Preds vs Avalanche

Hey guys,

With Jon on vacation, i took it upon myself to write this weeks blog post.

Well, this game marked our first loss of the season, a loss by default though. The Burlington Canucks forgot to book our home-ice for this game, therefore resulting in no refs showing up to the game. Because of this, the Preds were unable to keep their perfect record, and have 1 tally in the loss category - albeit, it wasn't a real loss *so we're still undefeated in my books*.

The bench was a little bit shorter, with Thomas, Ben, Jordan and Jon all away, but it didn't stop the Preds from playing though. We beat the Avalanche in a friendly scrimmage 10-3. Although there were a fair amount of goals scored, the real highlight of the game was the improvement of the fundamentals. The Preds executed their breakout play to perfection, and this resulted in multiple odd-man rushes, due to quick transition. This along with cycling the puck well deep in the offensive zone, led to a fair amount of goals.

Hopefully next week we'll be able to add another to the win slot - and we'll be looking forward to our next two games (both also against the Avalanche) as a chance for a real test to see how we fare against them.

Final Score: Preds 0 - Avalanche 1 [forfeit]

Until next week,

-Mike Krikke
Go Preds Go

New Look

Hey all,

burlingtonpredators.blogspot.com has a new look! I've been working on the site a fair amount lately, just adding a few new things on the right side, changing and tweaking colours for a better visual experience! Hope you like what you see, if not, we'll take this out on the ice ... you heard me.

Coming Soon:

• photo album (once we get some photos ... sheesh)
• music playlist
• videos section (same deal as videos, get on that!)
• player profiles section

Feel free to e-mail burlingtonpredators@gmail.com with your questions/concerns/ideas for the blog, we'll be sure to consider them.

Thanks,

-Mike Krikke

December 1 -- Preds vs. Vipers

Another week, another game. This week we played at home vs. the B-town Vipers. A match against the team we beat three times last year and so far once this year though the team this year doesn't have last year's star player Greg Bosscher, now a member of the Thrashers. Rob was away and with both Dennis and Tyler not feeling 100% we had a "shortened bench", to us at least, and the D seemed to appreciate the excess ice time. Adam, playing his first game in two weeks put us ahead with help from Mark Komdeur and Kyle, later he got another after some nice passing by Kyle and Mike and a couple whacks at the puck. Rookie Mike Krikke came up big with two goals and an assist, the first goal being an ultra hack "only in the C division goal" when he shot the puck from the point about 2 feet over the cross bar and someone hit it down into the net. After the ref realized it was a person in a white jersey who did the high stick the goal was allowed. His second goal was assisted by Darren when Mike screamed a shot in from the point and put in 5-hole on the Vipers goalie. Darren also scored a C division goal when the Viper player, pressured by Mark, thought he was doing the horseshoe drill and passed the puck right to the tape of Darren's stick and with ease Dee put it home. On that exact same shift Dee worked the puck around the boards to Jon, Jon passed it to Mark Faber, and Mark Faber shot the puck into the same corner as Dee did a minute earlier. Mark also scored a beauty picking the top corner after help from Darren and J-bust. Kyle put a cap on the game scoring the eight goal on a pass from Ben. Then the J-bus...t got a 10:00 minute major penalty and was kicked out at the end of the game for absolutely rocking Nick Roza. The Vipers also had a guy kicked out who then proceeded to tell the ref that he would kick the shit out of him in the parking lot...smooth.
We have the week off again this weekend but hopefully we'll schedule a practice or something rest up boys because we got a 6 game schedule after that, 4 of them infront of a home crowd.

Final Score: Preds 8 - Vipers 0

Gameday: Burlington Predators @ Smithville Stealth

Last weekend, after a gameless week and a practice, we made the trek out to St. Catherines once again but this time to play the Smithville Stealth. We were excited to take to the ice, thinking we would be playing on the same ice surface as the Niagara Ice Dogs play on so the rink would be good, but we played on the other not so good pad. The ice was a little sketchy as noticed by a few of the Preds players, but don't worry they all got into a groove later. With key players Mike Krikke at a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert, Adam Aasman M.I.A. and Dennis getting hurt 5 minutes into the game, trusty Mark Komdeur once again laced up for the blue, white and silver. He wanted to keep his point streak going so he popped in 2 goals with helpers going to his son Tyler who got 5 assists on the game and centerman Kyle who ended up with 2 goals and 4 assists. The trio of Mark, Jon and Darren scored a total of 5 goals and each got an assist. The Preds defense and Mitch played a solid game only letting one goal in with Mitch coming up huge a few times. A well defensively played game, especially on the penalty kill due to dumb penalties, kept the momentum up for the Preds and helped them put the pucks in the net.
Next week we look to keep our winning streak alive against the Burlington Vipers this time at The Wave. Be there or be square.

Final Score: Preds 9 - Stealth 1

Gameday: Burlington Predators @ Grimsby Thrashers

Last saturday saw us Preds making the 45 minute, or less for some leadfooted individuals, drive to St. Catherines to play the rival Grimsby Thrashers. The Preds stepped on the ice at 9:00 ready for a big game. After a long warm-up the ref came and immediatly started the game. Coming off 4 straight wins you could say we were a little cocky, thinking we already had the game in the bag, after all it is C-division hockey, but the Thrashers brought us back down to earth about 10 minutes into the game scoring the first goal of the game, which was also the first time the Preds had been down in a game. But the trusted Komdeurs came up huge with Mark Komdeur scoring our first goal with a shot that beat the goalie to tie the game up at 1s. Then Tyler decided he had to show up his dad and did just that with a few smooth moves and a sniper shot scoring 3 straight goals putting us up ahead 4-1. Calvin Komdeur, seeing that his brother and dad both got on the score sheet wanted to be on there too so he got a penalty pulling down a flying Thrasher who was on his way to a sure breakaway. Mitch played a great game and came up huge stopping a breakaway and a couple 2-on-1s and a penalty shot, bailing out his dad. His shutout streak was stopped but not after at least a 150 minute stetch of being the stone wall.
A good 4-2 win effort by the whole team after a slow start to the first half of the game. No game this week but hopefully we can rent some ice and have a practice/scrimmage in preparation for our trek back to St. Catherines in 2 weeks to take on the Stealth.

Final Score: Preds 4 - Thrashers 2

Gameday: First Four Games

Hey Preds Fans
Since the Preds are so incredible and are ripping up C division we decided to start up our own website to tell our fans out in the world of how amazing we are and will be.
We started off the season with a bang winning our first game 5-4 against the 2nd seeded Grimsby Thrashers. We led into the 3rd Period with a 5-0 lead and expected good things until someone said the S word and we stopped skating leading to four unanswered goals by the Thrashers rather late in the period. Luckily we were able to sqeeze by still holding on to the 2 points after 60 minutes.
Our second game was against the Ancaster Avalanche in Caledonia. We finished the game with a commanding 8-2 win with the Avalanche scoring one goal on a breakaway and the other on a 5-on-3 penalty kill. Sub Mark Crosby Komdeur played a solid game scoring half the teams goals leading them on to a sure victory.
On October 26 there was an old rivalry revived between the former b central hacks of the Predators and the Viper. Both teams played with their heart and the Preds again came out with 2 points and a smile after a 12-0 win. Congradulations to Mitch Muis with his first shutout of the season. The game was a big confidence booster and the Preds brought in into the next game.
We were back at home again last saturday night to face the Smithville Stealth. After watching an inspiring A division game between the Sharks and the Cougars we hit the ice carrying a momentum that proved to be vital. Tyler Komdeur continued the Komdeur tradition and scored a neat hat trick with a few neat moves, quick hands, and a snipers eye. The game got a little rough at the end and after an ejection and a cool down talking to from the refs the came continued and finished with Mitch carrying his last shutout into this game for a whole 120 minutes total, with a little help by a great dive from Dennis to keeps his sons shutout streak alive.
Preds played a great 4 games against the opponents and came out the winner in all 4 and look forward to rematch against their rival the Thrashers hoping to keep their win streak and Mitch's shutout streak alive!