Hey everyone,
Game 1 of the Crosstown Cup was Thursday night/Friday morning out in Panorama City. USC was coming off of being swept out of their own building by the Ducks. The hope was that the team would turn things around against UCLA. Here's what happened:
Period 1
The Bruins let USC know early on that this was not going to be an easy night. On a powerplay, UCLA captain Neal Parsons launched a shot from the point. It deflected off of some traffic in front of USC netminder Phil Adams and got past him into the net. 1-0 UCLA. The Trojans responded fairly quickly. Faceoff winning machine Mitchell Landsinger stole a puck from Parsons on the penalty kill, broke in alone and tucked it past Bruin goaltender Al Ricciardelli to knot the game up. Then on a powerplay chance for the Trojans, defenseman-turned-forward Matt Lewis took a shot from the doorstep. Ricciardelli partially blocked it, but Scott Mason found the loose rebound and slid it home. 2-1 Trojans entering the period break.
Period 2
The momentum of this period seesawed back and forth. On a Bruins man advantage, Alex Horowitz glid from behind Adams to the front of the net. He then flipped a puck past Adams to tie the game again. Mason answered for USC on a beautiful chemistry play. Max Szentveri dropped the puck back to Lewis who then slid a pass from the near point to the far faceoff circle. Mason gathered it in and scored it. The Bruins tied again on another Horowitz goal and seemed to have all of the momentum behind them. They gained more momentum when Alex Hite hit speedy Bruin forward Nick Panzica face-first into the endboards during a foot race for the puck. Panzica was alright, but Hite received a major penalty and a game disqualification (keeping him out for Friday's game). The Trojan penalty kill stood strong though, handily killing all 5 minutes and heading into the locker room with the tie preserved.
Period 3
USC took the lead for the third time in the game early in the third period. It came on the powerplay once again. Lewis broke in along the far boards, found a loose puck and snapped a top shelf shot past Ricciardelli. The Bruins kept fighting back. Panzica shot another puck through traffic that beat Adams. With the game deadlocked at 4 apiece, both teams had their chances to finish the game in regulation. Adams stood on his head almost literally on a few chances, including some on the breakaway. The Trojans failed to scored on a nearly full 5-on-3. With around 2:30 remaining in the game, Szentveri was cleanly stuffed on a penalty shot. USC also had a powerplay chance for the last 90 seconds of regulation, but couldn't do much. And so, for the second game in a row the Trojans headed to overtime.
OT
The OT period did not last long. With only a minute gone by, Jason Bush took out a Bruin away from the puck and headed to the box on an interference call. Early in the penalty kill, Zack Tenney walked into the Trojan zone along right wing, crept into the slot and beat Adams top shelf. The Bruins poured out onto the ice as they celebrated a hard fought win.
Some news and notes:
- This was UCLA's first win over USC since an essentially meaningless Crosstown Cup Game 5 during the 2007-08 season. The Bruins last Game 1 win in the Crosstown Cup came back during 2005-06. They actually won the first two in that series before USC won the last three.
- USC has a major attendance problem and keeps unintentionally creating excuses for itself. Zacuto, Adler, and Frazier were out for various reasons. That's half of the Trojans' top six forwards right there. McClanathan was out to serve a DQ. Coach Wilbur was in Chinese Taipei on business. It's tough to completely gauge the level of this hockey team right now because it's rarely all together in one game.
- Alex Hite is a huge loss on the blue line. It means that the Trojans have to move Lewis back from forward to defense to even have 4 guys. This is a bit of a shame as Lewis was productive at forward, scoring 3 points in Thursday's game.
- One Bruin who didn't get on the scoresheet but should be a huge factor tonight is Daniel Vaynter. He is speedy, draws penalties and has great instincts. Look for him to give the Trojan defense problems on Friday.
- Make no mistake, the Bruins won the game and certainly were the better team on the ice Thursday. They outshot the Trojans in a major way. If Ricciardelli had been better for UCLA or Adams worse for USC, the Bruins could have easily won by two or more goals.
Should be an exciting game tonight!
OFFICIAL TROJAN SCORING
1st Period
Landsinger - 3 SH
Mason - 2 (Lewis) PP
2nd Period
Mason - 3 (Lewis, Szentveri)
3rd Period
Lewis -1 PP
OT
NONE
No comments:
Post a Comment