Stillwater Ponies @ Grand Rapids Thunderhawks 11/28

[youngblood08]

This was a fun game to watch. Stillwater players seemed to have more speed and strength than Rapids. Rapids was better coached. They passed the puck well, especially for the first game, and played the body well. Stillwater would have increased their scoring chances signifcantly if they would have passed the puck more. Rapids doesn't seem to have that D1 player who can be the difference in a close game. They should compete with most good AA teams, but will probably end up on the short end of a lot of one goal games.

Nice anaylsis. Agree with you that GR moves the puck well. GR PP movement was getting stronger as the game went on. Season is young and the GR boys will win a few of those games this year. Your guys blocked quite a few shots from our D not to mention the ones we put over the net. Who knows our player doesn't break his arm on the first shift and a certian GR player is suited up, who knows what would have happened.

But it was an exciting finish.

Seriously someone broke their arm? Jokes have a tendency to go over my head so apologies.

yeap. no joke.

[PoniesDad45]

Nice anaylsis. Agree with you that GR moves the puck well. GR PP movement was getting stronger as the game went on. Season is young and the GR boys will win a few of those games this year. Your guys blocked quite a few shots from our D not to mention the ones we put over the net. Who knows our player doesn't break his arm on the first shift and a certian GR player is suited up, who knows what would have happened.

But it was an exciting finish.

Seriously someone broke their arm? Jokes have a tendency to go over my head so apologies.

yeap. no joke.

Man, terrible news. I feel bad for the kid. Hopefully he bounces back soon.

[Bigcat99]

It was a good game refs made it interesting as usual with the leaving theplayer in the box after his penalty was up, for an extra 45 secs.

Boy those GR fans sure leave the rink fast after a Loss!! Pretty quite too.[/quote]

And I had the opportunity to listen to a few proud dad's of the Ponies in my section. Funny how different perspectives can be when you are cheering for the opposite side. Complaining about penalties (on the Ponies) that to me were pretty obvious, commenting on how GR was only playing two lines in the first two periods (while they were mixing up lines, LaRoque was using at least 9 forwards consistently to that point), among other things. A few "passionate" comments yelled at the time escape me this evening, as they were trivial at best during the game.

Was it a well reffed game? One who wants their team to win badly, seems to often think they get the short end of the stick with the refs. I could have easily spouted at the refs too on a few calls. But I guess since I don't actually have thousands invested in my child being out there on the ice, I will just listen, then smile and chuckle to myself about those dad's who think if their kids work hard, everything and every call should go their way.

Lastly, I'm not sure what the crowds of Ponies fans do after a game is over, but no one was serving cold ones in the arena, so why would one wanna stick around on a Saturday night?

[Goldfishdude]

On the penalty you are referring to in which the player was in the box for 45 secs after it expired, was it because the player had a major/misconduct penalty?

If so, and the teams were skating 5 on 5, the player cannot leave the bench until the next whistle. I was operating a penalty box for our JV game last year, in which play continued almost 1:30 minutes past the expiration..

If it was 4 on 4, or 5 on 4, isn't the box operator in charge of letting the player out, not the ref??

[PoniesDad45]

On the penalty you are referring to in which the player was in the box for 45 secs after it expired, was it because the player had a misconduct penalty?

If so, and the teams were skating 5 on 5, the player cannot leave the bench until the next whistle. I was operating a penalty box for our JV game last year, in which play continued almost 1:30 minutes past the expiration..

If it was 4 on 4, or 5 on 4, isn't the box operator in charge of letting the player out, not the ref??

You are correct, when it is an offsetting penalty where teams are skating 5 on 5 then you have to wait for a whistle. I've seen a kid miss almost an entire period, 10 minute checking from behind then wait for a whistle.

When a team is short handed, it is up to the penalty box operator to keep track of the clock and make sure it's safe to open the door when the time is up.

[PoniesDad45]

Man that was a fun high school game to watch even though it was a back breaker loss for Grand Rapids. Stillwater likes to run your goalie, hack hockey in my opinion, I expected a bit more from a Housley lead team. They will give H-M some trouble I expect.

I would expect more from the homer refs up there as well. 17 mins of penalties as opposed to 8 min for GR?

[Bigcat99]

Man that was a fun high school game to watch even though it was a back breaker loss for Grand Rapids. Stillwater likes to run your goalie, hack hockey in my opinion, I expected a bit more from a Housley lead team. They will give H-M some trouble I expect.

I would expect more from the homer refs up there as well. 17 mins of penalties as opposed to 8 min for GR?

Yep, never heard that one before! Seriously though, usually that comes from the losing teams fans!

[14hockey]

From my point of view i thought rapids had a good control of most of the game, kinda let up in the 2nd but hopefully that will change as the year goes on. I believe the reffing was fair for both teams and i enjoyed watching rapids entire team defend their goalie. Im sure rapids would like to play that game again.

[greenway1969]

There was a very funny incident that happened at the game. At the start of the second period, the person who plays the music made a bigtime mistake. He played the Rapids school song the first time, but when the school song was supposed to played for the second time it turned out to be the Greenway fight song. The looks on the cheerleaders faces was priceless. I assume the Greenway song was played because Greenway and Grand Rapids are combined for girls hockey.

[TellItHowItIs]

So who's next opponent for Rapids? how does that one shake out?

[Indians forever]

There was a very funny incident that happened at the game. At the start of the second period, the person who plays the music made a bigtime mistake. He played the Rapids school song the first time, but when the school song was supposed to played for the second time it turned out to be the Greenway fight song. The looks on the cheerleaders faces was priceless. I assume the Greenway song was played because Greenway and Grand Rapids are combined for girls hockey.

That is to funny!!!