Beefs looking for stronger effort in game 2

Facing the top team in the league was always going to be tough and even though the Beefs came up on the short end there are some positives to take from Wednesdays 2-1 loss in game 1.

Kiprusoff was very strong in net stopping 21 of 23 shots and the PK went a perfect 7 for 7. One of the more worrying points was Richards going 4 for 11 on the draw with Malkin clearly owning the upper hand in that department. Any time you give up the puck with that consistency you are going to struggle to get shots on net and this showed in the first with the Beefs being outshot 13-5. They managed to hold on though and rebound in the 2nd holding a 10-2 shot advantage and went into the break up 1-0 on a Duncan Keith PP goal. The third returned to the Badgers favour however with Nash tying the game at 6.06 before Robidas potted the game winner at the 16.39 mark.

GM Homer refused to speculate on how he might react to the faceoff differential but acknowledged it may need to be addressed if it continues. 'We lost by a very slim margin and we still have another game to steal home ice. Richards is a premier point scorer and got the primary assist on Keith's goal so we obviously want him in those situations however he needs the puck to be effective! People have suggested going back to Richards being back on the 2nd line but if you look at Handzus going 15/23 against Stastny I don't think that would make a difference. We need improvements from both guys and we fully expect them to bounce back in game 2.

In the farm the baby beefs had a much rougher night loosing 4-1 to the baby ducks. Price had a very uncharacteristic off game letting in 3 first period goals before getting yanked after letting in the 4th 5 mins into the 2nd period. Deslauriers came in and shut the canards out the rest of the way but only faced a further 13 shots in 35 mins as opposed to the 19 Price faced in the first 25 mins.

'Carey showed a bit of nerves I think. We are not overly worried with him as you only need to look at the regular season stats to see he is a very solid guy. Letting in 3 goals in under 2 mins is very unlike him.' Despite this GM Homer confirmed that Deslauriers would get the start tonight but that had no bearing on Price's standing in the team. 'We always planned to split time with these guys and give both goalies a chance in net. The fact that Deslauriers played so well in game 1 showed he is ready and he deserves the start. We will address each game as it comes.'