Streak's over.. Hawks win in OT

Kootenay's 11-game winning streak came to an end tonight in Game one of the WHL Championship final with a 4-3 loss in overtime.

The Winterhawks opened the scoring on a wrist shot by Sven Bartschi that beat Nathan Lieuwen over his left shoulder. Kootenay tied on a slapshot from Hayden Rintoul four minutes later.

Bartschi got his second of the night at 12:51 on a scrambly play that had more bodies lying on the ice than a battlefield when Bartschi fired the puck into an open net.

Kootenay tied it again when Cody Eakin started a chance with a dump-in that found McNabb in the high-slot. He fed Antilla with a great pass to tie it at two.

In the last minute Nino Niederreiter corraled a rebound to give the Hawks a 3-2 lead.

Kootenay survived a Portland charge in the second but pushed back in the third. After a long delay fixing a piece of glass at the Rose Garden Kevin King muscled his way down the wing and beat Carruth over his right shoulder.

Kootenay had some glorious opportunities but none bigger than a high-sticking penalty taken by Brad Ross with 2:32 remaining. A power play that didn't have a lot of push all night continued on that theme and then James Martin took an ill-advised interference penalty at the blueline in the Hawks zone.

The Ice paid dearly for that call to start OT with fresh ice as Ty Rattie tipped the winner past Lieuwen to take a 1-0 series lead.

Thoughts....

Something I missed last night following the loss was the ice, no, not the team, the surface. It looked brutal. Worse than the Rec Plex ice in spring and that's saying something. Bill and Dan kept wondering if Max Reinhart was fighting the puck but I think he was fighting the ice too.

Pronunciation: Ismund or IsmOND - so which is it?

Not a great start for the Ice after the long break but to be honest the game played out similar to the last two series. Against the Blades they whethered a storm and played through it and again in Medicine Hat in game one of that series. Against the Hawks they had lot of push back against the bigger, and seemingly tougher Hawks who started the game with an obvious chip on their shoulder.

I'll state the obvious, taking this many penalties against Portland will burn you. It did, at the worst time. Even with a PK as good as Kootenay's...

The lines remained the same in that Steele Boomer and Drew Czwerwonka checked in with Elgin Pearce on the third line and with a lot of success early. Boomer looked like he had a point to prove and played with an edge.

I thought that Portland's D had a relatively easy night as far as the physical game down low is concerned. Where Kootenay had a lot of trouble with the Winterhawk forwards in their own zone until the Hawks unexpectedly backed-off, allowing the Ice to break out of the zone much easier as the game wore on.

If Montgomery's healthy then I think he needs to get into the line-up. Sam Reinhart will be great in time but in a bang, crash, 4th line role against the much-bigger, much meaner Hawks, a guy like Montgomery is needed here.

F Adam Rossignol, F Brock Montgomery and D John Niebrandt were the scratches.

This new territory for the Ice. After playing relatively well and losing. The other two losses against Moose Jaw were not even close whereas other close games have all gone Kootenay's way. At first glance it looked to be the Hawks running away with it but I still don't think the Hawks want to let game two go like tonight. They look much more comfortable in the run-and-gun mode than the defensive play-with-a-one-goal lead one that tonight developed into.

Scantally-clad girls dancing on the ice in the WHL final. Who would've thunk it? Now there's something the Ice haven't tried..... (tongue's in cheek there)

Kootenay's power play really sputtered tonight. Five opportunties but I had a hard time remembering a real quality chance with the man-advantage. That's going to have to change.

This one's got the makings of a real war. Game two is Saturday night. Gametime is 8PM Cranbrook-time.