About Last Night...Blizzard 6 - Kings 3 - Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays

Redemption?

Maybe so in Dauphin, but the last time the two teams met at the GLMC the Kings stole a 3-2 victory, OCN has another chance to redeem themselves tonight.

Justin McDonald picked up his 18th win of the season

The game didn't start off great for OCN, an early elbowing penalty by TJ Constant on Emerson Hrynyk would give the Kings deadly PP their first of two goals on the evening. Jesse Sinatynski would score both roughly 8 minutes apart giving the kings a 2-0 lead into the second period in front of over 1800 fans at CUP.

One of the much talked about keys to victory for the Blizzard was staying out of the box, something they were unable to do in the first period.

The second period started off, well oddly. A broken play at the OCN blue line on the PK saw Nathan Bruyere beating the Kings defender to the puck and then beat Pominville with a short handed marker. That goal would be the first of three on the night for the OCN dman who played his best game of the season. Bruyere would later score on a howitzer from the point on the PP and add the empty netter (hitting for some weird version of the hockey cycle).

Three fights, essentially all in one play would see OCN get a 4 minute man advantage, they scored twice and had all the momentum after the scraps. Interesting scraps they were, Kirk Chief vs Alarie, Naud vs Dumais and Grove vs Kirkham (Grove gave Kirkham an extra pop after being separated by the refs, one punch KO).

OCN would end up scoring 5 goals in that wacky period and take a 5-3 lead as Dayton Reinboldt scored the third and final PP goal for the Kings.

It was a hockey game that had it all.

Lots of physical play, great skill, fights, goaltending and defense.

Great treat to all those in attendance on Teddy Bear Toss night at the CUP.

It was a great game to wrap up the 2012 portion of our broadcast schedule.

Pitre Tire 3 Stars:

1. Nathan Bruyere - 3G, 1A
2. Justin Waskewitch - 1G, 1A
3. Ralph Cochrane

Northern Building Suppply Hardest Working Player:

- Whole team, came out and worked their butts off after the 1st period. Great team effort on the comeback.

With the win OCN moves to 3-0 under DeBray

We will not be on the air tomorrow night, and I won't be in attendance either as I catch an early flight home to spend some time with family and friends in Montreal.

The blog probably won't be updated tomorrow, or at all through the break, unless something substantial comes up.

I want to thank all of the readers and listeners for your support so far through the first half of the season! It's been a lot of fun so far, and I look forward to picking it back up on January 4th when OCN hosts Winnipeg.

Enjoy the holidays, be merry, joyous and cheerful.

I hope Santa brings you what you asked for ;)

I wish you an early Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...

-Brad-

Lineup @ Dauphin

Goaltenders:

McDonald - Starter
Henry - Backup

Defense:

Bruyere / Cochrane
Elmes / Fontaine
Robak / Kavanaugh

Offense:

Dumais / TJ / Waskewitch
Grove / Valiquette / Gray
Cardinal / Chief / Tagoona
Swampy / Petrino / B.Constant

Scth:

Bayer
Lathlin
MacInnis
Ward-Cardinal
Santorelli - inj
Baptiste - inj

Blizzard @ Kings - Preview - On CJ1240

Familiar foes with similar records.

Justin McDonald gets a shot at redemption tonight at Credit Union Place 

Dauphin and OCN meet up for the first half of a home and home series. This is the last road game of 2012 for the Blizzard.

After tomorrow night's game the Blizzard and Kings will have met up for four matches since the 30th of November, all of them have been important games and tonight/ tomorrow will be no different.

Two big four point games this weekend that could determine who ends up being first and second in the division come the end of the season. If OCN wants to keep Dauphin at bay they at the very least need a split. It goes without saying that their goal will be a sweep. A 3 point margin between OCN and Dauphin after the break with the Kings holding 4 games in hand would not be a good position for the Blizzard should they drop both of these games.

The last match up between these two clubs was an ugly one for OCN, a 7-2 loss where only a handful of players showed up to play. Justin McDonald was fighting the puck, as was the rest of the team.

McDonald will get the start tonight after a strong performance in Waywayseecappo on Tuesday as per Head Coach Clay DeBray on Tuesday's Murray GM post-game show.

OCN will need to get off to a fast start and quiet down what should be a raucous crowd at Credit Union Place tonight, Dauphin will be having their own teddy bear toss as well as several other big draws so I'm expecting a packed house.

If the Blizzard can weather the first five minutes unscathed they'll look good once the game settles into a regular pace.

OCN will have to shutdown Gaudet, Sinatynski and Naud if they want to have some success tonight, Murray likes to cut down on his lines as the game moves on. By the third period he really only rolls his top two lines.

Dauphin has had solid goaltending all season as well, whether it be Pominville or Archibald OCN will have to create traffic and get some Garick Gray style goals.

Speaking of Gray, he needs to get his game on track tonight, he's looked better each game since his return but the Blizzard will need him in a big way tonight and tomorrow. Gray, a converted defender, is one of the Blizz's best 2 way forwards and brings a physical edge. He'll be leaned on heavily to try and shut down three of the top five scorers in the league.

The game will be on CJ1240 tonight, or thepasonline.com . Pre-Game at 7:15 - Puck drop at 7:30.

Here are the head to head results between these two clubs:

HEAD-TO-HEAD RESULTS DATE AWAY HOME SCORE TYPE 09-Oct-12 OCN Blizzard @ Dauphin Kings 3 - 2 RS 30-Nov-12 Dauphin Kings @ OCN Blizzard 3 - 2 RS 11-Dec-12 OCN Blizzard @ Dauphin Kings 2 - 7 RS

and the team comparisons:

TEAM COMPARISON (Regular Season)
	OCN Blizzard	Dauphin Kings
Games Played	38	34
Wins	24	22
Losses	9	9
Ties	0	0
Overtime Losses	2	0
Win/Loss Points	50	44
Goals For	145	124
Goals Against	108	92

Sport Report - December 17th 2012

Here is the sport report from this past Monday.

Sport Report - December 17th by Bradley Karp on Mixcloud

About Last Night... OCN 3 - Wayway 2

The game started out with a bang, and ended in one with the lights going out in the Waywayseecappo Community Complex.

Wilson Dumais scored a short handed marker just under 2 minutes into the game, out waiting Cory Simons and going high blocker on the Wolverines goaltender on a breakaway.

Lots of scoring in the first five minutes, then things calmed down and slowed to a crawl. The Wolverines seemed hesitant to try and run and gun with OCN and kept things moving slowly.

Justin McDonald had a very solid game making 22 of 24 saves.

Wilson Dumais was a workhorse as usual as well. TJ Constant had a very strong game as well.

Colton Robak did a great job shutting things down defensively.

Here is Clay DeBray on the Murray GM post game show last night.

DeBray Post Game - December 18th 3-2 W @ Wayway by Bradley Karp on Mixcloud

Here is how the scoring broke down last night.

SCORING SUMMARY
PERIOD 1
OCN Blizzard at 1:49 (SH) - Wilson Dumais from Josh Elmes and TJ Constant
Waywayseecappo Wolverines at 2:16 (PP) - Zane Morin from Alex Mills and Brett Pinkerton
OCN Blizzard at 3:20 - TJ Constant from Wilson Dumais and Justin Waskewitch
PERIOD 2
OCN Blizzard at 8:50 - Tyler Grove from Garick Gray
Waywayseecappo Wolverines at 15:17 - Russell Turner from Brett Lafond and Curtis Veitch
PERIOD 3
No Scoring

Lineup vs Wayway / Preview

It's another battle between the only two reservation teams in the league.

Both teams are desperate for points, Waywayseecappo looks to get back to .500 before the break and OCN needs to continue creating space between them and Dauphin.

Waywayseecappo was supposed to host the Stampeders last night but a blown transfer forced Manitoba Hydro to shutdown the game during warm ups.

The Wolverines will be fresh instead for tonight's matchup against the Blizzard.

The Blizzard are 4-1 against the Wolverines this season and here is the head to head breakdown:

HEAD-TO-HEAD RESULTS
DATE	AWAY		HOME	SCORE	TYPE
26-Sep-12	Waywayseecappo Wolverines	@	OCN Blizzard	2 - 5	RS
19-Oct-12	Waywayseecappo Wolverines	@	OCN Blizzard	4 - 5 SO	RS
24-Oct-12	Waywayseecappo Wolverines	@	OCN Blizzard	0 - 3	RS
23-Nov-12	OCN Blizzard	@	Waywayseecappo Wolverines	5 - 6 SO	RS
04-Dec-12	OCN Blizzard	@	Waywayseecappo Wolverines	4 - 3	RS

After tonight's match up these two teams will only face each other twice, one home game per side.

Here is a team comparison:

TEAM COMPARISON (Regular Season)
	OCN Blizzard	Waywayseecappo Wolverines
Games Played	37	31
Wins	25	13
Losses	9	15
Ties	0	0
Overtime Losses	3	3
Win/Loss Points	53	29
Goals For	142	103
Goals Against	106	118

Here is how the teams match up on special teams:

OCN

PP: 16.79% (10)
PK: 84.54% (1)

WAY:

PP: 18.75% (8)
PK: 77.16% (7)

Here is tonight's lineup for the OCN Blizzard:

Goal:

McDonald - Starter
Henry - Backup

Defense:

Bruyere / Cochrane
Elmes / Fontaine
Robak / Kavanaugh

Forwards:

Dumais / TJ Constant / Waskewitch
Grove / Valiquette / Gray
Cardinal / Chief / Swampy
Petrino / Bayer / B. Constant

INJ:

Santorelli
Baptiste

Scrth:

MacInnis
Tagoona
Ward-Cardinal
Lathlin

Puck drop is at 7:30 - your Murray GM Pre-Game show at 7:15!

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