Sigh... ok...
I really was just too disheartened to write anything last night... so now it's 9:45 on Thursday morning and I guess I'll write down a few thoughts.
Seattle loses last night 3-2 to Spokane and now trail the series 3 games to 1 and must go back to Spokane facing elimination on Saturday.
Seattle started the first period with some fire despite falling behind 1-0 on a soft goal by Spokane. Justin McCrae intelligently jammed the puck at the near post where is just barely slipped past Pickard into the corner of the net about two inches over the line.
Fortunately... the Tbirds were not deterred by the fluke goal and answered less than a minute later as Jim O'Brien finally pounded home a 3rd rebound into an open net past Tokarski to even up the game a 1-1. Jeremy Schappert put a nice shot on goal and Jeremy Boyer banged at the puck several times before it finally squirted out to the right of Tokarski where O'Brien was waiting for the hammer.
Less than 3 minutes later Schappert then gave Seattle their only lead as Richard and LeBlanc worked the puck out of the corner where it leaked into the high slot. Schappert pounced on the loose puck and whipped a wrist shot over the glove hand and into the top corner to beat Tokarski. The goal briefly energized the small home crowd of 2800 and gave Seattle the lead.
Unfortunately... the lead was short lived as Tyler Johnson sniped top shelf over Pickard on a beautiful 2 on 1 pass across from Mitch Wahl and just like that the game was again tied at 2-2.
The game was then decided at exactly the mid point as Jim O'Brien took a questionable high sticking penalty away from the puck in the offensive zone and at exactly the 10 minute mark of the 2nd period a beautiful slap-pass by Trevor Glass to Ondrej Roman gave the Chiefs a 3-2 lead they would never release.
I wish I could tell you that the Tbirds were relentless in their pressure trying to tie the game... but they honestly only had about 2 or 3 solid scoring chances the rest of the game and they went quietly into the night.
With their backs against the wall and a road trip looming... we will get a chance to see what kind of character this team has. Down 3-1 do they pack it up mentally and start wondering when and how they are getting home? Or do they realize that with a win in Game 5 in Spokane... they still return home for Game 6... and then anything could happen after winning two straight in a Game 7 on the road?
I guess we shall find out...
Hockey Challenge 2014
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10 comments :
I thought we played well for the most part last night. We at least played well is spurts.
Is it possible that we finally start winning, and playing well on the road, but can't buy a home win? This is one of the weirdest Seattle teams I have seen in the 8 years of being a season ticket holder. Lets just hope we do get one more home game this year. We need it.
Lets Go Birds!!!
I can't remember Jim's second penalty last night but his first was pretty stupid on the end of the first period. He clearly went into the Spokane player with his hands up high in his face.
We are defintely not getting production from players we should be. After 4 games our 2 - 4 leading scorers are: Jacobs, Schappert, and Wells with 2 points each.
Does anyone know the story behind Cloud wearing a A and Rai not wearing the A? I thought Cloud had a strong game and his line had about the only good scoring chance in the 3rd period. I don't know if Summer was matching lines agressively but I think he should have played the Cloud line more.
Their inability to break out of their zone was painfull to watch last night. At times they looked like a GSHL team.
My prediction is a strong game saturday with a win followed by a poor showing Sunday at home and a loss.
One thing that I noticed while watching last nights game was our inability to make adjustments at the end of each period while Spokane did make changes that aided in protecting the front of the net.
For instance in the first period we would dump the puck in chase it then put the pucks on net and go for the juicy rebounds that Tik was coughing up. The chiefs were playing more of a man on man coverage. The second and third period Spokane moved to more of a zone style of defence in their zone. When we would shoot the puck in the Chiefs had the front of the net boxed in so they could grab the rebound and pass to the outside of the box to someone who would bring it back into our zone. In effect it was making us into a perimeter type of a team and it's next to impossible to score off Tik from the outside.
In our zone the Chiefs kept on setting up to backdoor us and this was especially obvious on the power plays and the goals that were let in. They would force all the action to one side and sneak someone behind to get the puck in the open net.
The last thing I noticed last night was the birds seemed to go in a panic type mode and the boys started to try to put the game on their shoulders and forgot about the team. Though they tried to be a bit too fancy in the first and passed a few too many times, in the third specifically they completely forgot how to pass the puck all together. I also think that shortening the lines in the playoffs has hurt us as well especially in the defensive zone. You can see them getting too tired half way through the game. You need fresh legs at the end of the game not only to score points but to get the puck out of the zone but when the D is exhausted it's much harder to do this.
Someone's prediction of Spokane in 5 is looking pretty good now!
How many times did Tyler say "Can you really see THAT team lasting more than 5 games??"
As they say in the Kent public School district. D...U...N....
Are you glad you don't play game 5 tonight? You fans were complaining about not sleeping in their own beds for game 6 .... there won't be a game 6. Be objective! maybe Oscar will suit up for this team tomorrow night.
Ha ha ha ha
Do I detect Bitter Brian from Sherwood?
Not that it is going to matter, but I cant figure out what time the damn game would be at on Sunday... The WHL website, the Spokane website, the Seattle Times and even the Seattle website until a day ago was saying 7PM start time and then out of nowhere at the game I saw a message on the big screen that said 5PM. I figured it was a typo until I was browsing the Seattle website today and noticed someone had changed what was on there last week.
It actually matters A LOT because most of us that are going to the game tomorrow are planning our travels including dropping off our clothes and showering at home according to a 7PM start.
Does anyone know someone from the office that can confirm with certainty who is right?
I am going to post this on the other forum as well to get more eyes on it.
TJ... I am 99% sure that Sunday's Game 6 would start at 5:05.
Way to go Gonzaga you really put up a fight last night. Hope Spokane is glad they stayed home to watch that horrible display. Ha Ha Ha Ha.
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