Blizzard Lineup vs Neepawa

Blizzard Jerseys for Tonight - Photo: Clay DeBray

Here is tonight's lineup vs Neepawa:



Goal:

Henry - Starter
McDonald - Backup

Defense:

Bruyere / Cochrane
Elmes / Fontaine
Robak / Kavanaugh

Forwards:

Grove / TJ / Waskewitch
Dumais / Valiquette / Gray
Tagoona / Chief / Cardinal
MacInnis / Bayer / B. Constant

Scratches: 

Swampy
Lathlin
Petrino
Baptiste - INJ
Thomas Ward-Cardinal
Santorelli - INJ

Preview: Blizzard vs Neepawa

It's the best versus the worst in the Sher-Wood division tonight, but the way the Blizzard have played over the last two games things may be a little more even. It's also pink in the rink tonight.

The Blizzard will play in pink jerseys tonight which will be auctioned off after the game via silent auction. Great Christmas gift for the Blizz fan in your life. All proceeds will go to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Clay DeBray makes his head coaching debut in the interim role. Spending countless hours around the team and coaching staff I can assure you the Blizzard (24-9-3) are in good hands with Clay.

He's taken the time to go out and get his high performance certification (he's able to coach up to minor pro in Canada, including major junior) from Hockey Canada, knows the game tremendously well not just on the board, but the mental aspect of high performance with young athletes as well. (This is no shot across the bow to Jim Mollard). The players have a tremendous amount of respect for Clay and many of them have known him for years (McDonald, Baptiste, Dumais, Waskewitch, TJ Constant... to name a few)

I expect the Blizzard to come out hungry after their performances over the last two games, and win one for Clay.

The Blizzard got some help in the standings courtesy of the Selkirk Steelers who took down the Dauphin Kings 4-3, the Kings will play two more games this weekend and make up some ground in terms of games in hand.

Coming up North tonight are the Neepawa Natives (8-18-4), who have won two in a row on the back of their goaltender Corey Koop. Koop in my mind is a top 3 goaltender in this league in talent. He would be the best goalie in the league statistically on even an average team in this league.

The Blizzard are the better team, but will want to put on another dominating performance against Neepawa before three more big divisional games ahead of the Christmas break (Waywayseecappo, Dauphin x2) in an effort to get back on track.

Thomas Ward-Cardinal has returned home for personal reasons, will be back with the club after the Christmas break.

The special teams tonight break down as follows:

Neepawa:

PP: 16.67% (11)
PK: 78.95% (5)

OCN:

PP: 16.91% (10)
PK: 84.29% (1)

Blizz Streaks:

Tyler Grove - has 5 points in his last 3 games.
TJ Contsant - has 7 points in his last 3 games.
Justin Waskewitch - has 9 points in his last 5 games.
Kolton Baptiste - has 2 points in his last 2 games.

I'll get the lineup posted for you all before the game, but will not be in attendance as it is the CJ1240 Christmas party tonight.

Hope you all enjoy tonight's game.

Will try and get something of substance posted for tomorrow.

-Brad-

Pink in the Rink Game Tomorrow Night

The OCN Blizzard will don some pink tomorrow night as part of their pink in the rink game.

The jerseys will be auctioned off via silent auction during the game. All funds raised during tomorrow night's game will go directly to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Puck drop is at 7PM tomorrow night as they host the Neepawa Natives.


Speaking of the Natives.... found this throwback clip in the bowels of youtube.

Jamie Vossen in a scrap with a Natives player back in the day, Huddy Hudson on the air waiting to get back from commercial drops a few swear words.

Caution this link does include some profanity...

Preview vs Neepawa

The Blizzard (19-7-2) will hit the road going south to Neepawa (6-16-2) for a match up with the worst team in the MJHL.

OCN will head south with Roger Tagoona already in town and Justin Waskewitch on his way this afternoon.

Waskewitch will play on Friday against Dauphin while Tagoona will be in the lineup on Sunday in Swan River as he still needs to serve a two game suspension for hitting from behind that he picked up in the SJHL.

The Blizzard are 2-1 against Neepawa this season with the lone loss coming on the road by a score of 4-3.

The Natives have scored the fewest goals this season and after trading away Justin Dalebozik their leading scorer is Brayden Cuthbert who has just 16 points.

Tonight's  match up will feature the two worst power play units in the MJHL. Neepawa clicks at 15.32% which is 10th in the league and OCN clicks at 13.91%.

On the flip side of the special teams battle OCN is tops in the league at 84.11% while Neepawa is 9th at 77.27%.

Will have the lineup a little later on today.

Stampeders Sanctioned for Playing With 26 Carded Players

The Swan Valley Stampeders have received a "severe sanction" in the words of MJHL Commissioner Kim Davis for what could be called an illegal roster.

The Stampeders played 10 games between the dates of October 25th to November 13th with 26 carded players which by some could be considered a severe roster violation. MJHL teams can only carry 25 carded players at this point of the season.

The Stampeders went 6-4 during that span beating the OCN Blizzard twice along with the Virden Oil Capitals, Winkler Flyers, Portage Terriers, and the Neepawa Natives.

In some Jr.A leagues that infraction of league rules would result in an automatic loss of points along with possible supplemental sanctions such as a $500 fine.

According to Davis, in the MJHL there is no set punishment for carrying more players than allowed by the league, so in essence the sanction is up to Davis' discretion.

Davis confirmed there would be no loss of points or changes to the standings as a result of the infraction.

Davis said the Stampeders have been sanctioned monetarily along with a sanction affecting their roster abilities for the rest of the season.

An anonymous source says the Stampeders have been fined $1,000 and lost 2 of their 45 player cards for the season (each team can only have 25 players carded at a time until December 1st when the number drops to 23, but can burn through 45 in a season.)

It seems that the Stampeders are lucky they don't play in the "other" leagues that would have taken away points for that infraction as they would move from 30 points on the season to 18.

The OCN Blizzard would have seen their numbers improve to 20-5-1 good for 41 points. The Stamps would then be second last in the Sher-Wood division with a record of 8-14-2 , only four points up on Neepawa who would gain two points.

Other teams that would gain two points are Winkler, Virden and Portage. Putting them at 20, 27, and 23 points on the season respectively.

Davis was willing to answer questions over the phone but did not want to record a statement.

** Note: I did have to readjust some numbers that were typo's. To be clear the Stampeders had 26 carded players, only allowed 25. Clearly this error justifies my crappy radio salary!**

Preview: Blizzard vs Oil Capitals

First an injury update.

Tyler Grove returns to the lineup tonight. Thomas Ward-Cardinal is still about a week away, while Taylor Santorelli about 4-6 weeks away.

The Blizzard (14-6-1) host the Oil Capitals (8-7-5) in the second of three straight games against the MJHL's newest club. OCN won the inaugural matchup on Tuesday 6-3. A solid road game.

The Oil Caps are young and got even younger trading away one of their three twenty year olds in Gaudet to Dauphin. They now have only two '92 born players on their roster.

It's a young team that can be intimidated and I'm sure the atmosphere at the GLMC will give the Blizzard an advantage.

HOW THEY MATCH UP:

Goals For:

OCN: 72
VIR: 62

Goals Against:

OCN: 56
VIR: 70

Last 10:

OCN: 6-4
VIR: 3-4-3

Power Play:

OCN: 10/85 (11.76% / 11th)
VIR: 22/94 (23.40 % / 3rd)

Penalty Kill:i

OCN: 95/115 (82.61% / 4th)
VIR: 57/66 (86.36 % / 1st)

Last Game:

OCN: 6-3 Win @ Virden - Tues Nov 6th 2012
VIR: 2-1 SO Win @ Neepawa - Wed Nov 7th 2012

Tomorrow nights game will be broadcast on the radio. 6:45 pre-game, 7:00 puck drop.

But hopefully I can see you at the rink!

Saturday Audio Highlights

Here are the audio highlights from Saturday's broadcast.

Audio Highlights Nov 3 2012 - Blizzard 4 - Natives 0 by Bradley Karp on Mixcloud

Blizzard 4 - Natives 0

Welcome back.

The Blizzard played a strong team game, everyone contributed and after killing off a SEVEN minute long penalty courtesy of Bradley Swampy OCN exploded for three goals in the second period and a fourth goal in the third period.

Garick Gray had another strong game with a hat-trick and an assist. He now has 11 points in his last eight games and is tied for the league goal scoring lead with 12 goals.

Wilson Dumais had his best game in an OCN jersey, he played smart and physical but didn't chase or make hits behind the play, didn't run people and didn't run his mouth at the ref.  He's a dominating force when he plays like he did tonight, it took three Neepawa players to knock him off the puck, opens up tons of space on the ice.

Ralph Cochrane had another strong game, again as always. The usual characters were themselves.

Dusik played good two way hockey, Cameron was strong on the forecheck.

Petrino, Sharp and Bayer created opportunities offensively and were solid defensively. 

McDonald was perfect for the fourth time this season. 

It was a great game, the fans were fantastic. Big props to the dancing man in section D.

Cory Koop kept Neepawa in it for the first 20, but couldn't stop the onslaught from OCN's offensive.

Pitre Tire Three Stars:

1. Garick Gray (3G, 1A)

2. Wilson Dumais (1G, 2A)

3. Justin McDonald (16/16 saves - shutout)

Honourable Mention:

Cory Koop (43/47 saves)

Northern Building Supply Hardest Working Player:

Ralph Cochrane.

The Blizzard head to Virden on Tuesday for the first of three straight games against the Oil Capitals.

Tuesday's game will be broadcast.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Brad-

Blizzard vs Natives - Preview + Lineup

The OCN Blizzard (12-6-1) and Neepawa Natives (5-10-1) have one thing in common, both teams are on a three game losing skid.

The Blizzard host the leagues worst team tonight. You would hope that it's a sure two points in the bank but the way things have been going of late that probably won't be the case.

OCN is coming off a 5-2 loss to Portage last night while Neepawa got shutout 4-0 to the steaming Stampeders.

The Blizzard need to play smart hockey, put the effort in and they should win, they are the more talented team but hard work beats talent.

How They Matchup:

Goals For:

OCN: 62
NEP: 36

Goals Against:

OCN: 53
NEP: 59

Power Play:

OCN: 16/91 (17.58% / 11th)
NEP: 8/77 (10.39% / 8th)

Penalty Kill:

OCN: 187/207 (81.31% / 5th)
NEP: 55/78 (75.34% / 10th)


Tonight's lineup for OCN:

Goalies

McDonald - Starter
Henry - Backup

Defense

Elmes / Dusik
Bruyere / Cochrane
Kavanaugh / Robak

Forwards

Dumais / Valiquette / Gray
Cardinal / TJ Constant / Brady Constant
Sharp / Bayer / Petrino
Lathlin / Cameron / Swampy

Scratches:

Ward-Cardinal - INJ
Santorelli - INJ
Grove - INJ
MacInnis
Fontaine

TJ has been having a tough go since his return from injury and has been bumped down to the second line, it`s nice to see someone who works as hard as Garick get a crack at that top unit.

Puck drop is at 7PM, pre-game at 6:45