Blast remain undefeated
Ed O'Leary, Brantford Expositor - Mon. Oct. 22, 2007
Anthony Marshall is six-foot-five but he possesses cat-like reflexes as the Windsor Saint Clair Saints discovered at the civic centre Friday night.
The Saints outplayed the Brantford Blast in a Major League Hockey game but the Blast, thanks to Marshall, stole a 3-2 victory in a shootout. It was their fourth win a row to start the season.
"He (Marshall) played extremely well," said Blast head coach Larry Trader. "He kept us in the game. He's played well every game. He stops the puck, nothing fancy, he just gets in front of it."
The Saints outshot the Blast 33-31 in regulation time. Windsor then outshot Brantford 5-2 in a five-minute, four-on-four overtime period in which Marshall saved the day for the Blast with at least two outstanding saves.
Marshall then stopped Saints' Kyle Trudell, Kyle Lang and Erik Stone in the shootout.
Jim Baxter and Jeremy Bloomfield missed shootout attempts for Brantford before Chad Spurr beat Bill Ruggiero to give the Blast the victory.
"He (Marshall) made some big saves for us in the last five minutes," noted Trader, who added that the Blast got away from the style of play they had used in their previous two wins.
"The previous two games we played well with the focus on team defence but we got away from that tonight. I think it was a combination of being off for a bit and a couple of guys who weren't feeling well but still played.
"The mental aspect of our game was lacking. We were making bad decisions but you've got to give credit to that Windsor team. They play with a lot of speed in all zones of the ice. They don't give you a lot of time with the puck."
Ryan Healy gave the Blast a 1-0 lead at 1:48 of the second period when he grabbed a loose puck in the slot and drew Ruggiero out of the goal before backhanding a shot into the net.
Jones Scores
Blast defenceman Brad Jones, a Brantford native and rookie in senior hockey, gave his team a 2-0 lead when he sped out of his zone with Paul MacDonald on a two-on-one break.
Jones fed a pass to MacDonald and immediately headed for opened territory. MacDonald gave him a return pass just inside the Windsor blueline and Jones beat Ruggiero with a backhander over the goalie's stickside shoulder.
Jamie Van Hoof cut Brantford's lead to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 14:48 of the second period and Lang tied the score with another power-play goal midway through the third period.
ICE CHIPS: The Blast play in Windsor on Sunday and they'll meet the Dundas Real McCoys at the civic centre next Friday night. The Blast have lost their big pre-season signing, Scott Sheppard, to Fort Worth of the Central Hockey League. "He had a tough time telling me," Blast general manager Peter Ham said of his telephone conversation with Sheppard. Ham believes there's a chance Sheppard will return to the Blast, who have resigned Brett Barnett, a power forward. He played a few games with the Blast late last season. Blast defenceman Bryan Hamm is sidelined with an injury and the blueline brigade will also be without Dan Pitre and Jim Baxter on Sunday as they have previous commitments. Trader will use newcomer Ian Jacobs on defence against the Saints.
Blast 3 Saints 2 (S0)
Brantford is 4-0
Blast committed to defence; Team has three-game winning streak to open MLH season after 8-2 victory over visiting Petrolia
Ed O'leary, Brantford Expositor - Wed, Oct 10th 2007
Brantford Blast head coach Larry Trader appears to have convinced his players that a commitment to defence will lead to plenty of good scoring chances.
"Everybody's making a commitment to come back and that's making a difference," Trader said Tuesday night after the Blast trounced the Petrolia Squires 8-2 at the civic centre in a Major League Hockey game.
It was the third consecutive victory in as many games for the Blast, who opened the season with consecutive 5-0 triumphs over the Tillsonburg Vipers last Friday and Saturday.
"Friday, we won 5-0 but we were horrendous in our own zone," Trader recalled.
"Saturday and (Tuesday) there was a marked improvement and that was because everybody was committed to defence first.
"They were doing a good job of locking up the middle and the result was more offensive opportunities than Friday."
Trader said the Blast will have to concentrate on defence throughout the season.
"That'll be our focus most of the year because we're so talented offensively. If we can get these guys keyed in defensively, we're going to win a lot of hockey games."
The Blast didn't take long to get rolling and it was their No. 1 unit of centre Chad Spurr, right-winger Scott Sheppard and left-winger Wayne Muir that put the Squires behind the eight-ball.
They opened the scoring when Squires' goaltender Chris Houle came out of his net to play the puck behind the extended goal-line.
Spurr intercepted Houle's clearing pass and centred the puck to Muir, who scored into the empty net at the 1:26 mark of the first period.
It's doubtful if Muir has ever scored an easier goal during his lengthy playing career with the opposition's goalie on the ice.
Spurr gave Brantford a 2-0 lead at 2:56 with a 30-foot blast on a power play.
Brandon Moffatt narrowed the deficit for the Squires but Steve Hurst scored on a power play at 13:47 to give the Blast a 3-1 lead heading into the second period.
The Blast outscored the Squires 2-0 in the second period despite playing short-handed for more than 10 minutes in the frame.
Will Wellman, off a tremendous cross-ice pass from Jason Simon, and Spurr scored Brantford's goals.
Muir, Tyler Pelton and Spurr completed the scoring for the Blast in the third period.
Pelton's goal came while the Blast were playing short-handed.
Jeremiah Goodacre scored for Petrolia.
Spurr leads the Blast with five goals and three assists in three games. Sheppard has one goal and five assists and Muir has three goals and one assist.
"He's very talented," Trader said of Spurr. "It's hard to get that biscuit off him."
Trader noted that the Blast's team speed is a concern for the opposition.
"There's a lot of speed up front," he said. "It's going to be hard to handle for a lot of teams.
"I've also got to commend our penalty killers. We haven't spent one minute on penalty killing in practice. We've just told them what we want and adapted here and there depending on what the other team is doing."
The Blast will be idle until they face the Windsor Saint Clair Saints at the civic centre on Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Blast 2-0 on 5-0 shut outs
Brantford Expositor Staff - Tuesday, Oct. 9th 2007
BLAST 5, VIPERS 0
Brantford Goalie Stops 22 Shots
The Brantford Blast are off to a perfect start to their 2007-08 Major League Hockey season.
Brantford, coming off a 5-0 season-opening win on Friday at home against Tillsonburg, met back up with the Vipers on the road on Saturday and skated away with another 5-0 blanking.
So, not only do the Blast own a 2-0 record, they also have a goaltender who has been perfect.
In Friday's game, netminder Anthony Marshall made 29 saves to earn the shutout. The following night, Marshall stopped 22 shots.
After converting two of three power-play chances on Friday night, Brantford was three-for-eight on Saturday, which leaves that unit firing at an almost ridiculous rate of 50 per cent.
POWER PLAY HOT
In the team's most recent win, Andrew Taylor got the Blast on the board with a goal just 5:09 into the first. Brad Jones and Tyler Pelton drew assists.
Brantford then took a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes when Cory Matchim and Wayne Muir notched power-play markers. Andrew Taylor, Ryan Healy, Dan Pitre and Steve Hurst got assists.
Scott Sheppard, with assists to Chad Spurr and Bryan Hamm, made it 4-0 with a goal 17:47 into the second before Jim Baxter, on the power play, concluded the scoring at the 5:59 mark of the third.
Jeremy Bloomfield and Sheppard drew assists on Baxter's goal.
Brantford will be back in action tonight for the team's only Tuesday home game this season. Tonight's opponent at the civic centre for the 7:30 contest will be the Petrolia Squires.
This will be the first time the two teams have met since last March, when Brantford eliminated the Squires in the deciding game of the MLH semifinal best-of-seven series.
Brantford then advanced to the league final, where it defeated the Windsor St. Clair Saints.