Vancouver Giants welcomes the Subway Super Series for game number five of six in its 10th Anniversary.
To date the series is split between team Russia between the QMJHL and the OHL with each club winning two games.
The Vancouver Giants announced that ticket sales for the SUBWAY Super Series have surpassed 10,000. The previous CHL attendance record for a Super Series game was 9,775 for the game played in Montreal in 2004.
The Giants currently hold 3 other CHL attendance records which are, highest total attendance at a MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament (121,461 – 9 games/2007), highest average attendance at a MasterCard Memorial Cup (13,946 – 9 games/2007) and highest attendance at the Home Hardware CHL/NHL
Top Prospects Game (16,331/2005).Team OHL grabbed the victory Monday in Sarnia to even the series, so now it’s up toTeam WHL to grab four of the six remaining points to win the series for the CHL.
Rebels D-man told the media “In the WHL we’re focused on what we do and wanting to win,” he said. “We need to continue to prove that the CHL is a great for players and we have some great guys that want to win this. I don’t think it has anything to do with what the other leagues do. ”If you ask the Scouts they will tell you that the WHL is stronger on defense than both the OHL and the QMJHL.
Those included in the line-up are five defencemen selected in the Top 8 of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft: Ryan Murray (EVT, 2nd overall – Columbus Blue Jackets); Griffin Reinhart (EDM, 4th overall – New York Islanders); Morgan Rielly (MJ, 5th overall – Toronto Maple Leafs); Mathew Dumba (RD, 7th overall – Minnesota Wild) and Derrick Pouliot (POR, 8th overall – Pittsburgh Penguins)
Head Coach of Team WHL is Don Nachbaur who is the main-stay of the Spokane Chiefs. He told the media “these players are mostly all first round draft picks, and we’ll build our team game around them. I feel they’re strong defensively, and that’s a major strength of our team.” The other possible factor for Team Russia is the travel as they leave Sarnia after game four Monday, and arrive in Vancouver on Tuesday. Game five scheduled for the following night, so they will have less than 48 hours to get adjusted.
Once past the introductions of two special guests which were Phil Esposito and Igor Larinov. Espo as he is known played for the 1972 Team Canada.
These two got a huge hand from the 11,000 plus on hand to welcome them plus thank them for everything they did for the game.
This series is the last audition for the Canadian World Junior team tryouts spots and if this game was any indication of the talent in Canada, it’s going to be an exciting team.
Surrey product Laurent Brossoit stopped everything the Russian’s sent in his direction, which included the S/O portion of the game. Brossoit finished the game with 30 saves in regulation time.
Russian sensation Nail Yukupov was the first round pick in last summer’s NHL Entry Draft by the Oilers and although he is impressive to watch, on this night he was nothing spectacular.
While he is impressive to watch, he lacks a fair amount of professionalism, which leads to a lack of respect.
Following the game several media members patiently waited for him to emerge from the dressing room for an interview. He was the last to come out, which was a good 40 minutes after the game finished.
This was followed by either a one or two word answer to any question from any reporter. Clearly he lacks the ability to be accountable when it comes to treating anyone with the respect.
After all they are looking to promote him, so he has a lot to learn and this alone is too bad!!
The game did feature some solid hits, but the best hit of the game came from Oil King Travis Ewanyk who “pasted” Anton Shenfeld and Kirill Kapustin, both in the first period.
Interesting to note that just prior to the game, Red Deer Rebels announced that Brent Sutter is back behind the bench on an interim basis, assuming it is mostly due to them being in 5th place in the Central Division of the WHL.
Sportswave rates this game a 9 out of 10.
The game took far too long to play only due to the TV timeouts and worst of all, the time clock did not work for the first period.
Note to PNE Staff:
While you might not want to hear it – Get a carpet that does not slide on the ice when someone steps or walks on it.
Phil almost fell and this does nothing to promote safety for anyone. Very POOR!!
