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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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4 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
This is “Chelsea Dagger,” a song by the now-defunct band The Fratellis. You may know it better as “that dumb but catchy thing they play when the Blackhawks score.” With the Blackhawks set to play the Canucks tomorrow, it seems like an appropriate time to dig that out, given that I’m hoping the Canucks hear it so many times it becomes embedded in their nightmares. You know, again. Which leads me neatly into last night’s game, because holy shit, the Hitmen scored a lot of goals. The problem is, and this may also be a blessing, is that they didn’t entirely play their best game last night, and you know the Americans are going to be reeling from this spanking and out for blood. The blessing is, Mike Williamson has plenty of ammo for Video Time at today’s practice: heck, maybe he can even throw in a tape of the Kelowna series from last year, as an object lesson in the dangers of overconfidence, at least for the eight or ten guys who weren’t here for that one and don’t carry the memories of that defeat seared into every sulcus of their cerebral cortex.
Of course, there’s another good reason why the Hitmen weren’t exactly at their peak last night: this game was pretty much over by the middle of the first period. After a tentative first few minutes in which teams went through the traditional feeling-out process that often accompanies these cross-conference playoff games, Ian Schultz found a hole in the Americans’ defence and sprung Cody “Fernando” Sylvester, who scored his tenth of the playoffs, matching his regular-season total in something like a quarter of the games. A couple of minutes later, the Americans took the first of back-to-back penalties, when Eric Mestery cross-checked Brandon Kozun to the ice near the boards. Matt MacKenzie sailed home his fifth of the playoffs, and it was 2-0 Hitmen. Immediately thereafter, another Tri-City penalty, another MacKenzie goal. After the TV timeout, in which I dug out my pizza and began eating, Misha Fisenko drove around a T.C. defender and scored his first of two on the night, and I couldn’t even jump up and down because I had supper in my lap. 4-0 Hitmen eleven minutes into the game, and that was all she wrote for Drew Owsley, until now the best statistical goalie in the playoffs by a mile. The Hitmen killed a Del Cowan penalty with ease, it that was your score after one.
The second period started with another Americans penalty, in which backup Alexander Pechurskiy, the only player with an NHL game under his belt in this series, came up huge. At even strength, however, Brandon Kozun was left all alone in the slot with enough time to skate to the net, steal a drink from the goalie’s water bottle, then skate back and take the shot that gave him his eighth of the post-season. Tri-City’s defence was absolutely pathetic on this night, but Calgary’s started to slip more than a little after establishing a five-goal lead. After spending the majority of the last ten minutes of the period in their own zone, the Hitmen got a bit lucky with another huge breakdown by T.C., resulting in Fisenko’s second of the night with under a minute to go. 6-0 after two.
The third period…just kind of happened. I’ll be honest, I was scarcely following the play in the third period; I just sort of let it unfold in front of me and passively observed it without recording much. It was a pretty chippy period, as the teams started to foment distaste for one another with various behind-the-play shots and uncalled hacks and whacks. While the Hitmen got into minor penalty trouble late, they were able to get into the lanes when they had to. A bullet of a goal by Ben Wilson, a late shorthanded chance by Ian Schultz, and a fight between Cody Beach and Brock Sutherland were the only real events that got my attention at all. It’s very hard to care when you’re watching a six-goal (later seven-goal) game.
If I had to point out a player who had a truly bad game, it’d probably be Jaynen Rissling, who looked like a 16-year-old rookie defenceman in this game. He looked lost on his coverage, made a couple of bad turnovers to preserve T.C. pressure, and just generally seemed nervous and perhaps overmatched. I’ll be curious to see if Rissling trades chairs with Peter Kosterman, the other youngster who’s seen action in these playoffs due to the injury to Kyle Aschim (which I’ll be honest, I have no clue what it is). On the other hand, in addition to the pair of two-goal men, Martin Jones earned the third star for his shutout, to go along with Eastern Conference Final MVP (yeah, I forgot to mention that last time, didn’t I?) and WHL Goaltender of the Year (woo!) honours this past week. Game 2 goes tonight at 8 (late start due to the Roughnecks playoff game at 1). I expect a much better and better-prepared Tri-City team, and apparently, so do the Hitmen; let’s hope they’re as ready as they say they are.
