HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAPTAIN!
June 28, 2007
His ultimate birthday wish is for a Bullets championship, so he's going to be spending this birthday doing
intense on and off ice workouts.
Hopefully him and his teammates will help his birthday wish come true by winning the league championship
on August 21st!
Have a great birthday Brandon!
A CRUSHING LOSS
June 27, 2007
Every mistake hurts. If this wasn't obvious before, it sure is now.
In a game where the Bullets had full control, it was two mistakes and a solid opponent's goaltender that
deprived them of two points.
The last time these two met, it was a tight game which needed overtime to be decided. The Bullets knew this
would be no cakewalk, and after last week's hard loss, came into this one fully prepared for it.
The Bullets fired shot after shot on the US' goalie. He stole the spotlight as he turned aside 18 of
19 shots in a spectacular performance.
Although only facing 11 shots, Bullets goaltender Benji Lightstone was solid and had to make a couple of acrobatic saves.
The Bullets powerplay continued to be rubbish, and they were scored upon while on the powerplay for the
second straight game. With the first period coming to a close, the puck took a funny bounce of the boards and went right to
an alert US forward who made no mistake in scoring the shorty.
Although deflated by the goal, the boys remained positive and continued to take it the US, only to be stpped
by the goalie. About halfway through the second the Bullets finally solved him. Brandon Spears won a clean draw back to Daniel Sherkin who fired a wrist shot that just squeaked through the shortside. The assist was Spears' sixth of the season,
tying him for the team lead.
Between the second and third, the captains stressed keeping up the pressure on the US, who were clearly
tiring. Mike Adelson was overheard encouraging his teammates that "eventually one more has got to get by that tender."
The Bullets responded, and came out strong for the third, outshooting the US 6-3 in the period. However,
the US' tender was flawless.
The Bullets sustained the pressure throughout the third. With a shootout looming, the coaches were beginning
to decide who would shoot. But it wouldn't even get that far. With around a minute remaining, on a rather harmless looking
play, the US gained the offensive zone and forced the puck towards the net. Lightstone tried to get his trapper on it,
but the US managed to outmuscle the Bullets defence and poke it past the goaline, giving them a 2-1 lead.
Crushed at giving up what was to be the decisive goal, the Bullets took a timeout to regroup. With
a pulled goaltender and in desperation mode, the Bullets managed a couple of shots on goal in the final seconds before the
US managed to clear the puck away and allow time to expire.
This was the Bullets second straight loss, making it their longest losing streak of the season.
Ben Ashkin's goal streak came to an end at five games. He will surely look to start a new one next week.
Even though the game ended in a crushing loss for the guys, they can take a lot from the game. If they continue
outshooting their opponents, more games should end up in their favour.
We at thebullets04.tripod.com believe that the Bullets will be on the ball and get back on the right track
when they face off against the Smashing Pumpkins next week at 10:00pm. Don't miss it for anything!
BULLETS GET DOUBLED UP
June 20, 2007
The Bullets' streak of recording points in four straight games was snapped last night at the hands of the
Heart Foundation.
The Bullets had a slow start and subsequently fell behind by three goals. Dismal special teams didn't
help the comeback effort, and they were never able to fully recover. The Bullets were 1/5 on the powerplay and 0/2 while shorthanded.
"We completely fell apart for five minutes; at the end of the first and the beginning of the second. That
totally cost us the game," forward Tyler Cohen said.
Joey Evans added, "There is no margain for error in this league. There is no way we can expect to win with such
poor special teams. Plus, we came out flat-footed and fell behind. Once we settled down, we played better. But it
was still impossible to overcome that deficit without having successful special teams. I'm sure we will be working on
that later this week."
This was Dustin Stroll's first loss of the season, and he wasn't overly impressed with his own performance. "My rebound control could
have been a bit better tonight", he said. When asked about the teams overall performance he commented, "I understand
that sometimes the guys are going to make mistakes. That's when they really need me to bail them out. I did what I could and
unfortunately it wasn't enough. We'll work on some stuff and become better for next time."
Standout forward Ben Ashkin continued his vicious goalstreak, potting another pair in the loss. He now has nine goals and continues to lead
the Bullets in that department.
The Bullets next game goes June 26th at 10:00pm against the US. In their last meeting, the Bullets won in
overtime. Hopefully that will continue. We look forward to seeing you there!
BULLETS HANG ON TO EARN SECOND STRAIGHT WIN
June 13, 2007
After losing both games to division rivals Smashing Pumpkins last season, The Bullets wanted to show
that this year was going to be different. If it weren't for the Pumpkins stellar goaltender, the Bullets would have
won by much more than one.
Ben Ashkin brought his goal streak up to four games by scoring two extremely important goals. He made the Pumpkins goalie
look silly on one of the goals. His seven goals leads the Bullets.
Max Shuster opened the scoring for the Bullets, but their lead only lasted nine seconds.
After Ashkin's pair of goals put the Bullets ahead by two, the Bullets kept their defensemen back to
help defend the lead.
Despite allowing a goal in the middle of the third, Benji Lightstone and the team's defence remained strong and the Bullets managed to hang on for the win.
The Bullets were getting quality shots on goal all game and finished with 28, while their
defense limited the Pumpkins to just 10 shots.
Half of the Pumpkins' shots came late in the third period. The Bullets were on their heels, but Lightstone
bailed the boys out.
The 4-1-1 Bullets look to extend their win streak next week against the Heart Foundation.
Notes: This was Lightstone's first victory as a full-time member of the Bullets. Dave Preston has really stepped it up this season and is making positive strides in his career. Preston has more than doubled
his previous career high in points, and there are still nine games to be played. His ten points on the season puts him tied
for second in team scoring. A total of eight Bullets are currently on pace to break their previous best season point
totals. Jeff Rotman was called up and arrived only minutes before the game begun. He played a total of two shifts. Rotman was returned
to his minor-league team after the game. The Bullets are off to their best start in franchise history.
RESILIENCE PAYS OFF FOR THE BULLETS
June 6, 2007
Ben Ashkin is quickly showing the Bullets that he is an impact player who can tilt any game in his team's favour.
His goal just 15 seconds into overtime avoided a total meltdown and gave the Bullets a 6-5
win over the Pavilion US last night.
Mike Adelson had a goal and assisted on the game-winner. Dave Preston, Max Shuster and Daniel Sherkin each also had a goal and an assist and Ashkin had two goals for the Bullets. Captain Brandon Spears, who returned after missing four games due to suspension, showed no signs of rust and had 4 assists.
Spears received a very warm welcome from his teammates.
"It's nice to finally have Brandon back. He changes the whole dynamic of our dressing room. Tonight's win
was for him," Adelson said. "Even though our opponent erased 3 leads, we didn't give up as a team and thats really important."
To force overtime, the US overcame a two goal deficit. But with the Bullets putting out three of their
best players (Ashkin, Adelson, B. Spears) to start the extra frame, things looked favourable. On the scoring play, Spears
headmanned the puck to Ashkin who drove hard to the net after he left it for Adelson. He brought the puck
across the blue line and wired a low shot that went off the goalie's pads and right onto Ashkin's stick. With the goaltender
out of position, all Ashkin had to do to end it was tap the puck in, and he made no mistake in doing so.
"You just have to always be ready for it when Spears has it," forward Hartley Blumenfeld said. "I know how talented he is. We're very happy to have him back."
The US tied the game at 5 with just over 6 minutes left in the third period off a 2-on-1 rush
on which the goal scorer roofed one past goaltender Dustin Stroll.
"We had a few chances to close out our opponent tonight and didn't capitalize," said Steven Spears. "I'm confident we can work out the kinks before the playoffs."
Stroll, who had shutouts in his past two starts, stressed that winning is more important than individual statistics.
"Any win feels good," said Stroll. "We didn't give up on the game after they kept tying it. Our leaders
really stepped up tonight. In past seasons, we would have totally crumbled. But not anymore. Although it wasn't my best
effort, we won the game and I feel great."
The Bullets outshot the US 21-19 in the game.
"They are a great hockey club," an opponent said. "You can tell they never feel desperate. They just
keep working."
Notes: Daniel Sherkin is the only player to have points in every single game. Adelson passed former Bullet
Mike Ceresney in career points for first overall. Brandon Spears will likely do the same at some point this season. After
recording two shutouts on only six shots, Dustin Stroll allowed 5 goals on 19 shots which dropped his season save percentage
a whopping twenty percentage points. Before missing four games due to suspension, Brandon Spears had only missed
one game in franchise history. Alternate goaltender Benji Lightstone will once again look for his first victory as a full-time member of the team next Tuesday.
