Dogs win fourth straight, 7-2 over Clippers

Big win by the Bulldogs, in a game that they didn't play their best...sounds funny to say that, but they weren't tidy enough with the puck in their own end especially, and if not for Jay Deo's heroics on several giveaways this could be a much different bus ride.


As was mentioned by Bruce and I during the Broadcast several times, and was further confirmed by the Coaches after the game, the team didn't play their best game. Pretty nice to say that when you win 7-2, no?


Here's hoping that the Dogs play better tomorrow or it will be hard to keep the streak going as the Clippers will no doubt be a motivated bunch out for revenge tomorrow at the Dog Pound.


On the positive side - you are no doubt reading this thinking, wow, a 7-2 win over a bitter rival and it isn't all roses - very nice to see Deo keep up his strong play. Very happy for Dylan Haugen, Jared Crosson and Marc Eremenko for scoring their first career goals and I'm smiling as I see Zach Funk grin as he enjoys a win over his hometown team in their building.


That might be the biggest positive out of this game - the play of Funk/Haugen/Kerr. They were everywhere, and scored/set up some BIG goals in this one.


Looking forward to tomorrow, PACK THE SHACK people!


Full recap to come at www.albernivalleybulldogs.ca


Hammer

Dogs @ Clippers tonight, Josh Mitchell interview, home vs Clippers tomorrow

The Bulldogs (6-4-0-1, tied 1st Island) take a three-game winning streak into play tonight when they visit the Clippers (4-3-0-1, 4th Island) who have lost three in a row, including the only head-to-head meeting between the teams that started the current streak for both clubs as the Dogs picked up a 5-2 win at the Dog Pound on September 29th.

What a difference a couple of weeks can make. The Clippers entered play the last meeting on a huge roll, winning four straight. The Bulldogs were struggling to find their game, as they had lost three of four.

The message is - don't get too high, and don't get too low, peaks and valleys, etc. The Clippers are a very good team, and the Frank Crane Arena is always a tough place to play. Here's hoping the Dogs have remained grounded on their current winning streak. What has been in the difference for the Dogs over their current streak? Of course there are 100's of factors in any given game that end up with one team winning and another losing but in my humble opinion it has been effort, desperation and preparation. The Dogs have been playing hungry, desperate hockey, and more often than not they have been ready to go from the opening puck drop.

Come ready to play and play hard, and you are going to give your self a chance. You can bet the Clippers will be ready to go tonight, coming off their third straight loss, 4-3 in overtime on Sunday at home to Salmon Arm, a game that saw the Clippers throw 64....you read that right, SIXTY FOUR shots on net! And you can also expect the Clippers to come out with a chip on their shoulder to answer back after the Dogs won the last meeting 5-2

Catch the pregame show on Boston Pizza Bulldogs Hockey on 93.3 The Peak FM at 6:45 with the play-by-play to follow at 7:00 with Bruce MacDonald and yours truly.

Bulldogs forward Evan Anderson, fresh of his commitment to Umass-Lowell, will by my 1st intermission guest.

Tonight's 2nd intermission guest is Bulldog alum Josh Mitchell,  who made his NCAA debut lasts night with the RIT Tigers.


I talked with Josh Wednesday night, as the Tigers were in action last night at Michigan....we talked about the good ole' "interview luck" that has a pretty good % of kids scoring goals when they get an interview...wouldn't you know it that I got this text last night that gave me a pretty big smile "tucked in my first NCAA geno tonight Hammer, we beat Michigan, unbelievable we need to do more intys"


Outstanding stuff "Yosh" Read more about last night's game, absolutely FULL of BCHL alums, HERE


UPDATE - Just when I thought this story couldn't get any better, I received an email from Bulldogs Educational Advisor Tom McEvay...also scoring for the Tigers last night - ANOTHER Bulldog alum in Eliot Rabil. AWESOME!

Hammer

Spoken/Written word Timby's number retired, Lockout ticket special, Coaches Culture change, Photos/Videos

Awesome having Bulldogs GM Spiros Anastas in Peak studios today...if you missed the announcement, it was actually TWO announcements!

First off - the team will be retiring Devin Timberlake's #18 next Saturday October 20th...

Devin's stats here

It was never about stats with Devin though. The consummate team guy and captain and the prime example of what this team can do when it comes to opportunities for local kids such as a chance to attend an Ivy League NCAA School and play Pro Hockey!

The second announcement was the unveiling of the NHL LOCKOUT Season Ticket Special!

Now until the end of October get prorated Season Tickets at great prices $199 adults / $179 seniors / $149 students / $99 children! Pack the Shack folks!


Great story from Scott McKenzie today in the Alberni Valley Times pulling no punches in regards to the effort the Coaches are doing with the club, focusing on the "culture change"

The Coaches have done an outstanding job, that much was evident as the season wore down last year that culminated with contract extensions offered to both Kevin Willison and Adam Hayduk on the eve of the sold-out game against Cowichan. As much as the Coaches have done a brilliant job, a ton of credit for me also goes to the players because quite simply the Coaches can't be there 24/7 to hold the kids hands and assist them in making the right decisions vs the wrong ones. They have to be good character kids. So I guess in the end it would be wrong to not give some credit to their parents/siblings/billet parents/families and even previous Coaches.

Read the story by CLICKING HERE

To the photos/videos portion of the posting....


Here's the SHAW RAPID FIRE segments with Marlon Sabo and Dylan Haugen

And finally a nice short-and-sweet video by Kaicee regarding Thanksgiving...funny stuff...BEEF JERKY, great answer Ryan Lough!

Kaicee also takes some great pictures that you will see on occasion on the blog...she is also selling them and wrote me to pump it up...read on for more details...

 I was wondering if you could advertise that I sell photos on game day. I have photos of Jay Deo, Kurt Gosslien, Chase VanAllen, Dylan Haugen, Marc Eremenko, Lars Hepso, Evan Anderson, Evan Tironese, Zach Funk, Manny Gialedakis, Hunter Stewart, Tryg Strand, Brandon Halls, Nathan Craft, Turner Popoff,   Mitch Crisanti, Jared Wilson, Nick Kerr, and Brad Rebagliati. Others are coming soon, so be patient!

 I sell them upstairs in the upper lounge, on  the merchandise table and their 5x7's for $5 and an I believe a framed autographed 8x10 for $20. If they want MORE selection of pictures go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/KPhotography/230398210320038?sk=info click "the Dogs are Back in Town" album all you have to do is "like" the picture, and comment on it which size you want. That would be AWESOME!!!!! Not a lot of billets, parents, fans and etc know that I do this, and I thought it would be AWESOME for them to know that. They can also contact me at  Kstar_photography@hotmail.com

That's it for now!


Hammer

Anderson to UMass-Lowell, Bettman on Bulldogs website, special announcement tomorrow

October 9, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Alberni Valley Bulldogs are very proud to announce that 95 F Evan Anderson has committed to an NCAA Division 1 scholarship with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell for the 2014/15 season. The UMass-Lowell Riverhawks men’s hockey team plays out of the Hockey East Association.

In the first 11 games of the 2012/13 season, Anderson has many people and schools talking about his hot start. The 5’11”, 170lbs rookie forward from North Vancouver, BC, so far has contributed with 4 goals and 8 assists. Three of Anderson’s four goals have come on the power play.

“Evan is a great fit for our program and I’m sure he will continue to impress at UMass-Lowell,” said Alberni Valley Bulldogs head coach Kevin Willison. “It’s nice to see Evan off to a quick start this season. UMass-Lowell will be very excited when he reaches their program in 2014/15
after having a stellar junior “A” career,” added Willison.

Anderson will be following in the footsteps of Bulldogs’ alumni Maury Edwards who was a Riverhawk from 2007 to 2011. Edwards’ accomplishments during his time at UMass-Lowell included being named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team, the Hockey East First All-Star Team, the Hockey East All- Academic Team, and a New England Division 1 All-Star.

“To have a quality school like UMass-Lowell recruit you when you are still in grade 12 and only 17 years old is a real tribute to Evan,” said Bulldogs’ educational advisor Tom McEvay. “Maury loved it at UMass-Lowell so it is fantastic to have another Bulldog play for the Riverhawks,” added McEvay.

“The University of Massachusetts-Lowell is a very good school with a great coaching staff,” said Evan Anderson. “The school prides themselves in their hockey and academic programs which is why I felt it was a perfect fit for me,” continued Anderson. “I want to thank my parents and the entire Alberni Valley Bulldogs organization for giving me the opportunity to succeed.”

UMass-Lowell has an enrollment of over 15,000 students. The school offers bachelor, masters, and doctoral degrees in engineering, education, fine arts, health and environment, humanities, liberal arts, management, sciences, and social sciences.

The Alberni Valley Bulldogs would like to congratulate Evan for achieving his goal of earning a hockey scholarship this early into his time with the Alberni Valley Bulldogs. We look forward to watching Evan do great things in a Bulldogs uniform for this season and the next one.

For more information please contact Head Coach Kevin Willison


Huge congrats to Evan...he has great hands and vision and I have been thoroughly impressed in him since Game 1 this season....reminds me a bit of Mark McMillan. Here's hoping he is just scraping the surface right now with how good he can be with some further experience!

How about this unreal picture from the Bulldogs home page? Awesome! I'm excited to get the scoop on what's up tomorrow following the 8:00am News/Sports/Weather update.

That's at approximately 8:12 if you are listening Scotty!

Speaking of Scotty AKA Scott McKenzie of the Alberni Valley Times - he wrote a pretty cool story of his experience attending his first-ever Bulldogs Home Game....click HERE to read it

Thanks to Lorraine for the update! Looked everywhere yesterday AM and couldn't find the details - way to go Midgets!


Hi, this is just to let you know that the Van Isle Ford Midget A Bulldogs won Gold in the Comox Tier 1 tournament this past weekend.   I heard other team results on the sports news this morning and thought we should pass this along to you.

Jay Deo, Player of the Week mention, PeeWee Dogs take GOLD, Atom/Bantams Silver...

Congrats to the Best Western Barclay Hotel/Ace Flagging/Probyn Logging/Smitty's PeeWee Rep Bulldogs, who won GOLD yesterday in thrilling fashion to win the Thanksgiving Tournament. Down 3-0 in the game, they battled back to win 5-4 in overtime. Awesome, never-say-die stuff!

Congrats to the Bantam Rep Bulldogs as they picked up Silver in Richmond.Silver also went to the Atom Solda's/LA Marine/Dr. Tremblay Bulldogs in the local Thanksgiving tournament. Good stuff!

Congrats to Jay Deo - it's only an Honorable Mention but it is still nice to see him recognized for how well he has played the last three games....read more from the BCHL Website HERE


UPDATE - Seems like you can't say ANYTHING without offending someone in this day and age. It drives me crazy and makes me think twice about blogging as it seems like I can't win, when all I am trying to do is pump up the guys/team/city, etc. I'm sure I take it too seriously, as obviously do some others.

Judging by one of the comments below - someone is offended I said "only" in regards to Jay Deo's Honorable Mention....I meant no offense whatsoever. I did not mean to downplay Jay's accomplishment in any way shape or form. What I meant in saying ONLY a Honorable Mention was that I believe he was THEE Player of the Week, not "only" a runner up.

Not to take anything away with Austin Azurdia from Langley, he had a great weekend, but Deo was fantastic. It isn't easy for the league to "spread the love" with the Player of the Week award and the Dogs had the winner last week in Tironese and two weeks before that with Hepso.

How about this unreal picture from Keith Simister of Kurt Gosselin's goal on Saturday...great stuff...the puck is on it's way UP in this picture, as I remember it being just under the bar when it went in but it might have been that it was just that FAST! Awesome!

Hammer

Dogs 5 Cents 1, third straight win...

Check out my recap from the Bulldogs website HERE

Dogs host Centennials tonight....

After last night's 3-1 win in Duncan the Dogs (5-4-0-1, 2nd Island) return to home ice tonight to host the Merritt Centennials (5-1-1-0, 2nd Interior) in what is shaping up to be a good one. The Dogs have won two straight, the Centennials three straight, after picking up a gritty 2-1 win last night in Powell River after having spent the day on the bus leaving Merritt in the early AM. Merritt is coming off a well deserved "Honorable Mention" in the latest CJHL Top 20 National Rankings so you can bet they will be motivated and confident, the Dogs will need to match it and top it if they hope to come out on top.

The pregame on Boston Pizza Bulldogs Hockey on THE PEAK begins tonight at 6:45 on 93.3 The Peak with the play-by-play to follow at 7:00 with yours truly and Bruce MacDonald.

Barring any further tech problems, we will bring you Marc Eremenko in the 1st intermission and Bulldogs Goalie Coach Matt Korchmar in the 2nd.

Off to the rink, more later!


Hammer

Dogs 3 Caps 1

Great game in all facets for the AVB in Duncan tonight - check out my recap on the Bulldogs website by clicking HERE

Hammer

Game Day - Bulldogs at Capitals tonight, host Centennials tomorrow...

 The Bulldogs (4-4-0-1) are down to Duncan for the second Friday in a row to face the Capitals (2-5-0-1) at the BIG STICK tonight after the Caps snapped a six game losing streak with a 6-4 win over the Dogs last week. The Capitals haven't played since. 

Catch the pregame show tonight on Boston Pizza Bulldogs Hockey on 93.3 The Peak at 6:45 with the play-by-play to follow at 7:00pm


Marc Eremenko makes his Bulldog/BCHL debut tonight - he will be my 1st intermission guest.

Merritt Centennials Play-by-Play voice Graham Turnbull (twitter here) is my 2nd intermission guest


More later!

Hammer

Kevin Willison and Evan Tironese on THE PEAK today...

We will be talking Bulldog Hockey on 93.3 The Peak this morning!

Catch Head Coach Kevin Willison and League/Team leading scorer, and reigning BCHL Player of the Week Evan Tironese just after the 8:00 News/Sports/Weather

Hammer

Tironese Player of the Week, Eric Walker Bulldog-bound?, GET YOUR BULLDOGS TICKETS!

This one came as no surprise, as you would have seen me predict it if you read the blog on Monday - congrats to Evan Tironese for being named the BCHL's Player of the Week. He quite simply has been putting on a clinic lately, and it's thrilling each and every time he picks up the puck. Way to go Tiro, now keep it up!

Read more from the BCHL website here

Eric Walker ('93 defenceman) is a victim of the numbers game, and could be Bulldog bound after being re-assigned by the Swift Current Broncos yesterday.

Read more on Shawn Mullin's Swift Current Bronco's blog HERE

Walker's rights were acquired in the trade last year that also saw Matt Larose come to the Bulldogs via the Trail Smoke Eaters for Tanner Hicks, Marley Keca and Tanner House.


It's a matter now of whether Eric reports or not - I will let you know when I know! Here's hoping he chooses to throw the Bulldog sweater on - the back end is certainly banged up with three and four defenceman out, it's a great place to play, great fans, great city, great coaches!

Radio guy isn't half bad either...fishing and golfing are ok....ok I'll stop now haha!

I got a little chuckle, along with a little tear, when I read this next item this morning on the Sports report from The Canadian Press - this is how it was written by the way, I had nothing to do with it....I just keep saying the same thing over and over...GET YOUR BULLDOG TICKETS! They put a WHOLE two hours in? Wow, quite the effort to get things resolved!



     " There was little to show from close to two hours of negotiations between the N-H-L and the Players Association, and no new talks are scheduled.  But, one aspect that could expedite the snail's pace negotiations moving forward is mediation.  Both sides acknowledged that possibility has been mentioned. "







Hammer

Dogs sit 2nd in Island, have league leading scorer, 4 of Top 10, Paws for a Cause...

CLICK to enlarge the above pretty picture....


YES, it's early in the season. NO it's not to early to get excited and feel positive about your team fans!

Second in the Island makes Saturday's 5-2 win over Nanaimo pretty big.

Yesterday's 5-2 Nanaimo loss to Coquitlam keeps the Dogs in second place which is also large.

Throw in two losses for Victoria this weekend, and the Dogs are all of a sudden ONE WIN out of FIRST PLACE.

How about some more photographical evidence?

The Dogs have the BCHL's leading scorer in Evan Tironese (Player of the Week, perhaps?), the third leading scorer in Lars Hepso, Ryan Lough is 7th and Evan Anderson is tied for 10th. Pretty fun stuff to watch!

One I almost missed - Kurt Gosselin is in the Top 10 for defenceman scoring!

The fact that this has all been accomplished with no less than six, yes SIX players hurt is quite an accomplishment and indicative of the great job that Kevin Willison and Adam Hayduk have done.

It also shows some insight into the overall potential that this team has when everyone is back and healthy.

It's early - (did I say that already) as a bad weekend can put a different perspective on everything, but it's certainly headed in the right direction. While the team lost on Friday, they played very very hard - just like they did in Surrey the previous Sunday. The Coaching Staff has them going hard, the players are battling and "leaving it all out on the ice" and it is very fun to watch.

Keep it going fellas!

ANNNND keep getting out and being involved in the community, like at yesterday's SPCA Pause for a Cause. Jolie told me the guys were absolutely awesome at the event. As much as winning matters, being a benefit to the community and making a difference trumps all.

 Pictures courtesy Kaicee, great shots thanks.

Bulldogs 5 Clippers 2

The Bulldogs remained unbeaten on home ice in three games while snapping the Clippers win streak at four with a 5-2 win Saturday night at the Dog Pound.

In what has to be some sort of record, the Dogs jumped out to a 3-0 for the third time in a row at home on goals by Brandon Halls, Evan Tironese and Turner Popoff before the game was six minutes old. Unlike the previous two they would defend this one, building the lead to 4-0 in the second on another by Tironese to add to his BCHL leading point totals. The Clippers got on the board later in the frame on a Greg Fraser goal before Bulldog affiliate Stephen Ryan scored in his debut to make it 5-1 after two, the first shorthanded goal for the team this season. Michael McNicholas would add the final goal with 8:13 to play in the third for the 5-2 final.


Full recap to come be sure to check www.albernivalleybulldogs.ca


The weekend isn't done yet as the team will be out at the SPCA's Pause for a Cause at Blair Park at high noon! Great night at the pound with a good crowd, lots of atmosphere as always, starting with the love shown at the beginning for Paul Cyr


Hammer