Spurs Edge Lawmasters!

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, Colorado

The Spurs were lucky to escape with a win tonight. Although the Spurs led 4-0 after two periods the Lawmen came roaring back in the 3rd to make it close. They potted 4 past an over-matched Marty Brodeur in the 3rd.
The only thing that got the Spurs the win was the 'masters running out of time and Liles closing out his hat trick at 11:11 of the 3rd on the power play.
Blueliner John-Michael Liles had his best game of the year and possibly his CCHL career when he netted a goal in each period in registering his hat trick. Two were even strength and the last on the power play as previously mentioned. He now has 14 goals on the season. Not bad for a Dman who most scouts say is undersized.
Other standouts for the Spurs in the 5-4 win, their 10th in a row, were Tkachuk with 3 helpers and Sakic, Hossa and Stastny with two each. Lecavalier and Lapointe also scored goals for the Spurs.
Scoring for the 'masters was Patrice Bergeron with two. Heatley and Recchi also tallied goals with Heatley registering two helpers to boot.
The Lawmasters were 1 for 4 on the power play while the Spurs were 2 for 6. The 'masters had the edge in SOG in the game 42-38.
Next up for the Spurs are the Karlstad Killers at The Coffee Pot in Karlstad. Another trip to Sweden!
The Killers will be another test for the Spurs as the Killers boast a 14-2-2 record at the Pot.
If they want to extend the win streak to 11, they'll have to forget the 3rd period tonight!
Dasher Notes: After the game, GM Dick Poelker had a meeting with GM Derek Chaiken who was on the trip with his team. Over a few Bombay Sapphire martinis they came up with a deal. Poelker bought winger Marek Svatos from Chaiken for $8 million USD.
Poelker said "Hey, I think Marek will look great in the Spurs colors. So Barney (Spurs financial advisor) is squawking. So what. We can afford it!"
GM Chaiken preferred not to comment. Maybe a few tee many martoonis?
Sure is a lot of bucks to pay for a part time player but I guess he knows what he's doing.
Maybe the high altitude is getting to him? The standings that is folks, not the mile high altitude!
Until next time....

Spurs Knock Out Homers!

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, Colorado

The Spurs made it 9 in a row and a 10 game unbeaten streak in a lopsided 10-3 victory over the Springfield Homers. Home cooking indeed!
Keith Tkachuk posted 4 goals, Vinny Lecavalier 2 goals and 4 assists and Marian Hossa 5 assists!
It was an amazing performance and unfortunately former Spurs' netminder Peter Budaj was on the receiving end of the lopsided score. Peter faced 48 shots from his former 'mates in making 38 saves. Peter Budaj has seen better days for sure.
Adding to Budaj's misery were port sider Ponikarovsky with 2 goals and 1 assist, Parrish with 1 goal and 2 assists, with linemate and Captain Joe Sakic chipping in with 2 assists.
Blueliner John-Michael Liles scored the 10th Spurs goal of the game late in the 3rd on a questionable call.
Questionable because the scorekeeper listed it as a power play tally giving the Spurs 4 power play goals in 3 power play attempts.
Not sure how the offiical scorekeeper came up with that.
The league office and Spurs' management are investigating.
Goals for the Homers were scored by Plekanec, Zubrus and Vyborny with former Spur Chris Kunitz notching an assist against his former team.
Next up for the Spurs in a couple of days are the division rival Beverly Hill Lawmasters here at the Coliseum in Denver. The Spurs hope to extend their win streak to 10 games surpassing their previous high streak of 9 games this season.

Spurs Blast Sandblasters!

- Icesurfer's Palace - Hawaii

The Spurs arrived at the Icesurfer's Palace, home of the Sandblasters, looking fairly rested after the looong trip from Sweden to Hawaii.
Marc-Andre Bergeron continued where he left off in the previous game, notching his 6th goal of the season to tie the score at 05:37 of the 1st period. Assists went to Hossa and Tkachuk.
Bernier had scored his 1st of the season for the Sandblasters earlier in the period.

The 2nd period saw Martin Lapointe score his 6th of the year, assisted by Malik and Staios
at 14:08. Also scoring for the Spurs were Sakic (21) at 15:55 with assists to McCabe and Guite and Hossa (23) at 18:34 assists to Tkachuk and Lecavalier.
Mathieu Schneider notched his 5th of the year for the 'blasters at 16:52 with assists going to Justin Williams and McDonald.
At the end of the 2nd the Spurs had taken a commanding 4-2 lead.
The spurs had outshot the Sandblasters 32-21 through two periods.
The 3rd period saw that 'commanding' lead vanish as the 'blasters blasted Marty Brodeur for two quick goals at 03:23 and 04:55. The first one was netted by Brind'Amour (8) on assists by Alfredsson and Weber. The second one, a point blast by Schneider, his 6th and 2nd of the game, with helpers going to Holmstrom and Pronger.
So much for the 'commanding' lead. The score was tied at 4-4.

Rookie Paul Stastny then turned on the jets and scored what turned out to be the game winner for the Spurs at 07:35, his 14th of the year on assists by McCabe and Laperriere. Later he would score his 15th, an empty netter, assisted by the same two players.
In between, the unconscious M.A. Bergeron, scored his 7th of the season assisted by Lecavalier and Hossa. Bergeron now has 5 goals in his last 3 games.
It looks like it's now impossible for Coach Q to sit Bergeron anytime soon.
GM Poelker would probably have one of his infamous tirades if the Coach did that!

The Spurs had extended their win streak to 8 and were now unbeaten in 9.
Next up for the high flying Spurs are the Springfield Homers back in Denver tomorrow.
They most likely will be going up against ex Spurs #1 goalie, Peter Budaj.
Can Brodeur beat his old 'mates and extend the winning streak? Stay tuned...

Spurs Bag Donuts!

- The BAG - Helsingborg, Sweden

The much anticipated matchup between the CCHL Conference leaders was about to begin. Would it be a defensive battle? A showcase of scoring? Both?
The game was being telecast worldwide via the CCHL Network and the fans were eager to watch and find out!
After munching on a pre-game meal of doughnuts provided by Wisborg, the Spurs and Donuts were ready to rumble!!!
The fans had their answer off the opening faceoff when CCHL scoring leader Marian Hossa of the Spurs deked goalie Evgeni Nabokov of the Donuts to the ice and roofed his 22nd of the season at the 00:15 mark to start the game! Assists went to center pivot Lecavalier and blueliner McCabe.
The game was intense and high flying as both teams exchanged barrages of shots with both Nabokov and Brodeur standing on their heads, when at 16:08 Vinny Lecavalier deflected a shot past Nabokov! It was his 22nd of the season with assists going to Hossa and McCabe. The Spurs had taken a 2-0 lead.
GM & Coach Johan Kallum hastily called a timeout. He was very animated and gesturing. It was easy to tell he wasn't happy and he was letting his players know about it!
After the unorthodox timeout, play picked up slowly as Coach Kallum shook up his lines. At the 17:13 mark his juggling paid off when Rolston beat Brodeur and found the twine on feeds from Langkow and Jagr. It was his 12th of the season!
For the ensuing faceoff Coach Kallum gestured for the current line to stay out there and what a move it was! 37 seconds after Rolston's tally, blueliner Scott Niedermayer beat Brodeur like a rented mule and the score was deadlocked at 2-2! The Donuts had responded! Assists were recorded on Niedermayer's 8th of the season by Langkow and Rolston. The 1st period came to a close with the score tied 2-2. The Donuts had outshot the Spurs during the high flying 1st period 22-16!

The 2nd period began in the same manner with both teams flying! You'd think they might be a little bit conservative but not these guys! During a 4 on 4 scenario with Laperriere (Spurs) and Sharp (Donuts) off for roughing, Jere Lehtinen potted his 16th of the season at 08:37 on assists by Scott Niedermayer and Rolston. The Donuts had taken a 3-2 lead. The lead lasted almost 5 minutes when at 13:28, Lecavalier netted his 23rd of the season and 2nd of the game, on tic-tac-toe passing with linemates Tkachuk and Hossa who recorded the assists. Tied again!
Line change by Coach Q of the Spurs and less than a minute later at 14:19 the Spurs strike again on rookie Paul Stastny's 13th of the season! He was assisted by linemates Arnason and Laperriere.
The shots were flying, Brodeur was flopping all over the place like a beached salmon, when just 12 seconds later the little used Mikael Samuelsson scored his 1st of the season at 14:31!!!
The helpers went to Straka and Zubov.
Note: Johan, 1st of the season? Where'd you pull that one out of? Gimme a break!
Both teams exchanged shots the rest of the period with neither able to score again. The 2nd period came to a close with the teams knotted at 4-4. A defensive gem it is not as through two periods the Wisborg Donuts have outshot the Denver Spurs 38-27.

Ok...here we go...3rd period. The Spurs come out intent on scoring. The pressure on Nabokov is intense and he wilts at the 1:01 mark! Blueliner Marc-Andre Bergeron nets his 4th of the season with a blast from the point putting the Spurs up 5-4! Assists go to Hossa and Lecavalier. Bergeron, who Spurs' management had been thinking about trading, has been sizzling ever since he was inserted in the lineup for the injured Skrastins.
The Donuts turn it up a notch and are putting more pressure on Brodeur and taking a lot more shots than the Spurs. Back and forth when Jagr solves Brodeur knotting the score at 5-5!! He records his 21st of the season on assists by Scott Niedermayer and Gomez at 10:06. Just a little under 10 minutes to go and tied again!!
The Spurs were intent on regaining the lead but seemed to be looking for the perfect shot. Possibly a mistake when Dman Brett Clark finally jumped into a play pressuring Nabokov and netted his 2nd of the season at 16:44! Helpers went to Arnason and Stastny. The Spurs had the slim one goal lead with just over 3 minutes to go!!
On the ensuing faceoff the fans here at The BAG were roaring! It was deafening as they yelled and stomped their feet to get their beloved Donuts on the scoreboard again.
The roaring was shortlived, however, when Marc-Andre Bergeron trailed Stastny and Laperriere into the Donuts zone and blasted a one timer on a drop pass from Stastny past a bewildered Nabokov!
You could hear a pin drop!
Bergeron's 5th of the season and 2nd of the game only 6 seconds after Clark's tally! Holy Cow!!!
Assists went to Laperriere and Stastny. Spurs 7 Donuts 5.
Bergeron may have worked his way back into the starting lineup with that one.
That goal visibly deflated the Donuts and some of the fans started heading out.
The game ended with the same 7-5 score but what a game! Indeed! All the goals were at even strength.

The Donuts had outshot the Spurs 54-35 in the contest. Looks like Coach Q's shooting practice after the last game worked....eh! Less shots but more quality scoring chances.

Next up for the Spurs are the Jazz Conference rival Hawaii Sandblasters in beautiful Hawaii at the Icesurfer's Palace in Honolulu. The game is in 3 days. They are going to need that time to rest up let alone get there from Sweden! What a schedule....sheesh!! Need some jet fuel money from the league! Luv those FF miles though.

Spurs Win Six Straight!

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, Colorado

The Southwest Scorpions arrived at the Coliseum in Denver intent on ending the Spurs winning streak.
Tkachuk and Hossa had other things to say about that in leading the Spurs to a 6-3 victory and extending the Spurs win streak to 6 games and the unbeaten streak to 7 games. It's been a great run for the Spurs both offensively and defensively.
In this contest Tkachuk managed 3 points on 1 goal and 2 assists while linemate Hossa totaled 3 assists. Lecavalier also chipped in a goal. Over the course of this winning streak the top line of Lecavalier, Tkachuk and Hossa has been hot.
Adding to the scoring for the Spurs was Captain Joe Sakic with 2 goals, who had been struggling lately in the scoring department, along with blueliners John-Michael Liles and Marc-Andre Bergeron who chipped in one each. Bergeron had just been inserted in the lineup due to an injury to Karlis Skrastins and he responded with a power play tally while logging 22 minutes of ice time.
Finding the twine for the Scorpions were Modin (8), Clark (9) and Daniel Sedin with his 22nd of the season.
Next up for the Spurs are the Blues Conference leading Donuts at The Bag in Wisborg in a couple of days.
This should be a barnburner and all CCHL fans will be tuning in on the CCHL network for the matchup of these two Conference leading teams!

Spurs Squeak by Preds

- Denver Coliseum - Denver, Colorado

The Spurs arrived home from their successful 3-0 road trip to face a tough opponent in the Canadian Eastern Division leading Hamilton Predators.

As predicted, it turned out to be a tough match for the Spurs when at the end of the 2nd period the score was 0-0.

Dominik ' The Dominator' Hasek was the reason for the whitewashing of the Spurs through two periods. He had stopped an astounding 38 shots through the 2nd period! He was living up to his legend!

At 05:20 of the 3rd, blueliner Sheldon Souray of the Preds ended the deadlock on a shot from the point that beat a screened Marty Brodeur.
It was his 8th of the season with assists going to Sillinger and Prospal.

The Preds were putting more pressure on Brodeur than they had during the first two periods when at 10:35 White of the Preds was sent to the sin bin for hooking.
Keith Tkachuk took advantage of the man advantage beating Hasek with a wrister at 11:55, his 19th of the season and 5th in 3 games. Assists went to McCabe and Marian Hossa.

Marian Hossa put the Spurs ahead at 16:57, his 21st of the season,
with what turned out to be the game winner.
He was assisted by linemates Tkachuk and Lecavalier.

For his efforts of the game winning goal and an assist on the game tying goal, the local media selected Marian 1st star of the game.

Second star went to Tkachuk for his 1 goal and 1 assist effort with a much deserved 3rd star going to the Dominator, netminder Dominik Hasek of the Predators.

Hasek had stopped an amazing 55 of 57 shots in the 2-1 loss.

Coach Q of the Spurs said. " We'll be working on shooting during tomorrow's workout. Hats off to Dominik, but 57 shots should
give us better results. I'm happy for the win and effort but we have to improve on those numbers when we get that many opportunities.
Dominic Hasek is certainly still the world class Goalie he has been for years."

Next up for the Spurs is division opponent Southwest here at the Coliseum in Denver. The Scorpions are currently 3rd in the USA Western Division.

Spurs Fly By Owls!

- The Nest - Portland, Oregon

Keith Tkachuk and the Spurs arrived in Portland looking to pick up where they left off last night in Dayton.

Tkachuk, who tallied a goal and an assist last night at the Soundstage in Dayton, continued his scoring touch tonight with a hat trick in leading the Spurs to a 6-2 win over the Owls of Portland.

The Spurs were down 2-1 after the 2nd period but came roaring back in the 3rd in scoring 5 unanswered goals. Tkachuk led the way with his hat trick, scoring the goals at 1:29 on the powerplay along with even strength goals at 6:53 and 19:28 to close out the scoring.

After the contest Tkachuk said, "I couldn't do it without Cavey and Hoss", referring to linemates Vincent Lecavalier and Marian Hossa each of whom recorded two assists in the contest.

That made it two hat tricks in two consecutive games for the Spurs and three consecutive road wins.
The road is being kind to the Spurs on this trip.

Marty Brodeur turned in another solid performance between the pipes for the Spurs in turning aside 27 of 29 shots.

Owls' netminder Niklas Backstrom was a little bent after the Spurs launched 53 shots on goal at him during the game with 20 coming in the 3rd period.
Backstrom turned in a fine performance considering the onslaught.

The Owls' goals were scored at 09:13 of the 2nd period by Lang on the powerplay with Vanek scoring one minute and 11 seconds later at 10:24 of the 2nd in giving the Owls the lead at the close of the 2nd period.

The Spurs next opponent is the Hamilton Predators back at the Coliseum in Denver on Saturday.
The Spurs hope to add to their 5 game unbeaten streak but it will be tough to do against a Predators squad who boast a 12-5 record in road contests this year.

Spurs win 3rd in a Row!

- The Soundstage - Dayton, Ohio

The Denver Spurs came to the Soundstage and won their 3rd consecutive game much to the chagrin of GM Bill Corfield and his Dayton Musicmen. It was also the Spurs' 2nd consecutive road win.

The star of the game for the Spurs was Alexei Ponikarovsky who registered his first hat trick of the season with one goal in the 2nd period and two in the 3rd.

Spurs' netminder Marty Brodeur was also a standout, turning aside 32 of 34 shots in raising his record to 3-0-1 since arriving in the Mile High City.

Goalie Tomas Vokoun of the 'men faced 23 shots from the Spurs but was only able to turn aside 16 of them in the 7-2 shellacking.
The Musicmen received some bad news after the game when it was learned that star Centreman Mats Sundin tweaked his groin during the contest and will be shelved for up to a week.

Not to be overlooked is right winger Marian Hossa of the Spurs who registered 4 helpers in the contest. Surprisingly none of them aided Ponikarovsky in his hat trick!

GM Poelker and his Spurs will face the Owls at the Nest in Portland tomorrow.
Marty Brodeur will be going up against another top notch netminder in Niklas Backstrom of the Owls.