Ass-kicking. There is hardly any other way to describe tonight's game.

 

From the pre-game warmup to the final buzzer, you could tell that The Bullets needed to use this game strictly as a tune-up and nothing else. Their opponents, the Kremlins2, seemed to have mistaken the SVHL for the ECHL - a league more appropriate for their skill level.

 

Although The Bullets took an early lead on a fluky goal by Mike Adelson, the Kremlins quickly tied it. Shortly after, the Kremlins struck again, and again, putting the score at 3-1 after one.

 

The second period was ran by goaltender Dustin Stroll, who kicked aside an onslaught of shots. In total, he stopped 11 of 13 during the middle frame.

 

The offensive highlight of the second period, and the rest of the game for The Bullets, was Brandon Spears' first goal of the season. With a strong drive to the net and a hard shot which found its way in, it was a goal reminiscent of Patrick Marleau.

 

The Kremlins really tore it open in the third period, scoring seven times. Two of those goals were shorthanded, on top of one scored earlier in the game.

 

The final shots were 41-15 in favour of the Kremlins.

 

As mentioned last week, this game has little reflection on the true skill of the team. Even though the score shows otherwise, The Bullets looked better this week, and it is almost guaranteed that they will be that much better next week.

 

The Bullets will look to start fresh again against the Dufferin Steelers. The puck drops at 8:00pm next Sunday at Sportsvillage. See you there! 

 

Notes: Bruce Mackenzie made his Bullets debut. Steven Spears and Tyler Cohen were late scratches. Dave Preston's penalty-less streak has now reached 45 games; We'll check back in if he hits the big 5-0.  

 

 

 

 

 

The Bullets inaugural game of 2008 was not a memorable one.

 

Although tied at three after two periods of play, The Bullets were visibly rusty and being outshot by five. All signs pointed to a disasterous third period. And it was - Even though it looked like The Bullets really found their legs in the third period (they outshot the Warpigs 19-11 in that final frame), they still allowed four unasnwered goals by their opponents, capped by a shorthanded goal with 3:51 remaining.

 

"Not the start we wanted," commented Mike Adelson after the game.

 

"A very disappointing third period," echoed Joey Evans.

 

The Bullets fell down by one very early, but responded quickly. Adelson snuck in from the point and battled for the puck behind the net, finally feeding it out - in Datsyukian fashion - to Ben Ashkin who ripped it short side.

 

Early in the second, The Bullets took the lead, again on a goal by Ashkin. This time, Tyler Cohen alertly found Ashkin down low and he made no mistake.

 

The Bullets only lead of the game lasted a little over three minutes, and after falling behind by a goal, Max Shuster buried his first of the year when the goalie played the puck right to him. That tied the game and gave The Bullets a chance to pull out a victory in the third.

 

The Bullets came out really strong in the third, but were deflated after three straight scoring chances were stopped - the final one was immediately followed by an opponents breakaway goal.

 

On the plus side, goaltender Benji Lightstone made multiple highlight-reel saves, including a cross crease toe save early on and an NHL-calibre poke check later on. He stopped 20 of 27 shots.

 

"I've been working on my pokecheck in practice. Look for me to be more active with my stick in subsequent starts," Lightstone said.

 

Brandon Spears said that The Bullets are "disappointed with the loss, but not dejected. We aren't ecstatic with our performance, but we gave an especially good effort in the third period. We faced a good goaltender and were unable to recover after giving up back-to-back breakaway goals."

 

For next week, the plan is to build on the third period performance, where they got almost 20 shots on goal and played a good puck possession game.

 

While every game is important, the rule of thumb is that the first two games of the season are not the best to judge a team on. Team members are still getting a feel for each other and it usually takes a couple of games for most players to get their timing perfected.

 

There is no game next week because of Victoria Day (May 2-4 weekend). However, The Bullets have an early game in two weeks against a team visiting from Russia. Puckdrop is at 4pm. We look forward to seeing you then!

 

Notes: Matthew Ockrant made his Bullets debut, wearing number 6. Forward Mark Leibtog returned to the lineup after spending all of last season on the LTI.     

 

 

 

 

The Bullets would like to send out warm birthday wishes to forward Tyler Cohen.

 

Whatever you do to celebrate your 23rd birthday, we hope it's awesome!