Malc
03-25-2009, 01:58 PM
By Dana Soleski
The Kelowna Rockets were 2.9 seconds away from a whole new ball game.
But, with the clock winding down and the Kamloops Blazers set to jump back into the teams’ Western Conference Quarter-Final Series with a win in game three, fate intervened.
Cody Almond tapped Ian Duval’s pass into a wide open net to force overtime. Almond then ended the game at 12:21 of overtime to open a 3-0 Rockets’ series lead. Game four goes tonight (Wednesday) at the Interior Savings Center.
The Rockets got off to a slow start and trailed 1-0 after a shorthanded goal by Seth Compton at 9:30 of the first period. The Blazers out shot the Rockets 5-3 in the first with Kelowna squandering 4 power play opportunities.
The shorthanded goal was Kamloops’ second of the series against a Kelowna power play that has gone 2 for 25 in the series and hasn’t scored in its last 20 opportunities. Among those 20 chances have been 3, lengthy 5 on 3 three chances.
Giffen Nyren made it 2-0 for Kamloops at 11:16 of the third period and things started to look glum for the Rockets.
But, after out shooting the Blazers 15-3 in the second, Kelowna continued their relentless assault in the third. Jamie Benn finally got them on the board at 14:05 – a goal which only stirred the Kelowna fire all the more and set the stage for Almond’s dramatic game tying goal with Mark Guggenberger on the bench in favour of a sixth attacker.
The overtime session was fairly even with Kamloops edging the Rockets 7-6 on the shot clock. But, Mikael Backlund, who was making his 2009 playoff debut after missing the series’ first two games with injury, made a beautiful play on the winning goal.
Swooping behind the Kamloops’ goal, the smooth Swede slipped a back door pass to an uncovered Almond who banked the puck in off Justin Leclerc.
Kelowna ended up with a 39-18 edge on the shot clock and would have secured victory sooner if not for the great play of second star Leclerc.
Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, whose team territorially owned the game, said : "Five-on-five, we were very good. We worked hard and we didn‘t have a slow start. But our power play was brutal, to be quite honest. It‘s got to get itself corrected and going, because we can‘t afford to have it not going at this time of the season.
"We had way too many power plays not to capitalize on. We need to do a better job with our execution and urgency. But five-on-five, we played well. We never quit and we managed to win this game because of that hard work."
As for what he told his crew prior to overtime, Huska said "just to shoot pucks and keep the game simple. We wanted them to keep doing what they did in the second and third periods, and they kept doing that. Any puck that goes on the net in overtime, you never know what happens, and that‘s what worked for us tonight."
Kyle St. Denis remained on the sidelines with injury for Kelowna. Defenseman, Aaron Borejko sat out to make room for the return of Backlund. Kamloops‘ scratches were D Brandon Underwood, D Michal Siska and LW Brett Lyon.
http://www.kelownarockets.com/Story.aspx?ID=548
The Kelowna Rockets were 2.9 seconds away from a whole new ball game.
But, with the clock winding down and the Kamloops Blazers set to jump back into the teams’ Western Conference Quarter-Final Series with a win in game three, fate intervened.
Cody Almond tapped Ian Duval’s pass into a wide open net to force overtime. Almond then ended the game at 12:21 of overtime to open a 3-0 Rockets’ series lead. Game four goes tonight (Wednesday) at the Interior Savings Center.
The Rockets got off to a slow start and trailed 1-0 after a shorthanded goal by Seth Compton at 9:30 of the first period. The Blazers out shot the Rockets 5-3 in the first with Kelowna squandering 4 power play opportunities.
The shorthanded goal was Kamloops’ second of the series against a Kelowna power play that has gone 2 for 25 in the series and hasn’t scored in its last 20 opportunities. Among those 20 chances have been 3, lengthy 5 on 3 three chances.
Giffen Nyren made it 2-0 for Kamloops at 11:16 of the third period and things started to look glum for the Rockets.
But, after out shooting the Blazers 15-3 in the second, Kelowna continued their relentless assault in the third. Jamie Benn finally got them on the board at 14:05 – a goal which only stirred the Kelowna fire all the more and set the stage for Almond’s dramatic game tying goal with Mark Guggenberger on the bench in favour of a sixth attacker.
The overtime session was fairly even with Kamloops edging the Rockets 7-6 on the shot clock. But, Mikael Backlund, who was making his 2009 playoff debut after missing the series’ first two games with injury, made a beautiful play on the winning goal.
Swooping behind the Kamloops’ goal, the smooth Swede slipped a back door pass to an uncovered Almond who banked the puck in off Justin Leclerc.
Kelowna ended up with a 39-18 edge on the shot clock and would have secured victory sooner if not for the great play of second star Leclerc.
Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, whose team territorially owned the game, said : "Five-on-five, we were very good. We worked hard and we didn‘t have a slow start. But our power play was brutal, to be quite honest. It‘s got to get itself corrected and going, because we can‘t afford to have it not going at this time of the season.
"We had way too many power plays not to capitalize on. We need to do a better job with our execution and urgency. But five-on-five, we played well. We never quit and we managed to win this game because of that hard work."
As for what he told his crew prior to overtime, Huska said "just to shoot pucks and keep the game simple. We wanted them to keep doing what they did in the second and third periods, and they kept doing that. Any puck that goes on the net in overtime, you never know what happens, and that‘s what worked for us tonight."
Kyle St. Denis remained on the sidelines with injury for Kelowna. Defenseman, Aaron Borejko sat out to make room for the return of Backlund. Kamloops‘ scratches were D Brandon Underwood, D Michal Siska and LW Brett Lyon.
http://www.kelownarockets.com/Story.aspx?ID=548