Spokane vs. Seattle (First Round Series)

[LifelongChiefsFan]

Well I was hoping the Chiefs would come out and prove me wrong and they did just that! They are now in a position to wrap this thing up at home on Saturday. The Chiefs played some of the most consistent hockey I've seen from this team all year in the 2 games here in Seattle. They were physical, made good passes and were willing to pay the price to make plays. Getting Glass back appears to be a bigger boost that I thought it would be and Letts' presence shouldn't be discounted either. Tokarski was his usual brilliant self. I'll be very busy over the next couple days, but if time permits, I'll try to get recaps of games 3 and 4 up on here. Here's hoping the Chiefs finish off the Thunderbirds and get a few days off before round 2.

[dondo]

Taking both games in Seattle (Kent) is quite a feat this season .. congrats Chiefs, we might meet again in the second round after-all as it doesn't look like any upsets in the West are brewing.

with better results for us this time around of course

[dagley]

Chiefs/Giants would be spectacular.

[Pete76]

Chiefs/Giants would be spectacular.

I hope so, but I have not seen a chiefs team this year that can win a 7 game series against vancouver

[LifelongChiefsFan]

Overall, I thought Spokane played a pretty solid game three. It did take them about 13 minutes to get into it though. Seattle carried the play for most of those first 13 minutes and ended up getting what turned out to be their only goal of the night. Seattle countered off of a turnover in the neutral zone and Scott tipped the puck on goal. Tik made an excellent save, but couldn’t control the rebound. Before the Chiefs D could clear the puck, Jacobs was there to tap it in for the 1-0 lead. Seattle kept the pressure on until Spokane got somewhat of a lucky break that resulted in their first goal. Wahl was breaking in 2 on 2 and the Seattle defender took him off the puck, but in doing so took out the other T-Bird defender as well. This left the puck free in the slot with no one to defend Johnson. He took the puck and beat Pickard stick side with a real nifty backhander. He’s got one of the best I’ve seen in a long time and he doesn’t shy away from using it. The Chiefs ended up getting the game winning goal from Ulmer on the power play a few minutes later. It was a low wrist shot from the right circle with no screen and to be perfectly honest, Pickard should have stopped it. You could feel the momentum turning in the Chiefs’ favor at that point. The Chiefs were pretty much gifted their third goal. On the penalty kill, the puck was cleared back to Hickey who reached down to stop the puck with his hand. He misplayed it and it slowly trickled behind him. Koper was first to the puck and then was off to the races. He came down the left side and cut across the top of the crease, beating Pickard glove side with the backhander. This goal sucked all the air out of ShoWare. Tokarski made nice saves on Schappert and Warg to keep Seattle from scoring on the power play. The Chiefs got a pretty fortunate bounce for their fourth goal as well. The Chiefs had the puck in Seattle’s zone for about a minute and the puck was played to Glass at the point. He wound up for a big slap shot and the puck was deflected off a skate right to Koper in the slot, who fired it into the open net for the goal. Johnson created Spokane’s fifth goal, another shorthanded tally. The puck was passed back to Hickey at the point and Johnson pressured him and he turned the puck over. Johnson then skated the puck down to the Seattle zone and Hickey held him for a delayed penalty call, which allowed the Chiefs D to get in on the play. The puck ended up behind the net and Koper was the first to it, who then passed it back to Johnson now at the left boards. Johnson centered the puck and after it pinballed around a bit, Spurgeon was able to corral the puck in the slot and put away the garbage. The Chiefs played pretty conservatively in the third period, both goalies made a couple nice saves and Scott rang one off the post midway through the period. A small scrum broke out at the buzzer and was quickly broken up by the refs. There wasn’t much else of note during the third.


Some of my thoughts on the game:

The Chiefs played a hard and physical game. They were somewhat prone to making mistakes, over skating the puck or making a bad pass etc, but they were able to make up for these errors so it never ended up hurting them. The desire that they showed to make up for any mistakes was very nice to see. Also, while a lot of the Chiefs goals were results of fortunate bounces, I think the Chiefs created that luck by working hard for most of the game.

It was definitely good to see scoring from Wahl, Johnson and Koper. They were responsible for 4 of the 5 goals, and it was nice to see McCrae get a couple of points on the power play too.

Tokarski’s rebound control was exceptional, just about every rebound was directed into the corners with the only obvious exception being on Seattle’s goal.

Glass looked pretty rusty to start the game, but got much better as the game progressed. Letts looked like he didn’t miss a beat, but because he wasn’t actually injured, I think he didn’t lose as much endurance as someone who has to stay off the ice for a few weeks.

The Chiefs penalty killing was fairly shaky at the start of the game, but vastly improved as the game wore on. Still despite the 2 power play and 2 short handed goals, at the time giving up 6 power plays and only drawing 2 was somewhat of a concern.

Scott and O’Brien for the T-Birds are the real deal; they were very fun to watch. They pressured the Chiefs puck carriers a lot and they made a lot of nice plays.

I didn’t notice Hickey very much. He had several good looks at the Spokane net and often shot wide. Didn’t have very many hits and wasn’t particularly strong defensively, along with having the bad miscues on both short handed goals.

Even at half full the atmosphere at ShoWare is 100 times better than a ‘sell out’ at Key Arena. It is nice to see the Thunderbirds team finally have a legitimate home ice advantage for playoff games.

[LifelongChiefsFan]

The scoring occurred early and often in game 4. McCrae got things going with his first goal of the playoffs (and I believe it was also his first playoff goal with Spokane) just over three minutes into the game. The Chiefs broke into the Seattle zone and Donaghy shot the puck wide. It settled down behind the net and McCrae was able to scoop up the puck behind the goal line and bank it off Pickard into the net. Great heads up play by McCrae. It didn’t take long for Seattle to respond. Less than a minute later, the Boyer line got some sustained pressure in the Spokane zone and after a few saves by Tik, Schappert was able to get the puck through the mess in front of the net into the slot and O’Brien had a wide open net to knock the puck into. Seattle seized the momentum from the goal got a few chances hitting the post a minute after the goal. About two and a half minutes after their first goal, Seattle was able to pot the go ahead goal. Spokane turned the puck over below the goal line and a T-Bird player, I think it was LeBlanc, made a beautiful quick touch pass to the slot and found a wide open Schappert who fired a snap shot top shelf past Tokarski. It was then Spokane’s turn to respond and they did just that. Under 2 minutes later, after a rush into the Spokane zone, the Chiefs were able to make a quick transition with Koper finding Wahl, leading to a Spokane 2 on 1. Wahl broke down the right side with Johnson on the left and Wahl was able to get the pass across and Johnson beat Pickard stick side to tie the game. About a minute after that, Bowman had a partial breakaway and nearly scored. Pickard made the save, but the puck rolled behind him and just missed going inside the left post. At this point, I was wondering just how many goals were going to be scored in this game! Obviously the scoring settled down substantially after this, but there were still plenty of chances both ways as Tik and Pickard had to make some good saves to keep the game tied at 2 after the first period. Tokarski made 2 point blank saves on Parker and Rai after they had a 2 on 1 and Pickard made a pad save on a tricky shot by Wahl midway through the period just to name a few. Hickey threw a few big hits and definitely played a better game this time around. After Seattle killed a penalty to start the second period, O’Brien got out of the box and was behind the Chiefs’ defense, but the Birds couldn’t get him the puck. That was a big break for the Chiefs. Spokane really poured on the offense in the second, which was aided by having essentially four full power plays. Pickard had a few sensational saves, only getting beat once during the frame. But the goal was beautiful. After Seattle committed their second penalty of the period, the Chiefs won the offensive zone draw and made some really crisp passes culminating in Glass finding Roman open at the top of the slot and he easily directed the puck past Pickard into the open net for a lead the Chiefs would never lose. The teams more or less traded scoring chances the rest of the second period with both goalies keeping the puck out of the net. The Chiefs played pretty methodical defense in the third period. They made Seattle look discombobulated much of the time and although the T-Birds got a decent amount of shots, most weren’t of the high quality variety. The few that were, Tokarski made the save and if there was a rebound or the puck was loose in front of the net, the Chiefs defense did a superb job of getting to the puck first and clearing the zone. Spokane got some great chances in the third too, but Pickard made some key saves to keep the Birds in the game. One of the keys to holding the lead was a strong forecheck by the Chiefs, they were able to keep the puck in Seattle’s zone for much of the third period. They pinned Seattle in their own end for roughly a minute before Seattle was finally able to get the puck in Spokane’s zone with 50 seconds left and pull the goalie, but even then they weren’t able to get any sustained pressure and Spokane held on for the 3-2 victory.


Some of my thoughts on the game:

The Chiefs played a similar style to game three and I actually thought Spokane played a little better in this game than they did in game three, although the scores don’t reflect that. Like I said in a post above, I think the biggest improvement for Spokane in this series has been consistency. They outhit and outhustled the Thunderbirds in both games and are playing like they want to win. As long as they keep playing with the consistency that they had in games 3 and 4, they are going to be tough to beat no matter who they play. The big test will be if they can keep it up for three games in a row, in a game where Seattle is fighting for their playoff lives. The Chiefs can make a big statement about what kind of team they are going to be in the playoffs this season with their performance tonight.

I found it pretty interesting that the Chiefs committed 3 penalties in the first period and none the rest of the game. The Thunderbirds were called for the last 4 penalties of the game, and 5 total. I thought the Chiefs got away with a couple things that could have been called. Not that I’m complaining.

As I said above, Hickey had a much better game on Wednesday. I’m sure he wasn’t happy with his performance in game 3 and he responded. He was physical, blocked shots and created a few good offensive opportunities, but couldn’t cash in.

The Letts, Donaghy, McCrae line plays a very physical game. They were hitting everyone in a white sweater all night. It’s too bad the WHL site doesn’t keep track of hits, I’d be interested to see just how many hits that line accumulated.

The Chiefs’ young line didn’t get a whole lot of ice time (in either game really) but they haven’t looked bad when they’ve been out there. They work hard, you can tell they are trying to prove that they are worthy of more ice time, but they are young and it shows at times. The experience they get in the playoffs this year should be very valuable to them.

Tik had another strong game. He seemed to have a little trouble handling the puck at the very beginning of the game, but nothing bad came from that and he had no problems with the puck as the game progressed.

It’s kind of an aside, but I’ve made posts before stating that I hate cluttered ice surfaces, so I really enjoyed the ice surface at ShoWare. Only 4 ads and 2 small Comcast logos and that’s it. No ads in the faceoff circles, no ads below the goal line. I hope they keep it that way.

[dondo]

I hope so, but I have not seen a chiefs team this year that can win a 7 game series against vancouver

this is what I am hoping myself

we took the season series and it was very sad that these two teams only met twice this season, the hockey was great both times.

So should we be running Tik as Lett did to Pickard? j/k

Here's to a great series .. feel free to keep in touch about games and for those coming up I owe a few beers, so come find me, or PM with any questions.