaders. Having been introduced to the smaller rink and hard checking style of play produced by Gold Coast, The Bears were expected to hit back, and fast, against the Blue Tongues in their second game of the double header.
The Bears did not disappoint, coming at the Blue Tongues early in the game and changing their tactics to not only start playing a physical game, but also stamping their authority over the control of the game. Both teams seemed to lack the energy they had during Saturday’s game, and some simple rookie errors caused a line change for the Gold Coast team, starting to run two lines instead of three. Despite The Bears claiming control of the puck for majority of the first period however, it was Dave Upton of the Blue Tongues who netted the only goal of the first.
Tempers flared in the second, with roughing calls on both teams, and it was clear that neither team were giving up on their race to be the next to pot a goal. Both Sydney’s goaltender John Daugulis and Gold Coast’s Simo Mustonen had their work cut out for them in net as each team made shot after shot on goal. However, once again the Blue Tongues made some silly mistakes, costing them dearly on the penalty kill. It was The Bears that led going into the third, winning the period 3 goals to the Gold Coast’s lone goal, ending the period 3-2.
Excitement ruled the third, as the Blue Tongues tied up the scores on 3 a piece, before The Bears took advantage of a lapse in concentration and took the lead once more at 4-3 with little more than 8 minutes left in the game. The Blue Tongues never gave up, and with just under 2 minutes left, tied the game 4-4.
Anticipation was high in the stands as the teams took to the face off after a penalty was called on The Bears, giving the Blue Tongues a powerplay with a minute left in the third. Their fans behind them, Gold Coast focused on the job at hand and with 46 seconds left in the game, defenseman Ross Howell netted the game winning goal. The Bears failed to even up the scores in the dying seconds of the game, giving the Blue Tongues their third victory in the last three games.
The first star of the game was Blue Tongues Captain and centre, Billy Crumm. Second star of the game was Blue Tongues Defenseman, Don Burke and third star of the game was Bears’ Roberto Franchini.
Next weekend, the Blue Tongues face the Newcastle North Stars on June 21 & 22 at Gold Coast Iceland, Bundall. Games start at 3.30pm.
The Bartercard Gold Coast Blue Tongues have done what many believed to be the impossible. After starting out 5-0 on the road, they have come back to win back-to-back games against the AIHL league leading Sydney Bears. The game, a hard checking, end-to-end battle came right down to the wire, with the final puck going in the net just 40 seconds before the end of the third period while the Blue Tongues were on the Power Play.
The Blue Tongues now have a week to recover before playing the Newcastle Inski North Stars next weekend.
For the Stars, Hope, Joy, Bliss, Excitement. For the Sharks, Dismay, Fear, Concern.
4 minutes into the overtime period, unlikely hero, Mattias Norstrom shoots a wristshot from the blue line. This isn’t the first wrister he’s fired in this series, and it probably wont be his last. But todays was different, because it managed to go through all the traffic, past Nabokov and into the net.
And with that, the Stars took a very convincing 3-0 series lead over the (#1 contender going into the regular season) San Jose Sharks.
“I tried to get it on net, it went off a stick. Fortunately, it went in,” said Norstrom, sounding as shocked as anyone about his game-winner.
- Yahoo! Sports
Today we have 3 featured videos. The first is a classic fight between former team mates Marty McSorley and Mark Messier. The second, a clip from 1987 with Cam Neely of the Boston Bruins scoring, and the third from a recent game where Seabrook absolutely nails Aaron Downey with a massive check.
Normally a team others look up for strong defensive play, a never say die attitude and gritty, hard hitting forechecking, the Dallas Stars of late have not fit the bill. In fact over recent games the Stars, who have gone 3-7-0 in their last 10 games are in a major slump, and have chosen the worse possible time to do it.
All teams go through slumps though, and in the NHL these days a slump means very little in the big scheme of things. The Detroit Red Wings, who lead the entire league in points went through a slump very similar to the one the Stars are in, and went on to a hot streak soon after. The San Jose Sharks had a slump before going on their current hot streak.
For the Stars then, it’s surely only a matter of time before the team gains back its confidence and gets back on track. Stars Captain Brenden Morrow spoke of confidence recently…
“That’s probably one way to describe it,” Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. “I think confidence is an attitude you have. We’ve had it at times, but right now we don’t, and it’s going to take more than just one game to get it back. It’s going to take a handful of games where you get ugly, where you dig in, and where you earn your bounces. That’s the way we have to look at this, we have to look at it that we have a lot of work to do.”
- Mike Heika, Dallas Morning News
The Stars face the San Jose Sharks later this week, and hope to break their slump in California. Word is BJ Crombeen has been called up from the minors, so maybe look to see a cold-streak winger be a healthy scratch during the upcoming games.
We had a large update today, with over 100 new videos added. Included in the update are game highlight reels from todays NHL games, a large list of hockey fights, both new and old, a few interviews and a classic clip of Howler from the Phoenix Coyotes beating up on an inflatable Sharkie at a Coyotes home game.
Godard vs Boulton Mar 13, 2008
Eric Godard vs Eric Boulton from the Calgary Flames at Atlanta Thrashers game on Mar 13, 2008. via http://www.hockeyfights.com
Category: Hockey Fights
Clarkson vs Simon Mar 13, 2008
David Clarkson vs Chris Simon from the New Jersey Devils at Minnesota Wild game on Mar 13, 2008. via http://www.hockeyfights.com
Category: Hockey Fights
Burrows vs Carcillo Mar 13, 2008
Alexandre Burrows vs Daniel Carcillo from the Vancouver Canucks at Phoenix Coyotes game on Mar 13, 2008. via http://www.hockeyfights.com
Category: Hockey Fights
Aaron Downey
Aaron downey fight
Category: Hockey Fights
Walker vs Gaustad Mar 14, 2008
Scott Walker vs Paul Gaustad from the Carolina Hurricanes at Buffalo Sabres game on Mar 14, 2008. via http://www.hockeyfights.com
Category: Hockey Fights
Conboy vs Mair Mar 14, 2008
Tim Conboy vs Adam Mair from the Carolina Hurricanes at Buffalo Sabres game on Mar 14, 2008. via http://www.hockeyfights.com
Category: Hockey Fights Full Story →
A picture tells a thousand words.