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CdnSailor
02-28-2012, 01:12 PM
By Cleve Dheensaw, timescolonist.com February 27, 2012

Maybe inspired by the Academy Awards, Marc Habscheid used a movie reference to describe the vagaries and permutations of a stretch drive in the Western Hockey League.

“Junior hockey is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you will get until you bite,” said the Victoria Royals GM and head coach, channelling his inner Forrest Gump.

If a silent film can win best picture for the first time in 83 years, anything is possible in art and sport — like Everett’s unexpected 2-1 overtime victory against the Portland Winter Hawks on Sunday night that further complicated the Western Conference playoff race.

The Royals are among four teams vying for the final two of eight berths. Ninth-place Everett moved to within three points of seventh-place Victoria and to within one point of eighth-place Seattle, although the Thunderbirds hold a game in hand on both the Silvertips and Royals.

The Everett upset of tied-for-second Portland shows that the bottom-dwelling foursome, which also includes 10th-place Prince George at six points behind Victoria with a game in hand, needs to record some upset results against the top-six teams in the conference. Seattle was unable to do that in losing 5-1 to the first-place Tri-City Americans on Sunday.

Victoria (20-36-6) urgently requires to get at least something out of the two-game set tonight and Wednesday against the fifth-place Spokane Chiefs (32-22-7) at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. And following this pair of games, the Royals will play host to the fourth-place Vancouver Giants on Saturday and Sunday.

Also like a box of chocolates down the stretch is goaltending. You just never know what you’re going to get. And right now the Royals are getting a lot of 17-year-old rookie Jared Rathjen, normally the backup to regular Keith Hamilton. Rathjen has started the last three contests, winning his first two games of the season in crucial back-to-back situations over the weekend against the Cougars in his hometown of Prince George.

Expect to see Rathjen again tonight against Spokane.

“You want to go with the hot hand,” said Habscheid.

“Jared has played well. Goaltending is an important position, like pitching is in baseball. He seems to have a little something going and we will ride that as long as we can.”

Rathjen, 2-5-1 in 16 appearances with a 5.33 goals-against average and .821 save percentage, deflected the credit for his weekend victories to his teammates.

“I got help from the team as the guys limited [the Cougars] to a lot of outside shots,” he said.

“It’s great to get the confidence of the coaches. That helps me feel more confidence.”

But he also knows he is likely only one bad game from being replaced by Hamilton.

Habscheid has no room for error remaining in the season and will go with whoever is hot until that goalie is no longer hot. Then he won’t hesitate to put in the other guy.

“Competition is good between goalies and pushes you both to be better,” said Rathjen.

“It’s been great having Keith [Hamilton] around. He has helped me and taught me a lot during the season. In the end, only two play this position on a team and both have to help each other out. Everyone is working together. The confidence is much higher. But I have to keep a level head and just do my job.”

The same can be said of Hamilton, who turns 20 on Thursday and has carried the load this season at

17-30-5 in 53 appearances with a 4.28 goals-against average and .875 save percentage.

“Obviously, I want to play every game but that’s not possible,” he said.

“I’ve got to make sure I’m ready to go. You never know when that’s going to happen.”

In a stretch drive like this, you just don’t know what’s in that box each night until you open it.

“Whoever is playing the best, plays. And that’s how it should be,” said Hamilton.

“That’s how you get the best out of both goalies.”

A desperation push to the playoffs makes crease selection pretty simple and basic for the coaches. You ride the guy who’s hot. Until he’s not.

LOOSE PUCKS: The Chiefs are coming off losses Friday and Saturday against Portland and Tri-City, respectively. . . . Centre Dominik Uher leads Spokane in scoring with 27 goals and 32 assists for 59 points


Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Royals+getting+right+time/6219172/story.html#ixzz1nhlbonRR

the Royal Flush
02-28-2012, 02:04 PM
headline should read...."Habsheid finally realizes starting goalie cannot stop a beachball and plays backup"...it would save alot of paper...