Game Notes From The Dog Pound: Hamilton 2 Abbotsford 0

Here are some comments and observations from the Hamilton vs. Abbotsford game at Copps Coliseum on March 6.

1 Here’s a look at last night’s line combos and D pairings

Tenute-Bournival-Holland

Leblanc-Blunden-Chaput

Quailer-Leveille-Stortini

Hagel-Fortier-Lefebvre

Pateryn-Tinordi

St. Denis-Stejskal

Beaulieu-Ellis

Beaulieu returned from a one game injury sending Corbin back to the pressbox. DeSantis is still out with no return date give.

2 The PK went a perfect 4 for 4 raising their total for the month of March to 11 for 12 for a 91.7% success rate. They have now killed off 11 straight penalties Tinordi, Stejskal, Fortier and Blunden saw the bulk of the PK time tonight.

3 The PP went 1 for 4 scoring their first goal for the month of March. That brings their total for the month of March to 1 for 11 for a 9.0% success rate. Leblanc scored the goal with 34 seconds left on the clock into an empty net. The main unit was made up of Leblanc, Holland, Tenute, Pateryn and Blunden. With Leblanc’s goal they broke an 0 for 10 streak for the month of March.

4 Bulldogs were outshot 27 to 23 by the Heat tonight Blunden lead all Dogs with 4 shots while Ruegsegger of the Heat lead all players with 5 shots. (1st period 9-8 Dogs, 2nd period 10-6 Heat, 3rd period 9-8 Heat)

5 Quick points:

a) Dogs are 7-3-0-0 in their last 10 games 10 points out of a playoff spot.

b) After tonight’s win the Dogs have gone 3-2-0-1 against the Heat with 2 games left in the season series.

c) Tenute extended his point streak to 4 games scoring 2 goals and 3 assists over that stretch

d) Holland has 4 assists over his last 4 games

e) Leblanc has 2 goals and 1 assist in his last 4 games.

6 Tokarski stopped all 27 shots he faced to record his second shutout in his last last two games. He raised his personal shutout minutes streak to 147 minutes and 19 seconds. Since coming over from Syracuse Tokarski has played 6 games winning 4 losing 2 recording 2 shutouts has a save percentage of 96.0 and a goals against average of 1.18. Since coming here he has been on fire and has not allowed more than 2 goals in game. Tokarski now has a 2 game win and shutout streak going. His overall record is now stands at 22-10-4 with 5 shutouts a 91.1 save percentage and a 2.25 goals against average. This trade so far has turned out good for both teams as Desjardins has now been promoted to Tampa Bay after posting a 4-2 record with 2 shutouts, a 92.8 save percentage and a 1.85 goals against average with Syracuse.

7 Former Dog Joe Callahan made his return to the Dog pound last night recording 1 shot and a -1 rating to go a long with 4 minutes in penalties. So far this year Callahan has appeared in 51 games scoring 0 goals, 9 assists for 9 points and has a -3 rating along with 38 minutes in penalties. Good to see that he hooked up with another team.

8 Quailer vs Tuzzolino

Quailer at 6′ 4″ took on 6′ 5″ Tuzzolino in a fight in which I’d say Quailer won. Quailer landed more blows and ended up taking Tuzzolino to the ice. It wasn’t a fight where a homerun shot was delivered.

9 Pateryn who just recently returned from injury has been playing good hockey scoring 4 goals 3 assists for 7 points since returning. He plays a big role in both the PP and the PK and eats up a lot of minutes. It would be interesting to see how many more games the Dogs would have won if he hadn’t been injured. In my opinion he would be my first call up to Montreal if they ran into injuries on the blue line this guy plays an all around good game defensively. Right now I think he is the most NHL ready.

10 Beaulieu has been one of Hamilton best players this year logging big minutes every night. On most nights he plays on the PK and PP and logs 20 plus minutes. Beaulieu can move, his end to end rushes are a thing of beauty. He makes good decisions and doesn’t turn the puck over often. Pateryn and Beaulieu are probably the best pairing currently on the team logging big minutes in all situations.

11 A look at the 3 stars of the game

1st star Dustin Tokarski of Hamilton who stopped all 27 shots he faced would have been my pick as 1st star. He played really well making the key saves when he had too keeping the game close allowing Hamilton to hold on and win.

2nd star Joey Tenute of Hamilton with 1 goal, 1 shot and a +1 rating would have been my pick for 2nd star. Over the last couple of games Tenute has raised his game to the next level.

3rd star Steve Quailer of Hamilton with 2 shots, a 0 rating and a fight wouldn’t have been my pick for 3rd star. My pick would have been Leland Irving of Abbotsford who stopped 21 of 22 shots he faced. I thought he played a good game and was more deserving than Quailer who had the big fight but not much else stats wise, he did play good.

12 Premium player of the game went to Mike Blunden who had 4 shots and saw lots of time on the PP and PK wouldn’t have been my choice. I would have picked Louis Leblanc with 1 goal, 3 shots and a 0 rating. Leblanc played a strong game tonight and is starting to show signs of the old Louis.

13 After tonight’s win the Dogs are now within 10 points of a playoff spot. Even though Hamilton has won 7 of their last 10 games they’re still 15th in the conference but have moved up from 30th overall in the league to 26th place. If the team keeps playing like they have of late they could move up in the standings and take a shot at it or play the spoiler role. The team is playing well, the goaltending has improved, the defense is starting to gel and the penalty kill has been solid. If they can get the power play to work and one of the lines to start to score on a regular basis the wins will keep on coming. One big factor is to stay healthy and hope Montreal stays healthy. Considering 7 of their last 20 games are against divisional rivals means a lot of four point games on the horizon giving them a chance to leap frog over teams.