He was a rookie. A rookie who played once every 10 or so games. It's pretty hard to get anything going behind when you never play, and have a D who's top pairing was Hayden Rintoul and Zach Habscheid. Give him more starts, and I bet he's our best goalie. Big, well positioned, and good reflexes. Polivka isn't looking much better than Hamilton did last year.
What?! I'm pretty sure we could have Carey Price in goal during his WHL days and you'd still call him terrible. The CHL isn't about 1-0 games, it's about high-scoring close games. Polivka is a top-notch goalie, he's played great since coming here. A goalie can't be invincable every single night.
And here I am slagging on Polivka, and the Royals go and do this.
Polivka is a great goaltender, I think he is still adjusting to the North American style, he's very quick and his game as more technique. He is used to more fast pace games from Europe. Not a bad goaltender at all, just that he's so quick that he overplays it. Rathjen is a big goalie, but he has to many holes to be a #1.
The Royals win 4-3 in a SO. Rathjen made 35 of 37 saves, and stopped all three shooters in the SO. There was an EN goal in the 2nd period, first goal of the game for TC, so I'm not sure what happened there. But Rathjen was only on the hook for 2 against. That's 2 great starts for him now. I wonder if they go back to him again tomorrow in Van? Hicketts with 2 points, and Nelson 2 goals, plus the SO winner.
Edit: The EN goal came on a delayed penalty. Rathjen had been pulled for the extra skater. Not sure the exact details of what led to the goal. Either it wasn't our penalty or, one of our guys shot it into our own net. Either way, ugly.
Listened in to the game and my goodness no-one in the stadium sounded like they could belive it, and poor Marlon in the radio booth was groaning in pain and horror..lol
The Royals were breaking away into the zone with speed and purpose, when Zach Yuen, the Ams top D man, made a desperation dive, drawing a delayed penalty.
The Royals maintained possesion, and seemingly when trying to set up with the "extra attacker", an errant pass, hit a bloody discarded Ams stick, and went all the way back into the vacant net!
Take a look at this image, picture 7, the old lady laughing as the puck finds its way into the Royals empty net..lol..pretty much sums it up (cue a "Nelson from the Simpsons Ha-ha!") http://www.amshockey.com/photo_gallery/gallery/id/4628
Sounded like the Royals had all sorts of misfortune, Gogolev having an apparent goal waived off.
Still, all ended well: the Royals sounding like they had a ton of energy, and prevailed with yet another late (late) tying goal.
This team has plenty of Spirit, thats for sure!
Last edited by johnnydrum: 10-07-2012 at 06:11 AM.
It'll be interesting if they can keep that pace up. If the goaltending continues to be strong, it shouldn't be unreasonable to think they can challenge for the Div. Kelowna still likely has it wrapped up, though.
Coming into the year, it looked like Kamloops and Kelowna we're the top 2 with Kamloops having a bit of an advantage over Kelowna.
Who had the Rockets just behind the Blazer? The Blazers are considered a top team in the CHL, let alone the division. I haven't seen a word written about Kelowna being a top team, or expectations that they would be a strong team.
This, and it's not just me being a Blazer fan talking. Imagine if the blazers can get Madaisky back. Look out
This, and it's not just me being a Blazer fan talking. Imagine if the blazers can get Madaisky back. Look out
If Nic Kerdiles gets released from Wisconsin, he'd be a huge boost to Kelowna. But, I'd still expect it will be tough sledding for the Rockets to compete for the Div this year. I guess we Royals fans will see this weekend.
If Nic Kerdiles gets released from Wisconsin, he'd be a huge boost to Kelowna. But, I'd still expect it will be tough sledding for the Rockets to compete for the Div this year. I guess we Royals fans will see this weekend.
WOW, I had not even seen that story. That would be huge for Kelowna. BC division is looking strong this year.
First game I went to this season, Royals looked much better then last years squad. They were throwing the body as much as possible. It's good that all the guys on the team know their roles. They looked sloppy and never really got any good scoring chances throughout the game. Brett Cote seemed to be taking over the role of Rintoul this year, and he's not doing a bad job of it. Hicketts played physical, and as a pairing him and Kanzig looked dynamite. The Royals will be hungry tomorrow night as they just simply got outplayed last night.
Great win over Calgary yesterday. The Royals played a complete game from start to finish, outskating, outhitting, outshooting, and most importantly outscoring. They looked really good. It was nice to see, especially against a strong team like Calgary. Lowry has them playing a much tighter game so far this year. At no point last season did I see them play with such a complete effort.
Great win over Calgary yesterday. The Royals played a complete game from start to finish, outskating, outhitting, outshooting, and most importantly outscoring. They looked really good. It was nice to see, especially against a strong team like Calgary. Lowry has them playing a much tighter game so far this year. At no point last season did I see them play with such a complete effort.
Agreed, excellent game, and excellent start to the season, I'm almost glad the NHL locked out, has me watching more Royals games
Local boy Jack Palmer is in town on Tuesday as the Royals take on the Wheat Kings.
Excited to see Ryan Pulock and Eric Roy.
Pulock has a cannon from the point. Every time the Wheat Kings were on the PP I was scared he was going to score. Other than that it was a really entertaining game to watch. Royals definitely play better when trailing and it would be interesting to see how much we would move up in the standings if we gave 3 solid periods instead of just showing up in the second or third
