1	0	1	2
	3	2	1	6

	2	1	7	3	5	7	6	4
	4	4	3	4	2	3	2	3

Alright, so I was a little off the mark in terms of when the Warriors would pour it on. Nonetheless, the Hitmen did an admirable job of bending but not breaking when the pressure did come and ultimately cruised to victory on the strength of a pair of two-goal nights, from Jimmy Bubnick and Cody Sylvester.

When the game started, it was actually the Hitmen who held the early advantage, in contrast to the other two games of the series I saw. They opened the scoring about four minutes in off a one-on-one chance by Sylvester that found an absolutely perfect spot: right by the crook of the elbow, on the glove side, something Kelly Hrudey’s highlighted before on Hockey Night as a very difficult spot for a goalie to get. Some old demons reared their ugly heads, though, when Tyler Shattock took a roughing penalty, creating a 4-on-3 power play that the Warriors capitalized on. And wouldn’t you know it, Jason Bast was the man of the hour, tying the game at one. That’s seven goals in as many games. Jeepers. A couple of minutes later, though, the Hitmen got that one back on a Jimmy Bubnick goal that was Ryan Smyth greasy: three guys crashed the net, and somehow it got poked in before Jeff Bosch could cover it up; I thought for sure it was off Del Cowan’s stick, but the official scorer disagreed. Whatever the case, it was 2-1. About two minutes later, Joel Broda got run from behind by Ryan Stanton¹, resulting in a Hitmen power play: Shattock deflects home a Michael Stone point shot, 3-1 Hitmen. Warriors coach Dave Hunchak called a timeout to try to get his house in order, and his players responded by making one shot on net in the final five minutes and change, despite a sequence of about ninety seconds spent in the Calgary zone, leading to a pair of icings.

The second is where the Warriors really started pressing. For the first eight or so minutes, play was almost exclusively in the Calgary end: at one point, Mike Williamson tried calling at timeout to settle the troops, but to little avail. The tide started to turn on a shorthanded chance by Tyler Fiddler, and by the midway point of the period it was all Calgary again. However, the Hitmen developed a nasty tendency of sending pucks just wide of the goal, allowing Moose Jaw to hang in there. Late in the second, on a Dylan McIlrath goalie interference penalty (and a rather blatant one if I may say so), Brandon Kozun was the final beneficiary of a lengthy passing sequence, making it 4-1 Hitmen. With seconds to go in the frame, Bubnick got his second of the night on a nice individual effort, beating a pair of checks and going roof on Bosch to make it 5-1 after two.

The third period was essentially cruise control, with the Hitmen mostly content to chip the puck to the red line and change every 45 seconds. They gave up a goal on a nice deflection by Dylan Hood to make it 5-2 midway through the period, but it was far too late. The power play that had given the Hitmen so many fits went 0/2 in the third, with the refs putting away the whistles early in the third, save for an automatic delay of game penalty to Michael Stone. Sylvester completed the scoring with an uncontested slap shot from just above the hashmarks, initiating the coronation. The first “na na na na…” went up with six minutes to go, in a shocking bit of hubris from a fanbase that was slapping the panic button with both palms just a few days earlier. With just over a minute to go, the standing ovation began, and didn’t end until after the final buzzer. Against the odds, the Hitmen had come back from 3-1 down to take the series, 4-3 on home ice.

Before we get too absorbed in the next series, however, we have to tip our hats to the Moose Jaw Warriors, who were very nearly the David to Calgary’s Goliath in this matchup. They took advantage of a nervous favourite, played responsibly, and dictated the play early. While ultimately they got dominated by the Hitmen, they forced the Hitmen to earn their dominance, something that never really happened in 2009. In talking to some of the other fine folks in Section 108, we all agreed that, while going down 3-1 is never a “good” thing, it may have been a very useful and timely problem to have. Whereas last year, they were allowed to develop bad habits, not out of bad coaching but out of simple math, and were thus unprepared to face a quality opponent in Kelowna, this year, they were taken to the brink by a team that finished 29 points back of them in the standings. You think they’re going to take the Medicine Hat Tigers, a much better team, for granted now? You think they’re going to get complacent after having to win three in a row just to get out of the first round? You think they’re going to tense up in the face of a two-game deficit, or an elimination situation? No, this series required them to show their character and learn from their mistakes early, and I think that’ll serve them well in the series to come.

Game 1 against Medicine Hat will probably go on Thursday actually go Friday at the ‘Dome, 7 PM. Go Hitmen.

¹ – A lot of fans were calling for a five, but I found that unlikely, given how poor a job WHL officials have done of calling hits from behind the last couple of years. It’s rather astonishing how clear the difference is between when I got my season tickets in 2006 and now. Also of note, a few minutes earlier, Misha Fisenko took a shoulder to the schnozz, leaving a few drops on the ice and requiring repairs. By both the current NHL and WHL standards, it was a legal hit, but by OHL standards, that would’ve been a penalty. I kind of wonder how things are going to play out in the Dub in that regard next year, with the NHL re-examining its own head-hitting rules.