Hockey
Claude’s Frustration
It should have been called the Wizard of Oz with Dorothy leading the parade down the “Yellow Brick Road” out of OZ to never-never land.
A penalty Giants Zane Jones in overtime for Checking to the Head didn’t sit well with Claude Noel.
The minor 55 seconds in saw Rockets D-Man Madison Bowey hammer in the game winner a short 10 seconds into the PP grabbing a 4-3 win.
Minor hockey saw Zane play Bantam for the Red Deer White Bantam AAA, Leduc Oil Kings for his Midget career then on to Junior with the Olds Grizzlies in the AJHL, then to the WHL.
He is the nephew of former NHL’er Lanny McDonald, so seeing him with the “stash” is sort of fitting.
For the Giants faithful fan base of 11,644, this was a loss that simply won’t fit well, knowing any playoff action simply won’t happen.
It was the Giants’ regular season home finale and ended up being their last night of meaningful action for 2014-15.
Vancouver needed to beat Kelowna at home Friday and on the road Saturday and have both the Tri-City Americans and Kamloops Blazers lose their remaining games to nab a share of the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference playoffs and force a tiebreaker game.
About an hour before Bowey scored, the Americans were celebrating a 4-2 win over the Portland Winterhawks.
Vancouver was officially ousted then; Bowey and the Rockets just poured salt in the wound.
“We had an idea,” said Vancouver goaltender Cody Porter when asked if the players knew what was happening in the Tri-City game, which started 30 minutes before the Vancouver contest. “We had guys checking (during the second intermission).
“Going into the third period, we still wanted to play our game and do what we had to do.” Giants coach Claude Noel, who took over 25 games into the season from the fired Troy Ward and is expected to return to the pro ranks next season, praised his players for their effort.
It was one of their better performances of the last month or so.
Vancouver, who went from 21 wins in 2012-13 to 32 last year, are stuck on 27 going into Saturday, thanks largely to a just-completed nine-game losing skid.
Dawson Holt an underage call-up who plays centre and one of Vancouver’s first-round picks in last May’s bantam draft played remarkable, considering the pressure that was on him.
He collected his first WHL goal on the night while Alec Baer and Mason Geertsen were credited with the other goals.
Although this was the seventh straight loss to Kelowna this season, Porter stopped 21 shots in net for the Giants.
It is interesting to note (for those keeping track) that this was the 12th loss in a row that dates back to last year.
While Claude is leaving the club in search of once again grabbing a Head Coaches position in the NHL, he let his thought known.
He was critical of referees Ryan Benbow and Kevin Bennett following the game and for the media to hear this, it caught everyone off guard.
This wasn’t the Claude that we have come to terms with as he has been extremely professional with any request his way.
“I thought the refereeing was awful,” said Noel. “It’s not the penalty at the end for me. It’s the long changes. How long are you going to wait for them to make a decision on a change? We were lucky to get out of here at 10:30 pm.”
He continued “It could have been midnight with the way they managed the game and
I don’t want to get into the calls, but they don’t make a call on a trip on [Giants defenceman Brennan] Menell and then you have to call one after that.”
Let’s remember that Claude is used to dealing with the officials in the NHL and Major Junior is a huge change for him.
He continued to tell the media “I haven’t had a problem with the refereeing all year and to me, this game wasn’t good.”
“If you call the game, there’s a penalty on (the trip on) Menell and both teams got called for way less before.”
The team honoured overages Zane Jones, Dalton Sward and Matt Bellerive after the game.
This was the last Giants game for several Giant’s players and Giants GM Scott Bonner had mentioned the possibility of breaking up his core group of players.
This loss and especially being knocked out of the playoffs is the second time in three years that the Giants will miss the playoffs.
No doubt the Giants have much work to do in the off-season and the first is dealing with the hiring of a new head coach.
Second question some are asking is “will they bring back the Assistant Coaches next season.”
All valid question and for Vancouver Giant fans missing “just doesn’t cut it.”