Weekend Wrapup

We will get into the games shortly , but I am sure at this point alot of you are aware that Andrew Dommett took a huge blow to the head and broke his jaw. He will be out for a long period of time which is huge lose for the Klippers. Dommett looked great to start this season , he was hungry and 100 percent the Klippers leader on and off the ice. In the first game against Battlefords he not only contributed on the score sheet with 2 goals and the game winner , but what impressed me most was the huge block shot he made diving in front of a point shot blast to help keep the Klippers in front. Dommett had one hell of a game and a period , and it is unfortunate that he had to go out like that. He would of got 50 this season , you could almost guarantee that if he was healthy the way he was playing to start the year.

More on Dommer shortly , we will get into Saturday Nights season opener.

Klippers 7 - Battlefords 6

Player Impressions -

Dommer
Andrew Dommett had a huge game for the Klippers like I mentioned above so I won't say much more on him. Dommer scored the winner with something like 39 seconds left in the game . A huge turnover by the Battlefords d man gave it right to Dommer in front and that is the last person in the building you want to turn the puck over to , as Andrew is going to barry that puck 9 out of 10 times.

Kurt LeedahlWe all know Kurt is more of a all around dman than a offensive dman , but against Battlefords he was both. He scored 2 goals in the first period in a span of 3 minutes , with two hard and perfectly placed shots from the point. Have to credit Gourley and Hoffman for providing screens on both goals. Aside from the goals Leedahl was great in his own end. He rarely gets beat out there , he makes quick heads up plays , and was solid all night on the blue line.

Brett Penner
He was our broadcast Hustler of the game for the Klippers. He really was solid all night long in his second SJHL hockey game. He also contributed offensively scoring a key goal to tie things up early in the third, where he stormed down the right side and let a wicked wrister go that beat Sirard clean from just inside the blueline. Not only did he score but he was solid all night long in the middle for the Klippers. He also stuck in the lineup for Sundays game and once again had a solid game. The Klippers at this point still have alot of fwds , but I believe Penner has now officially won a spot and will stay in the lineup.

Sean Flanagan
Flanagan was great in both games. He logged a ton of minutes and looks very confident out there. He is still a very young dman and has a few small things to work on , but you can see that confidence building and he could become one of the breakout defensemen in the SJHL this season. It is hard to imagine that he still has 2  more years left in the SJHL after this season.

Scott Hellyer

Hellyer was pretty solid despite letting in six goals. He made some big saves in this one when he was needed , and alot of the goals that were scored on him he had no chance. I think Hellyer will get alot better as the season progresses. Once the Klippers figure out how to kill penaltys , Hellsy's goal average will go down , most of the goals scored on him were on the power play.

Sanfred King
Kinger was a monster up front for the Klippers. Solid at both ends of the ice , and I mean very solid. This guy is not only very responsible in his own end , but he is a huge threat up front offensively. He had three points in this one , and with Dommer out I would not be surprised to see Kinger up on the first line. In Sundays game , Adamyk and King played some time together on a line and showed instant chemistry. It will be very interesting to see the line combos for the Wednesdays game. 

Duzan - Hoffman - Mysiorek
This line was very solid as usual, they were more of a threat offensively on Sundays game , and will now have a much bigger role offensively on this team. I think this line sticks together even with the line shuffles that could be coming , they started to look better and better every shift and I think all three could are poised for break out seasons.

Jeff Bartel
Bartel was steady in his first SJHL game. He didn't look out of place and looked very confident making some solid break out plays in his own zone and played pretty physical as well.

Why the Klippers won
The Klippers won due a solid all around team effort. They battled back and fourth all night long. It wasn't pretty at times, but for a opening game on the road in a tough building they did what they needed to do and found a way to win in the end.

On to Sunday....

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Sundays game or should I say Sunday's Wrestling Match....

Klippers 6 - La Ronge 9

Before we get into the game , the arena certainly needs a few upgrades to say the least. Their broadcast platform I guess you could call it , is located right above the Laronge bench , very low to the ground. You cant even see the scoreboard and it didn't help that there was a huge beam right in front of me , forcing me to lean forward to see the play to the left of me. Josh Lewis took some pictures of the booth , hopefully we shall get those up.

Also the roof in that arena is so low to the ground. The Klippers were having trouble all night long trying to clear the puck out of the zone and kept hitting the roof. In any other arena they are great clearing attempts but not here. Everytime they hit the roof the faceoff would end up coming back in to there zone. Laronge must practice there dumping attempts all the time as they weren't guilty of hitting it once. I guess that's what you call home ice advantage.

Onto the game.

The Klippers came out firing from all cylinders taking a 2-0 lead early. At about the ten minute mark , all hell broke loose. Andrew Dommett got smoked with a dirty hit to the head right in front of the La Ronge net. John Calkins stepped up as was expected when a play like that happens , and attacked Ducharme from behind. A huge pile up ensued in the corner with four players , but nothing really major happened. Calkins did get ejected from the game though. Meanwhile at center David Haaf , decided to take exception and attacked La Ronge star forward Doug Lindensmith. Haaf the smaller dman delivered probably 10 solid rights to the face of Lindensmith right in front of the La Ronge bench. He instantly gained the respect of his new team ates by taking on the much bigger Lindensmith, who kinda just turtled for the most part. The other thing of note was that players on the bench were throwing punches at Haaf as the fight was ensuing. The referee Kyle Paulsen, was out to lunch and claims to not have seen anything, just like he claimed he missed the Dommett hit. Paulsen basically lost control of this game, and seemed like he was out to screw the Klippers. It was honestly a horrible performance all night long, and I am sure Larry will be appealing to the league on this one.

After all that settled Paulsen then gave Calkins a 7 minute penalty , and Haaf a 2 minute minor causing the Klippers to be 5-3. It was ridiculous to see La Ronge come out scott free from all of that. You could basically say a dirty hit won this game for La Ronge. Quickly La Ronge scored 3 goals and that was pretty much that.

The Klippers struggled at first at getting their focus back on the game, which is much expected after seeing their captain go down. The Klippers did make a game of it late but penalty's won this game for La Ronge.

Overall it was not a pretty game and the Klippers would of rolled over La Ronge in my mind is it wasn't for that dirty hit that took Dommett out of action.

What the Klippers need to work onOverall alot of things look good for this team. They are 1-1 after 2 tough games on the road. The one thing they need to work on though is there penalty kill. It is as simple as that , they are giving up alot of power play goals and it needs to get better period.

As for my first 2 ever SJHL play by play calls. I thought they went fine. I still have alot to work on but that will come as the season progresses. Thanks to Kris Hussey for helping me on color commentary Saturday and Josh Lewis on Sunday. Both did a great job

As for the online feed , It is not working at this point. I have to contact the Klippers and get things set up. Hopefully it will be up and running for Wednesdays game in Mellville.

I have a ton of interviews to get up and hopefully I get a chance today to get them up , so check back latter for more information...