Tonight's game at Arizona marks the next chapter in what has been a very entertaining division rivalry over the past two seasons. The Sundogs clearly got the last laugh, knocking off the Scorpions in 5 games last season on their way to the President's Cup title. It's equally clear that this is not last year's Sundogs team. Sans the game-breaking abilities of Alex Leavitt, Tyler Redenbach and Cory Urquhart, the Dogs put up a whopping 3 goals in a pair of contests against Odessa last weekend, with last season's top-ranked powerplay going a modest 2-for-23 (in another surprising turn of events, the Scorpions are actually leading the league on the PK at a clip of 93.3%). Now, let's give credit where credit is due, as the retooled Odessa Jackalopes squad that handed the Sundogs those two losses is arguably the league's best team on paper. While a lot of people had the chance to see what Paul Gillis' new team can do, I don't think anyone got a fair representation of what the Sundogs are capable of.
Having said all of this, I'm hopeful that tonight's game has the intensity and excitement we've all come to expect from the Scorps/Dogs rivalry. There are plenty of new faces on both sides, so maybe it'll take a few games for that hatred to get settled, but the guys who've been here before have no excuse not to send a message tonight.
There is also another interesting sideplot tonight -- should the goaltending matchup pan out, we could potentially see a duel between the two top prospects for the AHL's San Antonio Rampage in Andrew Martin and Joel Gistedt. Both players were in camp with the Rampage and both are at the top of the pool for an AHL call-up. Such a call up could be imminent as well, with the Phoenix Coyotes allegedly shopping backup goaltender Mikael Tellqvist. So far, Martin has fared better in his lone start than Gistedt, stopping 36 of 39 shots against Amarillo opening night. Gistedt was tagged for 6 goals on 12 shots and pulled after just 31 minutes of play, but I'm going out on a limb here and guessing that all 6 of those goals weren't his fault.
Follow the game live on pointstreak or on CHLTV
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