Pre-Game Januar 22.

Fra træneren:

Preview Jan 22 vs. Vojens

Friday Night in Vojens will be an exciting game as all games against Vojens through the years seem to have a great atmosphere. This will be no exception as they are working towards a record in wins, and we are in the early stages of our 6 game road tour. The points at hand are very important as we need to take advantage of the games we have at hand against the other teams in league.

Vojens is always ready to storm out of the gates at home, and see if they can send the opposition home mentally in the first ten minutes. We are aware and focused to play a strong first ten minutes. The other aspects of their play we need to pay attention to is the following:

1) They are excellent at generating scoring chances off the rush with defensemen also jumping into the play so they always have 3 or 4 players attacking.

2) They have a strong forecheck especially in the friendly confines of the Vojens rink which they do a great job of using it to their advantage.

3) They play well in front of the own goal, and protect that area of the ice.

They have had balance scoring with contributions from all lines, and their defensemen.

They are led by some key players that we need to be aware:

Michaud: goalie is having a great season and good at controlling the rebounds
Matejic: likes to control the puck and makes plays offensively
Van Ballegooie: top scoring defensemen who will constantly join the rush.

Bulldogs Keys for Success:

In order to have success on Friday there are some areas we must give special focus:

1) Protect the front of our goal: we need to protect the area in front of our goalie. They go hard to the net every shift, and it is amazing how much contact is made with out goalie every game. We need to protect this area of the ice.

2) Traffic to the Offensive Goal: the goalie has proven that if he can see the puck he will save it, so we must make it more difficult to see pucks and create more rebound opportunities.

3) Strong play on the special teams: they have strong power play so we will need to be sharp, and in their rink there may be very few opportunities for us with the man advantage so we need to make it count when the chance is available.

4) Match the Intensity: as mentioned we know the home team will take the energy from the home crowd, and we need to match the intensity and physical play from the first 10 minutes.

5) Penalties: it is amazing that we have a relatively non-aggressive team, yet we seem to have many penalties against this team, especially in the second period each game. With this in mind, we simply cannot put ourselves in a position to take penalties, it is no secret they have some players who will embellish situations, and with a strong home crowd, the safest thing to do is to continue skating and not do anything with the stick.

Alexander Hansson has played a few First Division games, and will be ready to get back into action at the Elite Level.