This is quick and dirty. Got a 4:30AM wake-up call. I'll add highlites and video of Martin's hit tomorrow morning.
My piece for the Oregonian is here. While Matt Coxford has Townsman converage here.
The game highlites are here. Look closely at 1:30-1:40 of the video. It has the Martin hit and it's clearly a blindside. I would be completely shocked if Martin doesn't get a game suspension for this. Then again, Boychuk's - which was similar - wasn't given a suspension.
The Score – Portland 2 – Kootenay 3 OT
What Happened – They call him JOE, again. Antilla provided the heroics for the second time in these playoffs with a wrist-shot that beat Carruth over the shoulder in OT.
The Turning Point – A loose puck is cleared by Eakin to the top of the Hawk right circle down the Ice. Unbelievably, Carruth doesn't come out to play it. More unbelievably, Drew Czweronka won a foot race with the speedy Aronson and tucked the puck behind Carruth. Wonka isn't the fleetest of foot but he made it count tonight.
The Goals – Just after a particularly ineffective power play had ended Kevin King stayed on for more rush, took a chip off the half-wall and fired a perfect wrist-shot off the bar and behind Carruth… That lasted less than a minute as Ty Rattie used Martin as a screen after Trail product Craig Cunningham dished the puck to him, beating Lieuwen over the glove… In the third Sven Bartschi was found wide open by Rattie. He buried his 10th into an open net... Czerwonka's goal was all charlie hustle. Just hard skating and strenght to protect the puck and get it around Carruth. Place went nuts... They went nuts again when Joe Antilla rifled a gread wrist shot that seeme to surprise Carruth, over his shoulder for the game-winner.
The match-ups – In a strange twist both coaches were getting their match-ups early as Knoblauch preferred to have Boomer, Montogomery and Czerwonka against Portland’s top unit of Neiderrieter, Boychuk and Johansen. It almost cost them a couple of times but the payoff was the match-up of Kootenay's top two units, which produced just as many chances.
The Goaltenders – Both were sharp through three periods but Lieuwen was better in the third. The Hawks second goal notwithstanding – he didn’t have much of chance on that one but was also wayyyy out of position – Lieuwen was spectacular on Bartschi when it counted. Twice he stopped the future first rounder; once on a breakaway in which the Swiss import split the Ice D with seven minutes left and then again in the dying moments of the third from point blank range.
The Hit – James Martin caught Winterhawk D-man Troy Rutkowski breaking into the Ice zone and nailed him with what appeared to be an elbow – a blindside one – that earned him a major and gave the visitors a five minute major through almost the last five minutes of the game. Inexplicably Ryan Johansen, who was complaining steady all night, went ballistic in the ensuing scrum and knocked two minutes off the major with a roughing minor of his own. Don’t know what he was thinking… Kootenay killed the rest but Martin will certainly draw some attention from the league, if not a suspension. But Boychuk didn’t get one, did he…… Okay, let's wait for the replay...
The Whistles – They were in the pocket of the zebras for most of the night. Kootenay had three power plays and the Hawks had one. A three minute major. It was chippy out there.
The 50/50 Winner of over $4400 – Former Ice d-man Paul Kurceba.
The Crowd – 3402; Rockin at the Plex.
Rec Plex Three Stars
1. Nathan Lieuwen – stellar play. Needed this one
2. Mac Carruth – Was steady in facing 41 shots. Ice never got frustrated; crowd did however.
3. Drew Czerwonka – Busted his butt for a loose puck that was the difference.
What it means – Kootenay takes a 2-1 lead into Game four. It probably means little unless the same result happens tonight.
Up Next: Game Four – 7PM at the Plex
Summary:
Portland 2 @ Kootenay 3 (WHL Playoffs)
Winterhawks 2 @ Ice 3 (OT)
CRANBROOK, B.C. - Western Hockey League summary for playoff game between the Kootenay Ice and the Portland Winterhawks, May 10, 2011
Joe Antilla scored his 9th goal of the season in overtime to give the Kootenay Ice a 3-2 overtime win and a 2-1 lead in the WHL Best-of-seven final series Tuesday night.
Kootenay opened to scoring with Kevin King's 5th of the post-season at 17:53 of the first. The Winterhawks tied it when Ty Rattie wired his 8th past Nathan Lieuwen 61 seconds later.
After a scoreless second period the Winterhawks took a 2-1 lead on Sven Bartschi's 10th of the playoffs at 3:54. Drew Czerwonka tied it when he won a foot race for a loose puck and tucked it past Mac Carruth at 13:58.
Nathan Lieuwen stopped 34 of 36 saves to get the win while Mac Carruth stopped 38 of 41 shots in taking the loss.
Antilla's goal was his second overtime winner of the playoffs.
First Period
1. Kootenay, King 5 (Ismond, Martin) 17:53
2. Portland, Rattie 8 (Cunningham, Boychuk) 18:54
Penalties -- Boychuk Port (interference) 15:49, Rattie Port (slashing) 20:00.
Second Period
No Scoring.
Penalties -- Johansen Port (slashing) 6:53.
Third Period
3. Portland, Bartschi 10 (Rattie, Wren) 3:54
4. Kootenay, Czerwonka 2 (Eakin) 13:58
Penalties -- Ius Port Hurley Ktn (fighting) 8:53, Neiderreiter Port King Ktn (roughing) 10:46, Martin Ktn (charging major, game misconduct) Johansen Port (roughing) 14:16.
Overtime
5. Kootenay, Antilla 9 (Reinhart, McNabb) 6:12
Penalties -- None.
Shots on goal by
Kootenay: 11 10 13 7 - 41
Portland: 15 6 13 3 - 36
Goal -- Kootenay: Nathan Lieuwen (W, 14-3); Portland: Mac Carruth (L, 12-5)
Power Plays -- (goals-chances)
Kootenay: 0-3
Portland: 0-1
Referee -- Devin Klein, Nathan Wieler. Linesman -- Jeff Jobson, Trent Knorr.
Attendance -- 3402 (4264)
Scratches --
Kootenay: Elgin Pearce (undisclosed), John Neidbrandt, Adam Rossignol.
Portland: Brendan Burke, Brett Ponich, Chase De Leo, Oliver Gabriel, Brad Ross (suspension), Jason Trott, Tayler Jordan (suspension).
Summary courtesy Jeff Bromley of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman
2 comments:
Congrats to the Ice on a hard-fought win. The sloppy passing and dumb mistakes in the defensive zone absolutely killed any Hawks chances (of course, credit to the Ice for much of that, although some of it was just bad play by the Hawks).
Are you guys familiar with the Shaw broadcast crew? I wasn't until this series, but they are horrible. One example: In Game 2, you would've thought Boychuk had killed Bill Welms mom as much as kept talking about it (even during last night's game). But, he had almost nothing to say about the vicious hit by Martin last night.
Anyway, looking forward to another great game tonight and no injuries by either team.
The slashing that is going uncalled is amazing. I have never seen Johansen take retaliatory penalties like that. In this series, I have seen several uncalled hard whacks on him and he is getting hot about it. The zebras need to get this under control or we are going to see a broken finger or wrist bone and a marquis player out. I was surprised when Martin went headhunting the refs didn't tell Knobs the Portland D man had a concussion, but I guess they are not qualified brain surgeons like Kirk is. As everyone knows, most of Portland's team is BC boys, so I don't think that the bias in the reffing is there, but they do need to call some of this slashing.
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