A Story of two Brothers // Games 11 and 12 review in the 'Swiss Central Gazette'

[Daniel Janser 2,213]

Swiss Central Gazette

 

When we last wrote about our local heroes abroad, we unfortunately had to report three consecutive defeats of their team the Brigade.

 

It seems now that the coach as well as the team's captain Daniel Janser have found a way to get the spectre of a losing mentality out of the Bridage's heads.

 

As we hinted in our previous articles, it only took some fine tuning from the coaching staff for the Brigade to find a way back to winning games again.

 

The first match against Steel was won 5-4 and it is comforting that now Fortuna has shown her pretty face to the Brigade as a tight game could be swung into the right direction.

 

Marcel demonstrated again his passing skills and scored two assists, one of them for Nayt Bedard's game winning goal at the end of the third period. Do we really need to mention at this point that he was a tied first in shots blocked (3)? He was also the busiest player of the team with 32:06 minutes played. Where does he take the energy to clock so many minutes every night and getting hit by pucks as often as he does? He must have a spare lung and he reminds us of the former Swiss national football player Ludovic 'the lung' Magnin, who showed similar endurance during his career.

 

Daniel focused on the defensive side of his game and did not make an appearance on the scoreboard.  The brothers shared a 'Hanson moment' when they 'Sandwich-checked' Harkat Mulds, just as he was about to wind up for a slapshot from the dangerzone, potentially scoring the lead. Needless to say, that he not only lost his breath as well as his balance but also the puck. Same was sucked up by Marcel, who delivered it to without any further ado to Nayt Berard, which lead to the aforementioned game winner.

 

The 'Swiss Hitmen' did not take any penalties in this game and had a +2 (Marcel) and a +1 (Daniel) rating respectively.

 

The three stars that evening were entirely in the Brigade's hands with 1st Nikolai Kopeloi (2g/1a), 2nd Nayt Berard (2g/1a) and 3rd Marcel Janser (0g/2a).

 

Mike Hroch had a very good game with a .911 saving percentage. We wish to mention at this point that hte Brigade's netminder is the second-best in the league, only bested by The Red Menace, who is much more experienced. if this newspaper sounds at times critical of Hroch's performances, then this is owed to the yet untapped potential and talent of this young player has displayed occasionally which let us sometimes forget that especially goalkeepers need time to spread their wings.

 

In the rematch, the Brigade was in full control of the game from the start. The team had a field day with the not enviable Thomas Price, who was replaced by his backup Wiley Blanchette, after the former allowed 4 goals on only 9 shots after 17:11 minutes played.

 

Austin Towbaker had the best match sofar with 4 goals to his name. Marcel and Daniel had two assists each and no penalties.

 

Marcel once again had the most time on ice with 31:51 but had a rather lazy day when it comes to blocked shots (2). He also sported a +4 ratint (top of the team) and beat his older brother by one in that category.

 

Mike Hroch was not able to repeat his stellar performance of the previous match and reported a .875 saving rate, which this evening was enough to beat the opponent.

 

The three stars were 1st Austin Towbaker (4g/0a), 2nd Wattson Power (1g/2a) and Brendan Marner (0g/3a).

 

At this stage of the season, the Brigade has the second best goalkeeper of the league with an .889 save percentage and the two best goalscorer Karjalainen (14) and Towbaker (13). With M. Janser and Marner they have two of the best passers (16 and 15 assists) respectively while Towbaker and Bedard are two of the deadliest snipers around (with 16.25% and 15.79% shot efficiency).

 

D. Janser and Marner are amongst the best defensive forward in the league with a +9/+8 rating respectively.

 

Karjalainen wins the most face-offs in the league.  D. Janser is one of the highest scoring right wings (4g/8a) in the league despite playing on the 'wrong' side.  

 

Towbaker is top of the bunch for having scored at least one goal for the last 5 matches and having scored at least one point for the last 9 matches.

 

All the above leads us to believe that there is a lot of talent and potential in the ragtag team and we hope they can win even more games with the newly found confidence in their abilities.

 

Stay tuned for further updates...