Sloppy play highlights Harpoons win -- Great White Rumour Mill

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Subject: Sloppy play highlights Harpoons win

Author:
Rock Lobster

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Date Posted: 09:11:49 02/05/03 Wed

(HALIFAX)-When the same two teams that faced each other for the Hoser Cup last season get together for their first meeting of the season, one would think that they could expect a great game with lots of hitting and end to end rushes. Well, it seems like someone forgot to tell the Halifax Harpoons and the Calgary Cougars about those expectations. In a game marred by stupid penalties, suspect goaltending, and horrible hockey the Halifax Harpoons exacted some revenge for last years final by defeating the defending GWHL champs 6-4.

The first bit of ineptitude came as a result of a Shawn Bates high stick on Marian Gaborik. Bates, a player with wheels himself, couldn't be bothered to try to skate with Gaborik and tried hooking him instead. He ended up clipping him just under the eye with his stick and in an effort to avoid the menacing piece of wood, the rookie pulled a groin muscle and had to leave the game. That netted Bates a game misconduct before the match was four minutes old. Not to be outdone though, Calgary's Darius Kasparitus was caught water-skiing behind Zigmund Palffy was he was called for highsticking at 6:17 of the first period. The vaunted Halifax powerplay then went to work looking more than anything like a latter-day version of the Keystone Cops than anything resembling hockey players. As bad as the fact that the Poons couldn't get the puck past center ice was, was the first goal they scored. Matthias Ohlund banked the puck up the boards from his end to Palffy who was at center ice. The forward blooped a high one in and then went off for a line change. No sooner was he going off the ice than the puck came down and somehow eluded Calgary goalie Trevor Kidd for the 1-0 lead.

Not to be outdone, Calgary came right back and fluked one in of their own when Miroslav Satan banked a shot in off of Tony Amonte's shin to tied the game up. At 13:27 of the first period one of the few highlights of the night came as a result of an Eric Lindros turnover at center ice. Michael Nylander jumped on the puck and fed a streaking Martin Havlat who deked Halifax goalie Sean Burke and put the rubber upstairs on the stick side for a 2-1 Cougar lead. However two Halifax goals by Peter Bondra and Jeff O'Neill, both as the result of tip-ins when Calgary defensemen failed to clear the front of the net meant it was 3-2 Harpoons at the end of one period of play.

Burnaby Joe sakic tied things up early in the second when he took a nice feed from Zdeno Chara and slid the puck by a sprawled Burke at 4:16. Then the two teams settled into a stretch of truly brutal hockey as neither club could get the puck in the other teams zone for a good 13 minutes. This finally ended duing a Halifax powerplay brought about by some mindless decision making by Calgary defender Jon Klemm. Klemm, already going off for punching Jeff O'Neill in the back of the head, took a shot at Keith Carney on the way to the box and for his trouble was awarded an additional two minutes in penalties at 14:21 of the second. Those extra minutes proved to be costly as Calgary killed off the first infraction but Palffy banged in the rebound of a Milan Hejduk shot at 17:54 to restore the Halifax lead. Both teams tallied once more within the next two minutes thanks to some uninspired hockey in the neutral zone. First Steve Yzerman was set up by Tony Amonte after the latter stripped Hejduk of the puck. The center let a stoppable shot go from just inside the blueline that Burke whiffed on. Then less than 60 seconds later Peter Bondra emerged from a sideboards scramble with the puck and skated around two defenders before sliding the puck to Zigmund Palffy. He then forced Kidd to take him before dropping a pass to Joe Thornton who hammered in his first of the year to make the score 5-4 Halifax going into the lockerroom.

The third period took it's cue from the dreary depths of the second with only Vladimir Malakhov's screened blast at 3:32 finding the back of any net. On the powerplay, again, Calgary's undisciplined play cost them on the scoreboard when Eric Weinrich was flagged for elbowing Joe Thornton in the neutral zone away from the play at 2:08 of the third. Other than that no one could mount any kind of sustained attack as both teams demonstrated that they'd rather be anywhere but at the rink on this night.

Rock Lobster
HALIFAX HERALD

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