Sunday, December 09, 2007

How 'Bout Them Wolves

And those Monarchs!

If you get over to the Chicago Wolves main page (title-linked) before their next game you'll see game highlights from last night's game - I would get over there!

It was some hockey contest. An absolute grudge match although I don't think that there is any history between these two teams.

There were eleven goals scored with Manchester seemingly easily winning by a score of seven to four. The Wolves got on the board first but Manchester answered with four unanswered goals before the Wolves' next tally. The Monarchs would increase their lead to 5-2 by the end of the second. The third would see the Wolves stay within two, making it 5-3 but the Monarchs answered with two more before the Wolves would finish the scoring late in the third with a powerplay marker set up by Jason Krog.

The main difference in this battle was the goaltending of Danny Taylor who earned the third star of the game. But you have to credit the entire Monarchs team. They out-shot the Wolves almost two to one through the first two periods by a 18-9 margin in the first and 31-16 after two. And possibly the most misleading statistic of the game is the Wolves shots of which nearly all of them were scoring chances with many of their first period shots being passes right through the crease which Taylor proved up to stopping with incredible split saves.

There were two good fights, incredible hits and great plays. The Wolves are an incredible team offensively and looked like the Harlem Globetrotters of hockey at times with multiple drop passes per play when on the rush including between the legs drop passes and many other passes that involved misdirection with the body and stick.

But the Monarchs looked like a team possessed in handing the Wolves their fourth straight loss - just their SIXTH loss of the year, where they still sit atop their division with a record of 17-6-1. The Monarchs got under the Wolves skin, especially that of top scorer Brett Sterling who has 13 goals in 16 games. And one player that really stood out was BC superstar Brian Boyle - I wouldn't be surprised to see him changing coasts soon (at one point he just released an absolute bomb off a moving shot as he crossed the blue-line leading the rush that was just high with which he nearly killed the Wolves' goalie Ondrej Pavelec who was retired for the night after having seen and entire game's worth of shots and allowing five goals through two periods). Add to that the play of Maine uber-frosh-and-done, Teddy Purcell, who still leads the AHL in scoring and along with Peter Harrold, Jeff Giuliano (two more from BC) and of course Jason Krog for the Wolves and Hockey East was WELL represented in the game.

Overall just a great game and add to the fact that the Monarchs were just handing out cash in $5 denominations all night long to the tune of $10,000 and nice Monarch's rally towels - all-in-all a great night of hockey! Special thanks goes out to the super friendly Manchester Monarchs' staff and the staff of the Verizon Wireless Arena who provide for a great hockey experience. And especially to the 'balloon lady' (sorry, I didn't catch a name) who had some spectacular creations on display. And last but not least my brother for the tickets and letting me 'borrow' the Flaishans jersey that I won him!

Go Monarchs!

Go Wolves!

And we'll get to the 'Cats later.

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