Bring Back Puck!

I know, I know: long time, no blog… so I’m going to break the ice with a really quick post now and then we’ll see what happens. 😀

Sometimes it’s very easy for people to make mock of the NHL preseason — rosters are a little half-hearted, there’s only pride on the line and no one wants to get injured, and all that kind of thing, but as a new fan I still find that all really interesting in and of itself. Mileage may vary on that, I know.

In contrast, the hockey scene in New Zealand is still small enough that the NZIHL preseason is something that I think everyone should be excited about, regardless. As well as a chance to check out new rosters – and new imports, when they’ve been able to arrive ahead of time! – it is, simply speaking, a chance to get to watch more hockey.

And frankly, I don’t think any of us get to see enough hockey down under to be able to take that for granted, so I for one am definitely excited to be heading out tonight to catch the Botany Swarm taking on the West Auckland Admirals (and I apologise in advance for when I trip up and call them the Avondale Admirals by mistake, because who am I to stand in the way of alliteration!) in their first preseason game tonight.

It sounds like the weekend’s opening match between the Canterbury Red Devils and the Dunedin Thunder was a bit of a barn-burner (8-5? I think?), so I guess for the goalies’ sakes I hope the scoreline up here in Auckland doesn’t follow suit, but I’m definitely excited to see what everyone does this season…

 

(And go the Swarm!)

Wear That On Your Sleeve: Swarm vs Admirals//Monday 27th August [recap]

What’s that, this game was almost three months ago? Uhhh… oops. But hey, I once wrote up an exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three years after the fact, so let’s just roll with this and get on to it.

When last we left the 2012 NZIHL regular season, the Botany Swarm had broken a losing streak of mumblelookletsjustnotthinkaboutitokay by defeating the West Auckland Admirals 6-3 in one of the more exciting games of the season, destroying the Admirals’ hope of a season sweep.

The final game for both Auckland teams – and the final NZIHL regular season game full stop – saw a rematch on the Monday night, contrary to the usual Saturday-Sunday scheduling out at the Avondale rink, and it certainly made my work day go faster to have hockey to look forward to at the end. With a frankly stunning six game misconducts having been handed out on the Sunday night, both teams would be working with a short bench, a factor which would affect the injury-ravaged Swarm far more acutely, and one which would certainly appear to have impacted the outcome of the game.

The eventual score was 6-4 to the Admirals, as they came back from a 3-1 deficit and closed out their season with a home victory. And due to the excellent efforts of Slapshot Productions, this game is actually available for viewing on YouTube. [Warning: video will autoplay!] I haven’t had a chance to sit down and watch it in full myself yet, but I plan to do so and then revisit this post to see what other observations – or changed ones! – I might want to add after a chance to review.

The Swarm had the clear advantage through the first period, with KC Ball and Andrew Hay scoring to take Botany to a 2-0 lead, before Frazer Ellis was able to pot a short-handed goal in the last two minutes to get the Admirals on the board.

The Swarm looked strong initially going into the second, stretching out to a two goal lead again on the back of an Ian Wannamaker goal at even strength, but the Admirals were able to put extra pressure on in the latter half of the period, with Edward Commons, Ryan Blouin and Sam Moses all scoring goals to give the Admirals the lead going into the third period.

The Admirals’ domination on the scoreboard continued, with Ellis scoring his second, and Gareth McLeish icing it with a powerplay goal with three minutes remaining. The Swarm were able to get one more in the final frame, with Keegan Harnett scoring on the power play with just under three minutes remaining, but weren’t able to close the gap any further.

Despite the loss, the Swarm made a valiant effort in what was the closest thing to a war of attrition on ice that I’ve ever seen. I have to commend the team for the clear demonstration of discipline and intensity of their effort, as there really was no point where they gave up on the game. It also has to be mentioned that by the end of the game they were down to ten skaters in total, and played the majority of the game with only four defensemen after Maxime Bettez – who had been playing forward that game anyway – was injured in the first period, and Sam Boniface was given a game misconduct in the third period.  I’ve never wished for the ability to easily examine TOI in the NZIHL more. Damn, guys. That looked exhausting.

To conclude, and speaking as a thoroughly partisan observer — while it sucked out loud to lose this one, I think the fact the game was as close as it was (and that Botany held the lead for just over half the game!) really does speak well for the team, and I could not have been prouder of them.

Better luck next year, guys.

As usual,  after the jump I’ll go into a bit more detail on the play-by-play. Reading it in the voice of your favourite commentators is totally optional.

A Sticky Wicket: Swarm vs Admirals//Sunday 26th August [recap]

While much of the attention in the NZIHL was focused in Christchurch on Sunday night, as the Southern Stampede were  busy clinching their first ever home Grand Final in a 6-2 victory over the Canterbury Red Devils, up in Avondale the West Auckland Admirals and Botany Swarm put on quite the show for their faithful fans.

In a game that had a little bit of everything; from spectacular goals and stunning saves, to a regular march to the penalty boxes and not just one but three fights, the Swarm were finally able to snap the worst losing streak of their history by torpedoing the Admirals 6-3.

The Swarm got ahead to a nice lead, with Alex Polozov, Richard Idoine and Ian Wannamaker all picking up goals in the first period, while Jason McBride’s goal was the only marker for the Admirals in the first 20 minutes. The second period featured far more focus on the board than the penalty box, as McBride picked up a second goal and Dean Tonks rounded out the scoring for the Admirals with a power-play goal in the last thirty seconds. Matching them neatly, the Swarm were also able to score a brace in the second; the goals coming from Sam Boniface and Wannamaker, who notched his second. The third period was where things got very interesting again, with the Admirals frantically trying to regain their lost ground, and the Swarm managing to pot just one more goal, as Leith Thompson scored in the final minute.

The first and third periods both featured what my mother might refer to as “a bit of biffo”, with Polozov and Chamberlain going after each other in the last minute of the first with such enthusiasm that it took the linesmen some time to subdue them;Richard Idoine and Nick Craig following suit in the last five minutes of the third; and Leith Thompson and Andrew Hart finishing things off in a fight with just ten seconds left on the clock.

As well as making this game a strong contender for “greatest total penalty minutes in the 2012 NZIHL season” — with the Admirals just having the edge with 100 PIMs to the Swarm’s 99 — the six misconducts assessed meant that both teams would be scrambling to field a full roster for the Monday night rematch.  (s/t to Slapshot Productions, who were on site and got some neat footage – stay tuned to their YouTube channel for more from the Monday night game as well.)

All things considered, speaking purely as a fan, it was fantastic to see the Swarm finally rewarded with a win, and even as we all knew Monday night was going to be the hard yards, it was difficult not to be thrilled that the team had got the monkey off their backs at least.

As always, after the cut is a bit more in-depth commentary, and all the extra details that my short-hand could keep up with.

(Trying) Just to Keep Afloat: Admirals vs Stampede//Saturday 18th August [recap]

This past weekend was a crucial one for teams fighting down the home-stretch to make the finals, and one that ended with the second finalist still undecided. With the Canterbury Red Devils – enjoying a bye and watching the rest of the league with interest — a lock for the finals, with 29 points and no possible way to finish worse than 2^nd place, the West Auckland Admirals, Southern Stampede and Dunedin Thunder were all feeling the pressure.

The already-eliminated Botany Swarm were given a chance to play spoiler against the Thunder in their last two games of the regular season, while up in Auckland the Admirals took on the red-hot Stampede to try and keep their own finals hopes alive.

The South Island teams were able to come away with all four wins, leading to the mathematical elimination of the Admirals, and leaving the Devils’  2012 Final opponent to be decided by the outcome of the last two games in Christchurch this coming weekend.

Had the Swarm been able to prevail over the Thunder, the most-tightly contested run to the finals in NZIHL history would’ve been all the more tangled. However, the Swarm once again ran into some third period struggles, and wound up losing Saturday’s game 5-3 (although that one sounded fairly close), and Sunday’s game 9-2 (…yeah, not so much there). This meant the Thunder finished out their season with 28 points, good enough for second place at present, and will be depending on the Red Devils to rein in the Stampede’s six game winning streak to maintain that position.

The Admirals were in a must-win scenario against the Stampede, but while both games were tied for significant periods of time, the Stampede were able to gain the lead and hold it, eventually winning the Saturday game 5-3 and the Sunday night 6-4.

As anyone who’s looked at the league tables this week is doubtless aware, this means that if the Stampede are able to take one win out of Christchurch this weekend they’ll surpass the Thunder to take second place, and if they’re able to take both games, they’ll earn not only a place in the final but also their first home final.

What this also means is that the final Auckland derby of Admirals vs Swarm this weekend (note: games are Sunday/Monday rather than the usual Saturday/Sunday!) will have no effect on the overall rankings; both teams will be playing for pride alone.

The Admirals have a lot of motivation to try to complete an historic season sweep of the Swarm after winning both pre-season games and the two games at the Botany rink, and the Swarm will be wanting to finish the season on a winning note; to overcome, shall we say, the slings and arrows of outrageous (mis)fortune by taking a last handful of points at the expense of their cross-town rivals. Shakespearean/NZ telly references all in favour of my extremely obvious personal bias, naturally.

But enough of this hockey haruspicy; let’s look back at the weekend that was. (In Auckland, that is. I prefer not to look at the Swarm’s last game except possibly through the filter of a very large drink.)

Pining for the Fjords: Swarm vs Stampede//Saturday 11th August [recap]

The final home game of the Stampede’s 2012 season was a nail-biter from start to finish, with the home side buoyed by a raucous crowd, who didn’t let up their rowdy and enthusiastic support from the minute the puck dropped to the final buzzer, clearly ecstatic to see their team finish at home with a 3-2 win over the visiting Botany Swarm.

The Saturday game was something of a sea-change from the game 24 hours earlier, where the Swarm had lost 9-3 to a dominant Stampede side, essentially ending the Swarm’s slim hopes of making the finals for the third year in a row. I must admit, coming home to catch up on the live-tweeting from Queenstown, I was almost glad that I hadn’t been able to wangle flights down in time to make the Friday game after all.

The Swarm were able to score first in the rematch, and held a 2-0 lead for almost ten minutes, with Alex Polozov picking up the game’s opening goal halfway through the first period, and Lyle Idoine scoring on a long shot from deep in Botany’s zone midway through the second.

The Stampede spread out their scoring on Saturday, with Brett Speirs picking up a shorty to get them started, Brian Horwitz the equaliser a few minutes into the third, and Matt Schneider the game-winner with just 3.19 remaining, crushing the Swarm’s hopes of finally breaking their losing streak. (I dealt with my own frustration by crushing a cupcake iced in Stampede colours after the game. Less satisfying than one might hope, although the cupcake was delicious; thanks for the rec, Jez!)

After the cut, a little more elaboration, and some impressions from my first hockey trip down south.

Claw the Thin Ice: Swarm vs Red Devils//Sunday 5th August [recap]

After such a close finish Saturday night, I went into Sunday’s game with high hopes that the Swarm might finally be able to turn things around. Unfortunately, it was not to be, with a shocker of a third period that saw the Red Devils score five goals to the Swarm’s one.

Final score was 7-1, with a hat-trick for Chris Eaden and single goals to Ryan Chramtchenko and Anton Purver, while Valery Konev picked up a pair for Canterbury. Alex Polozov was the lone goal-scorer for the Swarm, notching a short-handed goal late in the third. This game was not without controversy either, as interim coach Vince Mitalas had to don his gear to take over in net halfway through the third when Mike Coleman was ejected from the game, leaving the Devils bench short a coach once again.

A Hard Day’s Night: Round 8 — Swarm vs Red Devils//August 4th [recap]

With just the one set of games in Round 8, all eyes were on – well, on twitter or the Olympics, probably. But NZIHL focus was certainly on the two Auckland games between current league leaders the Canterbury Red Devils and the fifth-place holders, Botany Swarm.

What looked like a classic mismatch on the board was — on the Saturday night at least — an incredibly close and hard-fought game, with the Swarm taking the Devils to overtime before giving up a heart-breaker of a goal. Final score was 2-1 Devils, with goals to Hayden Argyle and Chris Eaden for the Devils, and Josh Hay for the Swarm. Also of note, Red Devils coach Anatoly Khorozov was ejected from the game in the third period, and will serve a two game suspension as a result.

After the cut, the usual write-up in all its gory detail, but first, a couple quick links:

It looks like the Skate of Origin rosters have been released, so if you suspect you’ll be jonesing for a hockey fix by the end of September (and who won’t be?), then it’s time to haunt grabaseat/take your chances with JetStar and make your way down to Christchurch for the 22nd of September for the game. I’m actually really excited for the skills competition, too – either we missed that somehow last season, or that’s a new addition, and either way it should be a lot of fun.

Super belatedly, but Jane from River Road Hockey also pointed out to me recently that the IIHF have released information on disciplinary action after the last World Championships; note New Zealander Ethan Henare will have to sit out two games at the 2013 Championships in Turkey if he attends. (Thanks, Jane!)

Lastly: the Sunday game write-up is hopefully going to follow tomorrow. I believe I made a 2am threat on Twitter to tackle that one in the style of a Xena episode, but honestly, I already ear-wormed myself with “Joxer the Mighty” and I shouldn’t expose anyone else to such a fate. …sorry.  😀

Mid-Season Form(ulae): Connections, Projections and Imperfections from the Halfway Point

This week has marked the middle of the 2012 NZIHL season, with a bye for all five teams and a weekend off from tracking out-of-town games over social media for the fans.

It hasn’t been entirely hockey-free for me, thankfully, as the Chicago Blackhawks held their annual convention in Chicago, enabling their fans to watch the action on the livestream. Hopefully my flatmates didn’t get woken up by my shrieks of laughter at 6am as Andrew Shaw successfully made everyone else on the Chicago’s Most Wanted panel feel old by straight-facedly delivering the line “when I was growing up and watching you guys play.” The fans got quite a few great new stories out of the panels thus far, as well as a sneak-peek into the thoughts of players, team personnel and the front office staff on topics ranging from mental and physical preparation, the Olympic experience, life on the road and the role of team tough guys in today’s NHL. I’m hoping to be able to watch a little more tomorrow, but timezones are going to make that one tricky, for sure.

That being said, there will doubtless be more than enough posts and articles on the Hawks after this weekend, so let’s turn our focus back onto the NZIHL and see how things are shaping up for 2012.

After the cut, I’ll take a brief look back at the season thus far, throw some numbers at the wall to see what sticks, and make some predictions which will more than likely look entirely silly in hindsight. Good times for all!

NZIHL: Out of the Doldrums? – Swarm vs Admirals//July 15th [recap]

The Sunday night game between cross-town rivals West Auckland Admirals and the Botany Swarm was everything you could have looked for in a good night’s entertainment — thrills, spills and chills aplenty as the Swarm came back with a vengeance and played one of their better home games of the season.

Despite leading for most of the game — and, in fact, looking very much in control of the pace and outcome for the better part of three periods — the Swarm gave up a late third period goal which took the game to overtime, and from there it was even-stevens until a sharp shot from Bradey Fox gave the Admirals the tie-breaking goal and the game.

Play was unquestionably high-tempo throughout, with periods of good defensive and offensive pressure from the Swarm, and a fair bit of north-south hockey as well. It was a highly physical game from both sides, although the Swarm’s Lyle Idoine in particular was just about a one-man wrecking ball out there, laying a number of hard hits both open-ice and along the boards. Hit counts being what they are, I wouldn’t like to quote them even if I had them, but he definitely had at least one shift in the third where he crushed two or three of the Admirals players into the boards on hard, clean hits in quick succession. Someone had his weetbix for breakfast!

Puck possession wasn’t notably dominated by either side, but while the Admirals pressed hard – and were very good at getting the puck out of their zone – it felt like the Swarm were dictating play for the majority of regulation. The Swarm’s overall discipline also seemed to be far better during the Sunday game, and the team looked more energetic after not having had to spend almost half the game killing penalties or mouldering in the box.

Botany again opened the scoring, with Ian Wannamaker picking up a nice tip off a goal-mouth scramble in the first. The score once again held at 1-0 to Botany for almost twenty minutes, before the Swarm were able to enjoy a brief two-goal lead as Jordan Challis potted his fifth goal of the season.

Halfway through the second period the Admirals’ Nick Craig broke the shut-out, putting a low, fast shot through Zak Nothling’s pads to bring the score to 2-1. The one-goal differential held for most of the remainder of the game, with Frazer Ellis scoring to equalise with only three minutes left in regulation.

The last few minutes of the third period played out with nail-biting tension, and with no further result the game went to overtime. Fox was able to score midway through the five minute extra frame, sending the Swarm back to their dressing room with just one hard-fought point, and only a fraction closer to the third win they’ve been seeking for a couple of weeks now.

While it’s certainly disappointing to see the Swarm take another loss, there were a lot of positives to take from this game. If they’re able to build on this game and keep focused on all the things they did well, then we ought to have a much better outcome next time.

Or, to put it significantly less cold-bloodedly: the Swarm looked bloody good on Sunday, they deserved to come away with a win, and if they can continue to keep their shit together they should actually manage to do so again some time very soon. Don’t fuck it up, guys!

[What can I say? I’m a highly pragmatic optimist who leans on expletives when relevant.]

Beneath the cut: a closer look at the game and some further attention to the nitty-gritty of the box score, for those hardy souls who enjoy the additional word-count.

NZIHL: Admirals Sail Away With Three – Swarm vs Admirals/14th July [recap]

With a stellar hat-trick from UK import Dean Tonks the only goals they needed, the West Auckland Admirals earned three points tonight in what I believe to be their first-ever regular season victory over the Botany Swarm, taking the game 3-2 in three fast-paced (and penalty-filled) periods.

Once again the Swarm in particular had some trouble staying out of the box — my notes suggest they had a minimum of 25 PIMs on the night, plus misconducts for both Jordan Challis and Lyle Idoine — and that told. While the PK did yeoman’s work for most of the penalties, including an impressive job killing off a five minute major to start the third, they did still give up two goals on the powerplay, and were starting to look tired by the end of the game. Considering they have two of their top forwards out, with Polozov and Josh Hay still injured, the team must be commended for putting in a strong effort, but it wasn’t quite enough to sink the confident and aggressive Admirals.

The wear and tear from last weekend’s TTCL games in Melbourne — plus attendant travel — may have worked against the Swarm this evening, but overall they were able to give a much more consistent and impressive showing than they had done in earlier home games this season. KC Ball’s goal on the powerplay in the first period was a beautiful snipe straight over the goalie’s shoulder, and also a welcome breath of fresh air after please-don’t-remind-me-how-many PPs that couldn’t convert in that third period against the Ice last week. Michael Attwell’s short-handed goal in the second period was also a sweet spot, and another reassuring moment after having seen the Swarm give up so many short-handed breaks and goals lately. Nice to see one go our way at last!

Some more notes and a little closer attention to the chronology of the game are below the cut.