Lots to talk about but for now there's coverage here and here.
Highlites will be here.
The Score – Portland 4 – Kootenay 5 OT – Ice lead best-of-seven 3-1
What Happened – Kootenay had a lead and surrendered again but again, they dominated in overtime and Matt Fraser pushed the Hawks to brink of elimination.
The Turning Point – Six minutes into the overtime, after killing Ty Rattie’s clearing pass into the stands just minutes prior, Sven Bartschi was assessed a roughing penalty. It was a strange, and bad, call for something that had gone on all night. Kootenay’s ailing power play finally clicked for the first time in both home games and now the Ice have a chance to win it all. A case could also be made for Ismond’s second goal in the last two minutes of the second period.
The Goals – Before many of the Rec Plex faithful could get to their seats, Steele Boomer chipped the puck up off the centre boards to Eric Benoit. He dished it Ismond with speed. Ismond wired his 3rd of the playoffs glove side over Carruth for his 3rd of playoffs 19 seconds in…. After giving Portland most of the play for about five minutes following the first goal, Cody Eakin caused a turnover in the Hawks end. He dished it to Joey Leach whose slapshot Eakin tipped past Carruth…. In the second the Hawks got on the board just as McNabb stepped out of the penalty box when Riley Boychuk found Ryan Johansen at Lieuwen’s back door. He didn’t miss. 2-1 Ice… Nathan Lieuwen stopped them from just about everywhere in the second except from about 80 feet when Hawk d-man Troy Rutkowski decided to fire the puck on net instead of just dumping it in. The shot hit Joey Leach and changed direction, fooling Lieuwen as he lost sight of it. 2-2… Jesse Ismond salvaged a dismal Ice middle frame when, with both King and Niederreiter off with coincidental minors, Cody Eakin found Ismond with speed in the Hawk zone with a great backhand pass. Ismond deked Carruth to the ice and put his second of the night past him for a 3-2 Ice lead… Ismond and Eakin hooked up again, this time on a four-on-four, when Eakin ripped his 11th of the playoffs to give the Ice a 4-2 lead… Game over right? Not a chance. At the tail end of another power play that the Hawks didn’t convert Ryan Johansen intercepted a puck in the neutral zone just as it ended. He skated in the zone, used Leach as a screen, and beat Lieuwen top shelf with 3:35 to play… In a furious rally in the dying seconds a Hawk point-shot was blocked or didn’t get through the loose puck ended up on Ty Rattie’s stick to the right of Lieuwen. He lifted it over him to tie with 17 seconds left…. In overtime it was all Kootenay, out-shooting the Hawks 11-4, and on their second power play Jesse Ismond found a wide-open Matt Fraser for the game-winner.
The Saves – Nathan Lieuwen started the night where he left off 24 hours earlier. After the first goal it was all Winterhawks but the Abbotsford product was stellar. He stopped Bartschi, again, early and then he robbed Leipsic on the shot and then the backhand rebound with the outstretched glove 3.5 minutes into the period. Though he let in two goals in the period Carruth was not to be outdone, stopping Fraser with the toe save on a one-timed pass from Reinhart. Lieuwen kept the Ice in it when he needed to.
The Hit – Brendan Hurley made the most of his shifts in the first with a blast on the end boards on William Wrenn that had the former NCAA’er hearing footsteps the rest of the period. Unfortunately Hurley also took out Steele Boomer as the latter was backchecking up ice. Hurley had Pearce Eviston in his sights but Boomer skated into the lane at the last second and the teammates collided. Boomer never missed a shift but I don’t know how.
The Phantom Call – For a strange reason the referees stopped play in the Ice zone before the Hawks last time-out. One linesman singled off-side and that the face-off was coming out. The back referee decided otherwise and the face-off went into the zone. You know the rest.
The Penalty – Ty Rattie sent one into the crowd and took a delay-of-game penalty that could’ve cost Hawks the game. It didn’t but as long as we know that you can spear a guy (both sides – it was nasty out there) but don’t clear it out of play in your own zone. Dumb rule. Bartschi took a roughing call a minute later but that was being allowed all night. That one cost them the game.
The Quote – Portland head coach Mike Johnston didn’t mince words about the call in overtime. “It was a bad call,” Johnston said. “That’s my thoughts on it. I watched the video just to make sure. I thought (Kootenay) were getting the penalty. We were yelling at Mac for our goaltender to the bench. We thought we had the power play because he (King) interference with Bartschi coming around the net. Bartschi tried to jump out of the way of the hit. I’m not sure how a roughing call was called there but certainly I was surprised that an overtime call would go like that.”
The(non)Suspension - I would be remiss if I didn't mention the lack of suspension of James Martin from the blindside/check to the head on Troy Rutkowski. I thought it should have been a game but I also thought Boychuk should've got some time too. The explanation I was given is that the WHL has yet to adopt a check-to-the-head rule like the NHL and the OHL or Q. It will likely be put in place over the summer but as of now, it's not there. Thus the non-suspensions on both checks.
The Crowd – 3593 – Biggest of the year
Rec Plex Three Stars
1. Jesse Ismond – Four points and the hot hand
2. Ryan Johansen – 100 percent better than the night before; two goals
3. Cody Eakin – Two goals, assist and the Hawks don’t have an answer for him
What it means – Kootenay can win it’s third WHL Championship in the 15-year history of the franchise Friday night at the sold-out Rose Garden
Up Next: Game Five; 8:30 Cranbrook time Friday night.
Summary:
Kootenay leads best-of-seven series 3-1
Winterhawks 4 @ Ice 5 (OT)
CRANBROOK, B.C. - Western Hockey League summary for playoff game between the Kootenay Ice and the Portland Winterhawks, May 11, 2011
Jesse Ismond had two goals and two assists including setting up the overtime winner as the Kootenay edged the Portland Winterhawks 5-4 in overtime to take a 3-1 lead in the WHL Finals Wednesday night.
The Ice jumped out to a two-goal first period lead on goals by Ismond and Cody Eakin but the Winterhawks tied it in the second on goals by Ryan Johansen and Troy Rutkowski. With less than two minutes left in the period Ismond notched his second of the night off an Eakin pass. In the third Eakin and Ismond teamed up again, this time with Eakin firing his 11th of the playoffs past Mac Carruth to give the Ice a 4-2 lead. The Hawks didn't give up and Ryan Johansen notched his second of the night with a rifle shot over Nathan Lieuwen's shoulder to make it 4-3. With 17 seconds left the Winterhawks tied it when Ty Rattie lifted a shot over Lieuwen to send it to overtime.
Killing a penalty in the extra frame Ismond found Matt Fraser wide open. Fraser buried his 15th of the playoffs to give the Ice a 5-4 win.
Nathan Lieuwen stopped 31 of 35 shots to get the win while Mac Carruth turned aside 33 of 38 in taking the loss.
The Ice have a chance to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup Friday night in Portland.
First Period
1. Kootenay, Ismond 3 (Benoit, Boomer) 0:19
2. Kootenay, Eakin 10 (King, Leach) 7:46
Penalties -- McNabb Ktn (tripping) 18:32.
Second Period
3. Portland, Johansen 12 (Boychuk, Niederreiter) 0:41
4. Portland, Rutkowski 4 (Cunningham) 14:19
5. Kootenay, Ismond 4 (Eakin, Leach) 18:11
Penalties -- Niederreiter Port McNabb Ktn (roughing) 6:13, Morrow Port (hooking) 10:49, Niederreiter Port King Ktn (roughing) 17:57.
Third Period
6. Kootenay, Eakin 11 (Ismond, Leach) 12:30
7. Portland, Johansen 13 16:25
8. Portland, Rattie 9 (Rutkowski, Morrow) 19:23
Penalties -- McNabb Ktn (holding) 2:42, Aronson Port King Ktn (roughing) 10:58, McNabb Ktn (interference) 12:55, Rattie Port (high-sticking) 14:34.
Overtime
9. Kootenay, Fraser 15 (Ismond, Reinhart) 12:08 (pp)
Penalties -- Rattie Port (delay-of-game) 8:42, Bartschi Port (roughing) 11:30.
Shots on goal by
Kootenay: 8 11 8 11 - 38
Portland: 10 11 11 3 - 35
Goal -- Kootenay: Nathan Lieuwen (W, 15-3); Portland: Mac Carruth (L, 12-6)
Power Plays -- (goals-chances)
Kootenay: 1-4
Portland: 0-3
Referee -- Matt Kirk, Derek Zalaski. Linesman -- Scott Sharun, Trent Knorr.
Attendance -- 3593 (4264)
Scratches --
Kootenay: Elgin Pearce (undisclosed), John Niedbrandt, Adam Rossignol.
Portland: Brendan Burke, Brett Ponich, Chase De Leo, Oliver Gabriel, Brad Ross (suspension), Jason Trott, Nic Petan.
Summary courtesy Jeff Bromley of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman
9 comments:
Great game and atmosphere..... but I had to laugh at the truck shoot.....
So you had to get ALL 25 into the net??? If it goes to game six, I am gonna put my house up for two shooters who will obviously not be able to get more than 7 in the net..... maybe 10 tops....
So why even bother shooting after you miss the first one? The lateness of the announcement and the rules of it, shows me that Denham Ford and the Ice tried to squeeze this bad promotion onto the Ice Bandwagon!
With that said, what do I care, and if it made things a little more interesting, and raised some money for the hospital, whatever..... but ALL 25???.... really??
BTW - the call in overtime was almost a WWE clothesline, and right in front of the Ref.... he had no choice but to make the call. It was easy to see from behind the Winterhawks bench, so I don't know what their coach was looking at.
This was also on the heals of probably 5 missed or ignored calls in the 3rd, when the Ice should have had multiple PP's.... so it was due, and probably a little balancing on the Ref's part.
I have to say that the style of the Winterhawks is backfiring against them. They haven't been able to intimidate the Ice, and they are taking stupid penalties in the process.
They will need to be more disciplined if they expect to come back for a game 6.
Jeff Bromley,
I want to thank you for having the courage and common sense to state publicly that the call on Bartschi in OT was wrong. It's also nice to see that you feel the Martin major was worthy of a suspension. It shows that someone who's a supporter of the Ice isn't just a blind homer.
Unfortunately if the Ice go on to win the series they'll take home a title that is forever tainted by some of the most blantantly corrupt officiating (both on and off ice) in decades. The Ice has a tremendously talented squad worthy of be called champion...and so do the Winterhawks. It's a shame that this series (with three OT games and one an empty-netter already) will be remembered not for the play on the ice but most certainly for all the controversy.
JEFF! - can you come on my radio show in Regina today at 4:20 pm? Please email me at sportscage@mobility.blackberry.net. Thanks!
Rod Pedersen
Regina
Dear Mr. Anonymous,
I feel your pain….I really do. However, there is a rather large difference between “Corrupt” officiating and “Inconsistent and Incompetent” officiating.
The first one implies a conspiracy originating at the highest level, while the second one probably describes how most hockey fans feel when their team is on the receiving end of some puzzling and untimely calls. It’s no different at any level, including the NHL.
I really had no problem with the multitude of calls in game two, although I thought both Boychuk’s and Martin’s hit (the next night) were worthy of suspension. Last night though, I couldn’t believe they would call Bartschi for “roughing” after all they had previously let go. Heck, it would have bee questionable in normal time (IMHO), let alone overtime. However, it’s not like the ICE could decline the penalty. It was up to them to take advantage of the opportunity and they did….much to the delight of ICE fans everywhere.
I was glad to hear the Portland coach say “We don’t rally around bad calls, we’ll rally around being a good team instead”. This series is not over yet by any means – that darn fourth game is just so hard to win. Portland is going home to the support of 11,000 screaming fans and I’m sure they’ll come out guns blazing on Friday night. This series could easily be 3 – 1 for Portland…..but it’s not. Give the ICE their due credit – it’s been a great series! Go ICE GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ps – one last thought….in 1999, the ICE took the talented Calgary Hitmen to a seventh game before bowing out in the first round. I was so upset at the officiating, I wrote a long and scathing letter to the WHL. I was sure the referee had a bias against the ICE and was the worst official on the face of the planet. That referee was Kelly Sutherland who was promptly promoted to the NHL where he still works today…..
Dear Anonymous,
Do you really think an insurance company is going to make a contest for a $30,000 vehicle a cake walk??? LOL... Get a clue and stop complaining. Be happy your team won and some money was raised for a great cause. Life is short so make the best of it. Nobody likes to listen to you bitch about trivial issues in life!
Why is nobody talking about the blatant elbow from Niedereitter to Eakins head?
Dear Mr. Denham,
I was just pointing out how the truck give-away was a little bit of smoke and mirrors, and that I had a little chuckle over it.
As I stated... it did raise money for a good cause, and it did add interest.... so I don't really mind.
But, obviously it isn't set up to win. Even 20-for-25 would have been reasonable in my mind... I've seen better odds at the Carnival!
And everybody around me was saying the same thing, so I know I'm not alone on this.
Im the early 80,s Shaw and Hodge whinned to the League because the Pats were kicking their butts in the series and on the ice. The League proceeded to gift wrap the series for Portland by worst officiating in League history. Like have 15 to 2 minors against the Pasts (in one game). Worst in League history. Now the Hawks are complaining about the style of officiating. Maybe the coaches style of play is in question.
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