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Old 03-24-2017, 08:53 AM   #1
arry J

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Default has outscored opponents at even-strength in the past three
TORONTO, Ontario -- Coach Brent Sutter liked what he saw even if his Canadian junior team dominated the CIS Toronto Selects in exhibition play on Saturday afternoon. Nike Roshe One Dam Svart . Connor McDavid, the 16-year-old prodigy who draws most of the attention, scored Canadas first goal and big Josh Anderson threw his weight around and scored as Canada downed the Selects 3-0. Left winger Charles Hudon finished it off with an empty-net goal in the final minute. "I was pleased with a lot of things," said Sutter. "There were times in the third where we have to be careful in our own zone. We cant be soft on pucks. We have to do everything hard and do it the right way. "But if you look at the opportunities we had. All three of their goalies played really well for them, but it was good to see. We did a lot of good things." Canada dominated the play and outshot the Selects 56-20. Sutter isnt worried that, considering the number of chances they produced, the finish around the net wasnt quite there yet. It was only the second day of a three-day camp at the Mastercard Centre to kick off preparations for the world junior championship that begins Dec. 26 in Malmo, Sweden. The team will have an off-ice workout Sunday morning before flying to Sweden, where they will play pre-tournament games against Finland, the Swedes and Switzerland before the real games begin. The team will take all 25 players from selection camp to Europe, with no cuts being made in Canada. "I know all these guys can score goals," said Sutter. "So its getting them to become a team first and foremost. Getting them to understand roles theyll have to play on this team and making sure everything is within the confines of how we want to play, our identity as a hockey team." There are 25 players in camp and the roster will be trimmed to 22 -- two goalies, seven defencemen and 13 forwards -- for the tournament. No cuts will be made until the squad gets to Sweden. They could come after the first pre-tournament game Dec. 20 against the Finns. Sutter had encouraging news on Jonathan Drouin, the gifted winger who is expected to be an offensive motor for Canada. The Halifax Mooseheads star, who suffered a concussion last week in Quebec Major Junior Hockey league play, was symptom free after riding a stationary bike and may be fit to resume skating when the team gets to Europe. "Well get him to go a little farther (on Sunday) and if that goes well, well get him on the ice when we go overseas," the coach said. The juniors owned the puck against the Selects, a team put together from three university squads, and Sutter gave plenty of ice time to the unit of McDavid, 2014 draft prospect Sam Reinhart and left winger Hunter Shinkaruk. McDavid is vying to become the sixth skater to play for Canadas world junior squad at 16, after Wayne Gretzky, Jason Spezza, Eric Lindros, Jay Bouwmeester and Sidney Crosby. He helped his bid with a strong effort against the Selects. "I was okay," the skinny, six-foot phenom said. "I felt pretty good out there. "The pace was pretty good. The guys were a lot older, a lot bigger. I felt I had my legs. I felt the team played very well for our first game together. We didnt give up a whole lot defensively, which was good." Canada outshot the students 19-3 in the opening period and had Hudon, Reinhart and Curtis Lazar hit goalposts. Still, the Selects first-period goalie Garrett Sheehan kept it scoreless. The period offered several special teams situations, including one-man and two-man advantages and 4-on-4 play. McDavid and Reinhart got ice time in all of them. McDavid even played the right point on a two-man advantage. "That was a little different," the Erie Otters star said. "(Sutter) wants to try some things out. "I will do whatever he wants me to. It was nice to play the power play and everything like that. There are 15 other forwards that can do that. I just want to worry about keeping my play up." McDavid finally got a goal on a power play 13:37 into the second period against Andrew Perugini, and was dangerous around the net for most of the game. Asked about McDavid, Sutter grinned and said "he really did a good job." Then there was the six-foot-two Anderson, a Columbus Blue Jackets prospect who plays by the Brian Burke buzzword "truculence." He not only dished out checks, but got a goal 15 seconds into the third period, picking the top corner behind Troy Passingham after a feed from behind the net from Rychel. His line with Rychel and six-foot-four Frederik Gauthier also stood out. "As the game went on, that line really got their legs under them," said Sutter. "Theyre all big guys that can skate. "They play a heavy game. They get on the forecheck hard and theyre smart. Its nice to have that size on your team and who play that way." Hudon had a wild night, missing on two breakaways before finally picking off a cross-ice pass and going in alone to score the empty-netter. Zachary Fucale started for Canada and Jake Paterson took over at 10:06 of the second to share the shutout. Fucale had to be sharp on two chances by Andrew Buck early in the second after a turnover in Canadas end. "There wasnt that many shots, but I kept my focus and did some good things out there and thats what we want," said Fucale. "The team played well in front of me, which made it easy on me," said Fucales camp roommate Paterson. "But all in all it was a good game." Normally, Canada has its goalies play for both teams when it faces a CIS squad, but Sutter said he didnt want his goalies playing against each other. Notes: Canada scratched four players -- Griffin Reinhart, Bo Horvat, Josh Morrissey and Nic Petan. Sutter said Morrissey came to camp with soreness from an injury and they opted to rest him. The other were players who are all-but locks to make the team . . The CIS team was made up of players from York, Toronto and Ryerson universities. Nike Roshe One Print . Tyrell appeared in seven games with the Lightning this year, he had no points in those appearances. The 24-year-old has seven goals and 17 assists in 132 career NHL games, all coming with the Lightning. He was selected in the second round, 47th overall, of the 2007 draft. Nike Roshe One Herr . -- Kyle Busch edged teammate Joey Logano at the Bristol Motor Speedway finish line Friday night to become the all-time winningest driver in Nationwide Series. 403 Forbidden . The thinking at the time was Clowney could have already been promised he would be selected first overall by the Houston Texans, therefore negating any need to meet with any other teams. The plot took another twist this week.TORONTO – It took whole pile of stops for the Maple Leafs to withstand an all-out Blackhawks rally and win their third in a row. Forty-five saves in all for James Reimer on a Saturday night in Toronto, including each and every one of the 26 peppered on goal during Chicago’s furious third period push – a tilted 20 minutes that saw the Leafs held to just seven shots and none in the final seven minutes. “He was first star, simple as that,” head coach, Randy Carlyle, said of the 26-year-old after the game. “The way he played and just the number of saves that he made in the third period [and] quality saves. A lot of times you’ll get a lot of stuff from the outside, but they had some point-blank chances and he stood tall to the task that’s for sure.” Peter Holland scored his first of the year just two minutes into that final frame – the eventual game-winner – and from there the floodgates opened and the Blackhawks simply poured it on. They pumped shot after shot at Reimer, but were continually turned aside. There was one particular two-minute power-play barrage – just after Holland made it 3-2 – that saw five shots flung at the Leafs goal, an improbable glove stop on Brent Seabrook among those kept out. “I think it was pretty self-explanatory,” Dion Phaneuf said of Reimer’s performance afterward. “He made not only big saves, but at key times and it’s about momentum swings and I thought that he really swung the momentum in our favour many times.” Reimer was making his first start in more than two weeks and if there was some rust early it quickly wore off as the evening rolled along. “The more pucks you see and stop the better you feel,” said Reimer, who holds a .929 save percentage in five games this season. He couldn’t quite remember Chicago’s first goal – both came on the power-play – unable to see the second one, a point shot from Seabrook with Andrew Shaw camped in front. From there nothing made it through. Reimer made one key left pad stop on Patrick Kane with less than four minutes left and then a handful more as the Blackhawks kept pressuring until the final buzzer. “He battles when there are second opportunities and sometimes third ones,” Phaneuf said. “He was a difference-maker for us tonight and I can’t say enough good things about the way that he played.” Sputtering out of the gates in October – five losses in the first eight games – the Leafs appear to be turning a corner of sorts, scoring wins over the resource-depleted likes of Buffalo and Columbus before outlasting Chicago by the slimmest of margins on this night. It was arguably their most difficult test so far. “I think for us it’s a good measuring stick,” Stephane Robidas said of the challenge before the game. “It’s one of the better teams in the NHL the past few years and we’ve got to use it as a measuring stick and see where we’re at.” And while they were under complete siege for nearly all of the final 20 minutes, the Leafs actually held tough with the Blackhawks for the opening two periods, especially at even-strength. “We stuck with the game-plan,” Carlyle said. “We weren’t pretty. And our goaltender gave us a chance in the end and that’s all you can really ask of your team.” Five Points 1. 5-on-5 A testament to some recent improvement, Toronto has outscored opponents 9-1 at even-strength during this three-game win streak – the lone goal coming in Columbus on Friday night. Chicago’s dangerous collection was held off the board in such situations Saturday, both of their markers coming on the power-play. Asked what stood out about his team’s play in 5-on-5 situations, Carlyle responded with four words and only four words. “More offensive zone time,” he said. 2. Limiting the Load Dion Phaneuf didn’t have a lot left in the tank by the time March rolled around last spring, the pile of hugely difficult minutes admittedly taking their toll. “I’d be lying to say that it did not wear you down,” Phaneuf said on the first day of training camp. “When you’re pplaying those big minutes, by the time Game 70 comes around you might be feeling it a little more. Nike Roshe One Br. ” Phaneuf averaged more than 24 minutes before the Olympic break last season and struggled down the stretch, but so far this year that number is down to less over 22 minutes nightly and that’s not by accident. The coaching staff implemented an soft minute count for their captain this season. That threshold would seem lie at 22 minutes. “í think what we’ve tried to do is tried to share minutes more evenly,” Carlyle said. “We felt that there was a threshold that we would try to keep him underneath and some games we have, some games we haven’t.” Phaneuf played more than 24 minutes Saturday for just the third time this season, helping to hold Chicago’s top line off the score-sheet. 3. Balance Saturday was indicative of that newfound balance on defence. None of the six dressed against Chicago played less than 17 minutes and only Phaneuf topped 21 minutes. Leafs Defence Ice-Time DEFENDER TOI VS. CHICAGO Dion Phaneuf 24:41 Roman Polak 20:55 Cody Franson 20:31 Jake Gardiner 19:35 Morgan Rielly 17:21 Stephane Robidas 17:11 4. An Opportunity Maybe the biggest beneficiary in Joffrey Lupul’s absence is 23-year-old Peter Holland. Holland leapt one rung higher in the Leafs lineup with Lupul out, centering a third unit with Leo Komarov and Mike Santorelli. Totaling a season-high of nearly 16 minutes, he scored the eventual game-winner and also took Lupul’s former spot on the team’s second power-play unit. “I think anytime you move up the lineup and you take on a bigger role it’s definitely an opportunity so it was something I was trying to focus on tonight and I thought [Santorelli], Leo and myself did a great job tonight,” he said. Oddly, four of his 11 career goals have come against Chicago. “I’m not really sure [why but] I seem to be a bit of a Blackhawk killer,” he said. Lupul, meanwhile, will miss three weeks with the broken right hand or in the neighbourhood of nine more games – he’s already sat out the past two. 5. Carrick’s debut An odd text popped up on Sam Carrick’s phone from Marlies teammate on Saturday morning, Frazer McLaren. “Congrats buddy,” it read. McLaren had been at the Marlies home rink, the Ricoh Coliseum, and saw that Carrick’s equipment had been removed. Carrick, picked 144th overall in 2010, was confused. Two minutes later the phone sprung to life again, this time with Leafs assistant general manager, Kyle Dubas, on the line. Carrick was being recalled to the big club, Dubas said, and would make his NHL debut against Chicago. “I was pretty excited,” said Carrick before the game. Coming off an increasingly impactful second AHL season – he had nine points in 14 playoff games – the 22-year-old offered a strong impression to Leaf coaches and brass at training camp and was the first Marlie to get the call when Joffrey Lupul broke his hand Friday in Columbus. “What we’ve tried to do is always make a statement that if you go down and play well you’re going to be recognized,” Carlyle said. Stats-Pack 9-1 – Mark by which Toronto has outscored opponents at even-strength in the past three games. 22:09 – Average ice-time for Dion Phaneuf this season. 5-0-0 – Leafs record when scoring first this season. 6-0-0 – Leafs record this season when Phil Kessel records a point. 26-7 – Blackhawks shot advantage in the third period on Saturday. Special Teams Capsule PP: 0-3 Season: 16.% PK: 2-4 Season: 81% Quote of the Night “Enough was enough because we couldn’t continue to go the way we were going.” - Randy Carlyle, on turning things around after a one-sided loss to Boston last week. Up Next The Leafs leave the earliest signs of winter behind, visiting the newly minted Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '
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