About last night...Blizzard 4 - Blues 2

After a loss to the Portage Terriers in which the Blizzard felt they fought not just the opposing team but the refereeing as well OCN played a strong team game on Saturday night to pick up two points in a 4-2 win.

With Alex Henry serving the first game of a three game suspension, Brandon Beaulieu got the start in goal for OCN and played a superb game.

Beaulieu turned aside 49 of 51 shots his way, the Blizzard did a good job of keeping most of those shots to the outside, scoring opportunities were even in the game. Beaulieu was impressive, his rebound control was excellent, few times did he give the Terriers a second crack at the puck and his calmness in goal seemed to rub off on his defense who seemed less agitated than they did the night before against Portage.

If Beaulieu continues to play like that over the next two games the Blizzard coaching staff will have a tough decision as to who will start once Henry is eligible to return.

The Blizzard celebrate their 4-2 victory.

The game started slowly and slightly sloppily but a Wilson Dumais fight with Mitch Hansen of the Blues pulled some energy into the building and gave the Blizzard enough jump for Edward Bayer to score what could be the goal of the year with 2:59 left in the first. Bayer picked up a head of steam heading down the right wall, danced around the defender and fired a shot past the blocker of Scott Parsons for his fifth goal of the season. The deke and shot brought back memories of Bayer's play with the NorMan Northstars of the Manitoba Midget AAA Hockey League when he was the team's leading scorer and one of the most gifted players in the league in his 17-year old season.

Early in the second OCN's top line made it's mark on the game as Damien Kulynych made a pretty backhand pass to Tyler Grove who slid the puck under the left pad of Parsons just 1:13 into the period giving OCN the 2-0 lead.

The Blues' offensive fire power came to life just six minutes later on a power play goal by a knuckle puck from Ben Sveinson. That goal was followed up by a Mitch Hansen marker at 16:50 of the second period.

In the third the Blizzard would retake the lead as Rhett Law tipped in a shot from Edward Bayer, the goal was Law's second of the season and the 18-year old looked great on the third line with Bayer and veteran Kirk Chief.

Camacho Lathlin doubled the Blizzard lead with just 4:20 left in the third period after knocking home a Tyler Grove rebound. Lathlin looked good on the back end tonight and used his offensive talents to create some good opportunities earlier on in the game.

The shots were 51-20 in favour of Winnipeg.

Winnipeg went 1/4 on the power play while OCN was 0/1.

The Pire Tire  3 Stars:

1. Brandon Beaulieu (49/51 saves)
2. Edward Bayer (1 goal, 1 assist)
3. Kirk Chief (2 assists)

Return of the blog - Blizzard host Blues (GM #24/60)

I've had a number of fans and MJHL followers ask me to bring the blog back, so I have.

Some stuff here will be posted on the blizzard site, some won't. One reason I brought it back is for extra content, its much easier to post pictures and videos here than it is on the Blizzard website just for formatting.

The blog may switch names, and colour schematics over the next few weeks, but either way it has returned.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The OCN Blizzard (9-13-1) host the Winnipeg Blues (11-8-3) tonight at the GLMC. The two teams have met just once so far this season, it was a 10-0 Winnipeg win on November 1st at the MTS IcePlex.

NEWS:

Alex Henry has been suspended for 3 games for his fight with Taylor Joseph last night

Assistant Coach Jason Smith has been suspended for 2 games for a gross misconduct received in the third period last night.

TOP SCORER:

Winnipeg: Jordan McCallum - 4G, 16A - 20PTS
OCN: Damien Kulynych - 7G, 21A -28PTS

POWER PLAY RANKINGS:

Winnipeg: 19/117 (16.24%) 5th - 2 SHGA
OCN: 13/79 (16.46) 4th - 2 SHGA

PENALTY KILL RANKINGS:

Winnipeg: 81/101 (80.20%) 8th  - 4 SHGF
OCN: 102/130 (78.46%) 11th - 2 SHGF

RECORD OVER LAST 10 GAMES:

Winnipeg: 6-3-1
OCN: 2-8-0

Tonight's game will be broadcast on CJ1240, and for those wondering it is the same ref crew as last night.

LINEUPS

BLUES

G: #30 - B.Spriggs / #35 S.Parsons

D:

#6 - C.Bresciani / #4 B.Sveinson
# 25 - M. Rafter / #3 C.Danylchuck
#21 - G.Browning / #7 M. Heisinger

F:

#8 K.Nault / #9 J.McCallum / #15 T.Lewis
#10 S.Rowswell / #19 L.Bilton / #20 M.Ramin
#18 G.Keane / #27 M.Hansen / #24 L.Kroeker
#17 W.Kallis / #23 J.Schreyer / #2 C.Comeau

BLIZZARD

G: #35 B.Beaulieu / #25 B.Claeys

D:

#13 C.Robak / #12 E.Zdunich
#4 R.Gratz / #6 N.Speiss
#2 Z.Fontaine / #9 C.Lathlin

F:

#15 W.Dumais / #19 TJ. Constant / #10 D.Cardinal
#16 T.Grove / #21 G.Valiquette / #37 D.Kulycnych
#17 R.Law / #20 E.Bayer / #14 K.Chief
#26 B.MacInnis / #28 B.Barron / #11 T.Potskin

tune in at www.thepasonline.com

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