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The Afterburners: Mason Shuts ‘Em Down, Sans Fancy Pads

What a wild 1-0 game. Between the powerplays, penalty kills, and pipes I think my wife is going to suggest a sippy cup for the next game.

It was pretty damn sweet to walk away with the W this time, after a hard-fought game with plenty of ups-and-downs. Granted, we took too many freakin’ penalties again (I think – think – Claude Noel was pissed, couldn’t tell for sure), and we left a couple of juicy turnovers for the picking, but it was Chris Mason and his awesome stickwork and ugly-ass pads that drove us to victory.

Oh yeah, and Evander effing Kane. Booyah.



1st Period: No scoring

2nd Period: No scoring

3rd Period: No scoring

Overtime: 1:09 Winnipeg ES Goal, Evander Kane 18 (Ron Hainsey 4, Blake Wheeler 22)

Shots: Winnipeg 27, Los Angeles 31

Thoughts

  • Helloooo, Evander Kane! He’d kind of been knocking on the door all game, so it was good to see him break through. Now if you can only teach Andrew Ladd and Alexander Burmistrov to put it home.
  • Seriously, though, Mason won this game for us. He made some great saves, and in general stepped up when our Jets were doing the ceremonial crapping-of-the-bed.
  • Damnit, Burmistrov has at least one or two dangles per game where I swear he could be a star. This time, it put him in the high slot with an open shot, which he proceeded to not score on. This kid will be a star. It’s not an “if” in my mind anymore.
  • Kane also threw down the gloves against Jack Johnson, because Johnson tried to eat Tim Stapleton for dinner. After a few tugs, Johnson spit him out then obliged Kaner.
  • Tobias Enstrom is just nifty with the puck. And you have to love when he sent the Brad Richardson shot into the crowd; he knows that it doesn’t take much to play good defence, and that’s precisely why I asked for his player shirt for Christmas. Bonus.
  • Zach Bogosian crushed Drew Doughty early in the game like it ain’t no thang, and Doughty got cranky and just started slashing everybody. We got no calls until the 3rd. Suck.
  • Steam Punk (Tim Stapleton) had a beautiful pass up to Blake Wheeler to set up a breakaway, and Wheeler swiftly crapped his pants on the move. No sweat, I do it all the time, but I get paid zero dollars.
  • Cripes, were we playing the chimes tonight. Two hard ones off the post, maybe a third.
  • I’m convinced the reason we’re losing the shot battles is because we don’t have Dustin Byfuglien in there shooting the puck like Fulton Reed on 5-Hour Energy.
  • I’ll have the Wendorf Chart for the game up tomorrow, when Gabe’s magical elves put it together for me in the North Pole.

One, two – two points! Ah ah ah…

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