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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

Malc
03-25-2009, 02:02 PM
By Regan Bartel

A nifty against the grain pass by Mikael Backlund from behind the net to Cody Almond at the far post provided for a tap-in opportunity in overtime, leading the Kelowna Rockets to a 3-2 win over the Kamloops Blazers, and a 3-0 lead in their opening round playoff series.

Almond's game winner came on the heels of the tying goal with just 3 seconds remaining in regulation time. Almond's late third period goal came courtesy of a goal mouth scramble that had linemate Mikael Backlund and Ian Duval also taking a swipe at the puck before Almond got it past Blazers goaltender Justin Leclerc.

The Rockets shouldn't be happy with the first period. While they out-shot the Blazers 5-3, they failed to score on 4 power play chances and ended up giving up a shorthanded goal.

Rockets head coach Ryan Huska must have had something to say in the first intermission because they were a different club the rest of the way. The Rockets out-shot the Blazers 28-8 in the final two period and were the better team down the stretch.

The third period saw the Blazers take a 2-0 lead on a power play goal, only to collapse in an attempt to protect the two goal lead. The Rockets forced the issue resulting in several key turnovers by the Blazers defensive core. You could sense the Blazers were trying not to lose rather than win the game.

Jamie Benn was a non-factor for the majority of the game, yet his timely goal late in the third period broke the shutout bid by Justin Leclerc. It was Benn's goal that gave the visitors the belief that they indeed had a chance to tie it, and send it into overtime.

With the Blazers up 1-0 in the first period, the Rockets had a goal disallowed when Jamie Benn appeared to score to tie the game at one. Yet the goal was disallowed because Colin Long was in the crease and adjudged to have interfered with the goaltender, yet wasn't given a penalty.

Tyler Myers again had a solid game for the Rockets. Shift in and shift out he was the best player on the ice. Even in the mistakes he made, he was quick to recover.

The Rockets were 0 for 8 on the power play and are now 0 for 18 in their last two games and have given up two shorthanded goals. Those poor statistics are manageable against the Blazers, but would come back to haunt them against teams like Tri City, Vancouver or Spokane.

Mikael Backlund's return was an impressive one. Despite missing game one and two with a upper body injury, Backlund's strong work ethic and chemistry with Ian Duval and Cody Almond made them a threat to score on every shift. Backlund was especially good at the face-off circle.

The overtime win was the Rockets first in the playoffs since Lucas Bloodoff's overtime winner in game six of last years playoff series with Seattle.

It was the Rockets first overtime playoff win on the road since Lauris Darzins scored the winner at the 12:08 mark in game four of the WHL final against the Brandon Wheat Kings in 2005.

http://reganbartel.blogspot.com/2009/03/rockets-one-win-away-from-advancing.html

Malc
03-26-2009, 01:54 PM
By GREGG DRINNAN

So that’s what it’s like to set your picnic blanket on a hill that belongs to red ants.

Goaltender Justin Leclerc of the Kamloops Blazers must have had that feeling Tuesday night as the red-bedecked Kelowna Rockets came at him in waves ... in waves ... in waves.

In the end, time ran out on Leclerc and the Blazers as Kelowna Rockets centre Cody Almond found himself in the right place — not once, but twice — and pulled his club’s butt out of the campfire with two key goals that provided the visitors with a 3-2 overtime victory before 4,677 fans at Interior Savings Centre.

The Rockets, who now have beaten the Blazers 12 straight times this WHL season, lead the best-of-seven first-round series, 3-0. Kelowna gets its first opportunity to end Kamloops’ season tonight at The ATM. Game time is 7 o’clock.

The Rockets outshot the Blazers 39-18 in this one — it was 33-11 through three periods — and likely had that many attempts blocked or deflected into the mesh. This was hockey rope-a-dope at its best, except that the Blazers fell 2.9 seconds short of a knockout.

That’s how much time was left in the third period when Almond, who is the hardest-working of the Rockets just about every night, got the puck over the Kamloops goal line during a frantic scramble.

The relief the heavily favoured Rockets felt at having tied the game could be felt throughout the building.

The Blazers were mere seconds from winning this one when Kelowna defenceman Tyler Myers made a determined rush, lugging the puck from his zone into the Kamloops zone. Kelowna winger Lucas Bloodoff, who played like a junkyard dog, dug it out. Linemate Ian Duval centred it to Almond and, just like that, it was 2-2.

“That’s what Myers does. He’s got great speed ... he’s great at breaking the puck out,” said Almond, a 33-goal man in the regular season. “And give credit to Lucas Bloodoff. He backchecked, stole the puck from a guy, fired it down low, Duval poked it to me in the slot and I had an empty net.”

The Blazers, who had more shots (7) in overtime than they had in the first two periods combined (6), had their chances in overtime, the best coming seven minutes in when forward Jake Trask cut across in front of goaltender Mark Guggenberger but wasn’t able to beat him.

And then, at 12:41, Kelowna winger Mikael Backlund slipped a pass back against the flow from behind the Kamloops net and Almond again was Johnny on the spot.

“It was a great pass by Backlund,” Almond said. “I was yelling at him. He came around the boards and put it through his legs to me and I just banked it off the goalie and in ... kind of caught people out of position.”

And just like that the team that had trailed 2-0 with six minutes left to play in the third period had a stranglehold on the series.

It was through no fault of Leclerc, the 19-year-old who is finishing up his second season with the Blazers.

“He played a a great game,” Almond said of Leclerc, who has yet to record his first shutout with the Blazers. “You have to give him credit. He’s an outstanding goaltender but it just wasn’t quite enough tonight.”

Centre Seth Compton gave Kamloops a 1-0 lead at 9:30 of the first period, beating Guggenberger to finish a 2-on-1 break with winger Kenton Dulle.

Defenceman Giffen Nyren upped the lead to 2-0 at 11:16 of the third period and some fans likely were making plans for Game 5 in Kelowna on Friday night.

But Kelowna sniper Jamie Benn, a 46-goal man in the regular season, got his guys on the board, beating Leclerc from the slot at 14:05. Cue the comeback.

“We were prepared to play,” Kamloops head coach Barry Smith said. “I don’t think we’re ever not prepared to play. It’s not like guys are saying, ‘Let’s not come out and play.’ We came out and we played.”

The Blazers started OK but then ran into penalties — they took five in a row in the last 11 minutes of the first period. The Rockets didn’t score — in fact, they had trouble mustering shots — but they did get some momentum.

“We had to kill a lot of penalties but we did a great job of that,” Smith said. “We battled hard and did what we had to do.”

On this night, they just needed to do it for three more seconds.

JUST NOTES: The Daily News three stars were: 1. Leclerc; 2. Almond; 3. Myers... Referees Trevor Hanson and Graham Skilliter put their whistles away late, but still managed to dole out 13 power plays, eight to Kelowna... The Rockets, who were 0-for-8, now are 2-for-25 in the series. The Blazers were 1-for-5 and are 2-for-15... NHL scouts representing the Anaheim Ducks, Atlanta Thrashers, Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers and Phoenix Coyotes were in the house last night.

http://gdrinnan.blogspot.com/2009/03/almond-drives-blazers-nuts.html