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nelson951
03-12-2006, 07:54 AM
Thunderbirds lose great chance to Portland rally
By JIM RILEY

Special to The Seattle Times

The Seattle Thunderbirds wasted a golden opportunity to put the home-ice advantage in the Western Hockey League playoffs in the deep freeze Saturday night at KeyArena.

The T-birds gave up a two-goal lead in the third period and eventually lost to the Portland Winter Hawks 6-5 in a shootout.

Jannick Hansen tied the score at 5 for Portland with a score that referee Derek Zalaski emphatically waved off and then allowed after a lengthy conversation with the goal judge.

Hansen and Jon Bubnick scored in the shootout for Portland while goaltender Kurtis Mucha stopped two straight chances in the shootout, including one he appeared to glove after it had crossed the goal line by Bud Holloway.

"You don't like to say a ref won or lost the game for you, but it sure felt like that," Holloway said. "You can't blow two-goal leads like that, especially with the playoffs coming up. It's the worst lesson to have to learn."

The loss drops Seattle to 32-29-1-5 and cuts the T-birds' lead to four points in the race for second place in the U.S. Division and the home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Kyle Pess and Bretton Stamler both scored in the second period to give the T-birds to a 4-2 lead, but Portland (29-31-3-5) came back to tie it on goals by Colton Sceviour and Brandon Dubinsky in the third period.

After Seattle regained the lead on a goal by Tyler Johnson, Hansen tied it on a shot that replays showed Bridges never allowed to cross the goal line.

Portland led twice in the first period and Seattle came back twice to tie it.

Frazer McLaren and Michael Sauer scored for the Winter Hawks and James McEwan and Holloway answered for the T-birds.




Even with the loss, the T-birds still lead the season series with the Winter Hawks 7-2-0-1.

"We were a little too sloppy in our own end, but there were obviously some calls that didn't go our way," Seattle coach Rob Sumner said. "We made a lot of mistakes and there were questionable calls on goals or lack of goals."

Pess had three points in the game, but he wasn't happy when it was over.

"This should have been our game," Pess said. "A couple of bounces didn't go our way but it should have never come down to that."

Seattle outshot Portland 37-30, but had only three power-play chances against the most penalized team in the WHL. The Winter Hawks, meanwhile, were 3 for 8 on the power play.

The T-birds return to action tonight against the Spokane Chiefs at KeyArena

langdak
03-12-2006, 03:49 PM
awww schucks

LifelongChiefsFan
03-13-2006, 12:37 AM
Is it just me or has the officiating gotten worse as the season has progressed? We had Rehmen in the Spoke/Tri game last nite and his officiating was disgusting one of the worst jobs I have seen this year. The officiating is the largest flaw in this league, you would think that for the best league before these kids go pro, the dub could do better.

nivek_wahs
03-13-2006, 02:16 AM
Is it just me or has the officiating gotten worse as the season has progressed? We had Rehmen in the Spoke/Tri game last nite and his officiating was disgusting one of the worst jobs I have seen this year. The officiating is the largest flaw in this league, you would think that for the best league before these kids go pro, the dub could do better.

I have to agree with LifelongChiefsFan that the largest flaw in the WHL is the officiating. There seems to be no consistency amongst the referees in the WHL.

At any given game players can get away with hooking/clutching/etc. and the next game they barely touch another player and the ref's arm goes up.

Then again there are the referees that seem to be influenced by some coaches and their penalty calling changes either for the good or the bad.

Then there are the referees that are not consistent from period to period... some seem to get lulled into watching the game and not calling the obvious penalties.

Then there are some referees that just don't call anything unless they have to.

There are also nights where a team could have a ref call a decent game and then could have the same ref a week or 2 later and its a complete change.

Consistency? I think not. :laugh:

My few thoughts,
Kevin