The Ice Road Trucker

New York Ranger fans, the quality of these video are not the best but the intent ought to give you some insight. Just remember the young man is wearing the number 8 in white. This is how he started his night.



And this is how he finishes it, this second on is of poor quality and if a better one can be found I will replace this. This has no audio at the beginning but it does not take much to see what starts this on



I apologize to the New York Islander fans for covering up their blogroll today but too many Ranger fans do not realize that what Dylan McIlrath (2010 1st) does not offer on offense, he more than makes up for it on defense and standing up for his teammates.

McIlrath's Moose Jaw Warriors were hosting the Swift Current Broncos on Tuesday night, in the first fight Swift Current's Andy Blanke had been running all over the ice trying to find someone to fight. McIlrath put a stop to that.

In the second "affair" as you saw Jordan Peddle ran over Warrior's goalie Thomas Heemskerk with just 2 seconds left in the game. McIlrath was all over him and earned the instigator, fighting major and a game misconduct.

All together McIlrath wound up with a 24 PIM night thanks to his 8th and 9th fights of the season. This game got out of hand in the 3rd period thanks to Moose Jaw just dominating which set off some Swift Current frustration.

Other than the fights McIlrath did not score but helped keep Swift Current off the board and 0 for 3 on their powerplays. Some coaches we think will be seeing their wallets become lighter as 40 combined infractions led to a total of 201 PIMs for the game.

Oh and Moose Jaw won 3-0 as they reduced their magic number to 3 points to clinch a spot in WHL playoffs.

In Prince George the Portland Winterhawks took on the Prince George Cougars for the 2nd straight evening and came away with a 2nd straight win this time 6-5. Nino Niederreiter (NYI 2010 1st) was named the game's 2nd star for a 2 assist evening.

Niederreiter had a secondary assist on Portland's second goal of the game for his 22nd of the season and gave Portland a 2-1 lead at the time. In third period, Niederreiter's 23rd assist of the season came when he set up Ryan Johansen for what proved to be the game winning goal at 9:20.

Niederreiter now has a 4 game scoring streak as he is now 27-23-50 for the season trying to catch Casey Cizikas of Mississauga (28-31-59) for the Islander prospect scoring race. But more important to the Winterhawks is with the win extend their lead over the Spokane Chiefs to 3 points.

In Saskatoon, the Brandon Wheat Kings saw their 5 game winning streak come to an end with a 7-4 loss to the Eastern Conference leading Saskatoon Blades 7-4. David Toews was held scoreless ending his 5 game scoring streak at 3-5-8.

In a scheduling quirk, the same 2 teams will take Thursday off and play again on Friday. The Wheat Kings need to get some points out of this one as they trail 6th seeded Edmonton by 3 points while their own lead over 8th seed Prince Albert is also 3.