Thoughts

Pats lines for the majority of the game:

Muench-Weal-Frazee
Ashton-Reddin-Hutt
Gustafsson-Ouellette-Mitchell
Jung-Stephensen-Rieder

Blidstrand- Bell
Davidson-Carlson

Sparrow and Peel had various defensive pairings.

I'm glad the Pats were able to get this victory tonight. I don't know; it just might be me but the team seems to be lacking "puck luck" around the net. I see that the team chemistry is there it just needs time to build.... I honestly think that this team is not as bad as some people say they are.

I can't say that Ketlo had a bad outing but I can't say it was a stellar one either. Swifts second goal was a bad rebound but on the third one I don't think he saw a thing.

Guhle came in an wasn't tested much in the latter half of the second with only 2 saves. In the third he had a strong period and made a couple of nice saves. I think he gets te next start.

The defence as a whole had a pretty solid game. A couple of mess ups led to a couple of chances but when the chips were on the line I think they all played fairly well.

I'm liking the forward line combos.

The Hutt-Reddin-Ashton line played really good in both ends of the ice. Hutt and Reddin picking up tallies (Reddin's was a goal when he was with Weal and Frazee.... but there was a line change going to happen when the goal happened.... but I digress).

The Muench-Weal-Frazee line was tremendous out there. Muench has so much skill and has a sweet wrist shot. Frazee works so hard and it looks like he's just getting going.... he's exactly what GM Lang said he wanted a big guy that can crash and bang. Weal was everywhere and worked hard out there... picked up two helpers but seems to be a bit snake bitten when it comes to the goal sscoring aspect. It will come.

I really liked the Gustafsson-Ouellette-Mitchell line as they seemed to really assert themselves in the game. All three are pretty speedy and all seem to like the crash and bang. They were close a couple of times.

The so-called "fourth" line of Jung-Stephensen-Rieder were the unit I was most impressed with. They didn't get tons of icetime (they got a decent amount to be honest) but whenever they were out there the puck seemed like it was in Swifts end of the rink for a majority of the time. I don't think they really had too many scoring opportunities but they did give the top forwards time to rest up.

That's all I have for tonight.... if I think of anything else I will post it tomorrow. Please feel free to comment.

Have a good one!

Kev