Americans draw first blood

By Doyle Potenteau

Don Nachbaur says his Tri-City Americans dodged a bullet. The Kelowna Rockets didn‘t.

Taylor Procyshen scored the game-winning goal for Tri-City late in the third period, a power-play marker with 1:53 left to play, as the Americans defeated the Rockets 4-3 in WHL playoff action on Friday night. The best-of-seven series resumes tonight, 7 p.m. at Toyota Center, with Game 2.

If this evening‘s contest resembles Game 1, the fans will be the real winner, for the opener was, simply, a great game that featured plenty of offence and emotions.

"Both teams want to win," said Nachbaur, Tri-City‘s head coach, whose team led 3-1 at one point, only to have the Rockets rally and tie. "We learned some valuable lessons last season by going to the Western Conference final, and how hard you have to compete to win a series. Some of our young guys underwent a baptism by fire, and they reacted in a good manner.

"But at the end of the day, (Kelowna) is a good hockey team and we dodged a bullet. Give them credit because they really pressed us at times. We‘re up 3-1 and they didn‘t quit; they kept coming back."

Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska liked how his team battled back from a two-goal deficit. At game‘s end, though, the Americans‘ top guns outshone the Rockets‘ top players, physically and emotionally.

Case in point would be Kelowna‘s goalscorers: Evan Bloodoff and Lucas Bloodoff, with their first post-season goals, and Tyson Barrie, with his third. Notables who didn‘t score for Kelowna were Jamie Benn, Colin Long, Cody Almond and Ian Duval. Lighting the lamp for Tri-City was Jason Reese, with his fifth, Kruise Reddick, with his third, Jarrett Toll, with his first, and Procyshen, with his second. Procyshen had 36 goals and 81 points in 72 regular-season games, while Reese had 31 goals and 81 points in 69 games, and Reddick 45 points (19-26) in 71 games.

Chet Pickard made 23 saves for the Americans, while Mark Guggenberger stopped 35 shots for the Rockets. Tri-City outshot Kelowna 18-5 in the third.

"When you get to this point in the playoffs, teams have to play with emotions," said Huska. "You have to find a way to win, and that‘s what it really comes down to. We almost had the feeling that it was going to start coming our way (in the third), but it wasn‘t our best game. We can be better, and we‘re going to have to better Saturday if we want to come out with a split here."

Pickard says he was surprised by the seven goals, but not by the highly charged emotions, which grew exponentially as the game went on.

"After the first two periods (where it was 1-1), yeah, I was surprised (by the seven goals)," said Pickard. "I thought Guggenberger played really well for them and made big saves. But in the third, it opened up. The power these two teams have offensively, they‘re going to score goals.

"It was a tough game because they really came at us hard, especially in the first. I thought we answered the bell and played pretty well. It‘s going to be a tough series."

Concerning emotions, Pickard said "after every whistle, people were pushing and shoving. That‘s good to see, though. It‘s two really good hockey teams and they‘re intense and they‘re battling for every inch out there. It‘s going to come right down to the wire in this series."

At the other end, his Kelowna counterpart said he wasn‘t surprised by Friday‘s back-and-forth game.

"Absolutely not," said Guggenberger. "They did exactly what we thought they would do. They came out hard and they battled. We have to get back to work (Saturday) and, hopefully, things work out differently.

"This crowd is pretty loud when they get into it. We have to do our best to weather the storm and not get out of our game."

Friday‘s small crowd of 3,737 exploded with fury twice in the third – the first at 10:15 when fans thought Lucas Bloodoff drilled Lane Werbowski into the penalty-box boards, the second at 16:31 when Tyler Myers knocked an off-balance Mitch Fadden into Kelowna‘s endboards. In both cases, the Americans were handed penalties.

And in the second case, Tri-City capitalized, with Procyshen snapping home the game winner from the left faceoff circle.

Notably, Fadden went down hard into the endboards, face and shoulders first at high speed, and was slow getting up, though he skated to Tri-City‘s bench under his own power. He never returned, possibly suffering a sore back, though there was less than two minutes remaining.

"From what we saw, it looked like he was falling to start with," Huska said of Fadden falling into the endboards. "It is what it is right now. That‘s all I can say."

Following a scoreless, yet highly entertaining, first period, Evan Bloodoff opened Friday‘s scoring at 5:38 of the first period with an own rebound. After a faceoff in Kelowna‘s end, the Rockets gained puck possession and charged up ice, with Ryley Grantham leading a three-on-one. After crossing Tri-City‘s blue-line, Grantham loosed a chest-high shot that Pickard stopped, but couldn‘t corral. Bloodoff swooped in, took one swipe, then another and knocked it home at 5:38.

Nearly 10 minutes later, though, the Ams replied, Reese on the power play at 15:00. With Tyler Myers in the box for cross-checking, the Ams quickly worked the puck to Fadden at the right faceoff dot. From there, Fadden dished a quick backhand to the slot, where Reese redirected it and the home crowd exploded. The goal came nine seconds into Myers‘ penalty.

In the third, Reddick made it 2-1 Tri-City at 1:36 with a soft wraparound that somehow squeezed by Guggenberger. The goal was Reddick‘s third goal of the post-season. Then Tri-City made it 3-1 at 4:31, Toll with a soft backhand, short side, from in tight after cutting in off left wing.

The Rockets responded, though, with Lucas Bloodoff getting lucky with a soft five-hole shot that somehow squeezed through Pickard at 5:19. At 6:58, with Kelowna on the power play, Barrie levelled the score after sniping a top-shelf shot. The goal was scored from the high slot after Barrie skated in from the blue-line.

While Tri-City won, it wasn‘t without cost. Reese was hurt midway through the third following a draw in Kelowna‘s end when he and Long tangled and fell to the ice. Reese immediately clutched his left leg/knee in pain and writhed in agony until play was stopped. Reese needed help leaving the ice, and it‘s believed he left the arena on crutches, though the Americans wouldn‘t comment on Reese‘s possible injury.

At the same time, Lucas Bloodoff hit Werbowski, who also had to leave the ice. The hit came just after Werbowski dumped the puck into Kelowna‘s end with a slapshot.

"I don‘t know... I have to take a look at the video," Nachbaur said about Reese. "All I saw was two guys crumpled on the ice. For me to comment on it would be unfair because I was talking to a couple of players and diagramming a play. I looked up and I don‘t know what happened."

ICE CHIPS: Kelowna‘s scratches were C Mikael Backlund (undisclosed lower-body injury) and RW Kyle. St. Denis (concussion, indefinite). Tri-City‘s scratches were D Brett Plouffe (undisclosed injury), RW Brock Zimak, LW Spencer Asuchak and G Drew Owsley... Kelowna was 1-for-3 on the power play; Tri-City was 2-for-5... The three stars were Reddick, Barrie and Fadden... Prior to Friday, Kelowna‘s last loss was 3-2 in Red Deer on Feb. 27.

http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/st....php?id=176910