Calgary Herald article (Hitmen dominate Warriors with full 60-minute effort)

Hitmen dominate Warriors with full 60-minute effort

By Sean Myers, Calgary Herald

January 23, 2010

W hen you play a full 60 minutes, good things happen. Sounds simple, but Hitmen coach Mike Williamson has been trying to get his team to commit to an entire game all season.

Friday night they started hard and followed it all the way through for a 5-0 blanking of the Moose Jaw Warriors in front of 9,169 fans at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

The Hitmen went to the attack right away in a game where Joel Broda earned a hat-trick, including two of the team's three power-play markers.

Newbie Jimmy Bubnick showed his worth with his first goal as a Hitmen on four shots on net in the opening 20 minutes. The teams were playing four-on-four when fellow former Kamloops Blazer Tyler Shattock skated to the back of the Warriors net and dug out the puck for Bubnick who waited dutifully at the side. He hit it once and then banged in his own rebound just inside the goalpost at 12:09.

Team scoring leader Brandon Kozun put the Hitmen up 2-0 with his 23rd of the season while Calgary enjoyed a two-man advantage. Three Hitmen put the puck on net on the chance, with Kozun flipping it high into the open twine when it came to him at the side of goalmouth at 15:39.

Calgary finished the period dominating the Warriors with 18 shots to Moose Jaw's 10.

Moose Jaw earned a five-on-three chance for 1:23 in the second but failed to score, mostly due to a pair of spectacular saves by Martin Jones.

Jones made big saves in each period, thwarting Warriors sniper Jason Bast on a handful of occasions.

Broda scored his first goal on a power play late in the second period, beating Warriors netminder Jeff Bosch on the short side with a well aimed wrister at 19:19.

Broda beat Brosch in the same spot at 2:50 of the third.

Six seconds after taking a high stick to the face from Warriors Dallas Ehrhardt who was penalized on the play, Broda beat Brosch again on a rebound.

That was it for the Warriors goalie as he was replaced by back up Brandon Glover.

The win gives the Hitmen sole possession of first place in the Central Division with two points over the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Jones stopped all 23 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season, including a 3-0 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes in a road game last Saturday.

The Hitmen found themselves out of the top 10 national rankings this week.

Next up, the Hitmen (31-15-1-1) host the Hurricanes at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

NOTE: Hitmen forward Kris Foucault did not play due to a bout with the flu.

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