A morning after running commentary...

(please excuse the formatting I can't figure out what blogger is doing this morning)

These dang holiday parties keep me from watching or going to some of these December games... but never fear loyal readers I have fired up the old Insinc machine for a little running commentary here early on this Saturday morning.

- Tyler Alos comes out like a house of fire in his hometown delivers two nice hits early in the game. I think Alos is really going to be a player eventually. Right now he is still learning and that's why he is still on the 4th "checking" line but he gives you great effort when he is out there.

- Prab cuts to the middle and is saved on a shot that honestly I expect him to bury. That is a scorer in a really dangerous scoring location.

- Seattle with good effort early... Pickard with a big stop from the same scoring location and kicks it out with the right pad.

- Roughing penalty on Mitch Wahl and Seattle goes on an early PP.

- Pretty good stuff from the 1st unit PP for Seattle but really nothing from the 2nd unit.

- Pickard with a big save on Miller at the near post.

- Dangerous pass by Jacobs in his own zone almost stolen by the Chiefs.

- Another penalty to Mitch Wahl and this one is a slashing.

- Seattle has to take better care of the puck on the PP... they basically just gave it away twice before getting set in the zone.

- I said it several weeks ago... Teams are now bearing down on Sena a lot more expecting that slap shot on the PP. Sena is still doing a pretty good job getting good shots off but he isn't being given nearly the space he was before.

- Nice pass by Wells re-directed by Nielsen and saved by Reid.

- Big save by Pickard on Letts... that line of Elliott, Lund and Alos just can't get the puck out of the zone.

- Spokane P by P guy screams about a tripping no-call.

- Parker works a puck that "scoring zone" in the high slot but is saved by Reid. Pretty good shot and pretty good save by Reid reaching up with the glove. Maybe I'm wrong about Reid... maybe is he good... I don't know, I'm still confused because I think generally speaking Spokane just plays really good defense.

- Spokane should have been up 1-0 on basically a 2-0 in front of the net but Tanner Mort's shot was deflected at the last moment by Fleming.

- Spokane has the momentum here now with 5 minutes left in the period... Pickard makes another stop on Letts.

- Good pad save by Reid on Parker.

- Dillon wrister stopped and held by Reid who has been sharp here in the first period.

- Great forecheck by Sentyurin who is looking more and more comfortable each game.

- Goal Spokane. Moments later a great feed by Kenton Miller up the middle to Wahl who comes in and makes a great move on Pickard and roofs a backhand and Spokane leads 1-0. Schappert... who is having a great season just let Wahl get behind him there and Miller made a great pass to get the puck into Wahl for the breakaway. 1-0 Spokane and you could argue that Seattle doesn't deserve to be behind.

- Gal stopped by Pickard at the near post. I think Seattle has generally played well here in the first period but they have given Spokane far too many wide open chances on Pickard.

- First period comes to an end. Seattle trails 1-0 but the effort was decent. Spokane led the shots 12-8 in the period.

- Seattle moving right to left now on my computer screen.

- I don't find Spokane's P by P guy to be that bad... I have really heard worse. But I just saw Leedahl basically two handed Jacobs in the face (no call) and the announcer called it a "good check"... wow.

- and moments later Jacobs picks up a Boarding call. I should have seen that coming, Jacobs takes a shot to the mouth and gets no call and lets his frustrations get to him and picks up a penalty. The call on Jacobs is a good one, but it never happens if either Iverson or Smith makes the initial call on Leedahl... A frustrating sequence for Seattle. I guess 1 out of 2 calls isn't too bad guys... geez.

- Puck off the post as Spokane nearly takes a 2-0 lead on the PP.

- Wells and Nielsen deserve a lot of credit for how good the PK is for Seattle, they do a fantastic job.

- Save by Pickard on a BIG shot from Kichton from the point and the PP expires.

- Lund misses a pass because his stick isn't on the ice ready for it.

- GOAL SEATTLE. Mikhail Sentyurin gets his second of the season unassisted as the puck just barely got through Reid and trickled over the line at the speed of a Banana Slug. Credit to Colin Jacobs for a strong fore-check that causes the turnover by Baldwin and Sentyurin intercepts the puck and fires the shot that "beat" Reid. Frustrating goal for Reid who has been sharp so far and now Seattle has equalized.

- Dear Spokane announcer... you don't have to say "no call" every time a Chiefs player goes down and it isn't a penalty. See... this is hockey where you are allowed to forcibly dislodge someone from possession of the puck with your body. In the process of doing this, sometimes players will be forced off their skates and onto the ice. If a penalty was called every time this happened there would be 15 PP's per team per game and nobody really wants that. Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter. Sincerely, Some Dumb Blog Writer.

- Lockhart checks someone right into the Seattle bench and Kuhn slams into the stanchion.

- Big save by Pickard on Mitch Wahl who has been a force tonight when he hasn't been in the box. Parker picks up a slashing penalty trying to prevent Wahl from getting a good chance.

- Wahl hits the post on the PP, wow he has been dangerous tonight.

- Koper misses a chance wide open in front of the net and the Seattle kills the penalty. Not a good penalty kill from Seattle but they manage to escape without being scored on.

- Furious action here as Schappert walks the slot and fires a shot that is stopped by Spokane and kicks out creating a 3 on 2 the other direction. Credit Parker here for hustling his butt off to get back into the play or it would have been a clear 3 on 1. Koper feeds to Ulmer who puts it back to Koper who fires it off the crossbar. Pickard has been equally good and lucky here in this game.

- Hey... Wells is taken off his feet... "No Call...."

- Delay of Game penalty to Leedahl and Seattle goes on the PP with 5:40 to play in the 2nd.

- Nice drive by Rai is stopped by Reid... and Miller comes the other way and creates a scramble in front of Pickard, dangerous chance.

- Whoa... Wells almost lost it and created a chance for Spokane by is able to whack it away.

- Letts almost has a 2 on 1 for Spokane but loses the puck. This was a terrible PP for the Tbirds.

- Koper drills Lund over on the boards and a little chat room develops... no penalties.

- Bardaro has had a nice game so far and we already know he is rewarded later.

- Koper and Ramsay have a little chat at the buzzer. Koper does not want to mess with Rammer, that is a fight he can't win.

- Second period comes to a close with the score 1-1. Hockey is a funny game... I thought Seattle was better in the 1st and was down 1-0 and I thought Spokane was better in the 2nd and the Tbirds tied the game 1-1. - Really lazy pass/clearing by Dillon. I guess that was supposed to be a pass but it was horrible... He’s got to do better than that. That was worse than the play that resulted in the goal for Seattle and those plays usually wind up in the back of your own net.

- Interesting matching there as Sumner sends out the checking line and Spokane counters with the Wahl line. Aggressive move by Spokane.

- A Tbirds player with a nice hit along the boards, I couldn't get a number though quite possibly Lund or Alos.

- Wahl just undresses Dillon and gets a chance point blank on Pickard who makes the save. Horrible start to the 3rd period by Dillon.

- Fleming is crushed in the corner... he needs to be heavier on his skates.

- GOAL SEATTLE. Prab Rai with a slapper past Reid to give Seattle a 2-1 lead. I couldn't tell from the angle but it looked like Reid might have been screened on the play and Rai just hammered one past him. Also the announcer said it beat Reid glove side, but it looked more blocker side to me... tough to tell from the camera angle. Either way Seattle takes the lead 2-1.

- Another nice fore-check from Sentyurin causes a turnover.

- Jacobs with a nice turnaround shot that Reid stops.

- Ugh... chance for Nielsen, Schappert and Wells and they just couldn't get a quality shot off.

- Wow... the Spokane radio feed just missed nearly a full minute of the game. Who is in charge of those commercial breaks??

- Leedahl with a shot that directs to the right of Pickard and the net was wide open but Nielsen gets there first and skates it behind the net.

- Bit of a sloppy 3rd period but for the most part Seattle is playing better and tougher than Spokane and has earned the lead.

- Sentyurin feeds Jacobs who gets off a pretty good shot from the sharp angle and it is stopped by Reid.

- Rai with a couple of nice moves but is only able to get a soft shot on goal stopped by Reid.

- Sena flashes some nice speed and unloads a slapper that is deflected over the glass.

- Spokane Goal. Linesmen miss what looked to me like an obvious offside goal and it leads to the goal for Spokane. Bardaro who has had a really nice game, finally gets rewarded as he flips a backhand towards Pickard who isn't able to handle it and it trickles over the line and the game is tied at 2-2. I can't tell what exactly happened... whether Pickard expected it to hit someone and didn't or it actually did hit someone or whether Pickard just flat out misses it off his glove. Regardless... we're tied now with 8:54 to play in the 3rd.

- Elliott with a big hit on Mort and moments later Lund has a chance and can't quite beat Reid. Great shift by that line.

- Tbirds have been the aggressors this period.

- Pickard nearly misplays one behind his net but I wouldn't call it a "close call".

- Fans want a call on Ramsay who bumps Brassart from behind and sends him into the boards. Probably a 50/50 call there, Brassart turned his back towards Ramsay and the "check" was definitely more of a bump than anything else. Hard to believe Brassart can't stay on his skates there. With 3 minutes left I think that would have been a pretty tough call so in that sense I think the Refs got it right.

- Pickard a stop on Wahl who has really been a one man wrecking crew tonight.

- Pickard stops another Wahl shot.

- Some furious back and forth action here at the end of the game.

- Pickard another stop in front, Spokane is really putting the pressure on here in the last two minutes.

- Parker with another shot on goal that isn't particularly dangerous, I think he is trying to lead the team in SOG's.

- and we are headed to OT. Probably fitting... Seattle has played well enough that they didn't deserve to lose (backhanded compliment I know) and Spokane really hasn't played well enough to take the win from the Tbirds. Seattle was mostly better in the 3rd period with the exception of the last two minutes that felt like it took forever for Seattle to survive.

- Of note... the announcer reminds us that Seattle is 0-1 in OT this year and 0-3 in the shootout. Haha...

- Nielsen wins the faceoff clean to start the OT.

- Good defense here by Seattle so far in the extra session.

- Jacobs a good shot through traffic saved by Reid before Dillon gets a good shot on net... but no traffic in front.

- Parker with another shot on goal saved by Reid... a good tough save by Reid there as Alos crossed in front of him right before the shot.

- Ramsay with some great work on Koper in the corner. The Seattle defense her has been excellent.

- Rouse with a nice feed to Rai but it is barely poked away with 1 minute to play.

- OT WINNER SEATTLE!! Charles Wells with the overtime winner as Ramsay fed Jeremy Schappert up the wing who worked it down deep into the zone with Lockhart going to the net. Schappert puts a good low shot on Reid and the rebound kicks out into the slot where Wells is there to punch home the winner.

Big Big Big Big Big win for the TBirds in Spokane. Seattle played well enough to win and Spokane didn't and while Spokane is a better team they did not play like it last night and the Tbirds were able to steal a win on the road.

In the building the 3 stars were Wahl, Rai and Wells and I would mostly agree with that. Wahl was nearly the only player doing anything consistently for the Chiefs and was the best player on the ice. I probably would give Wells the 2nd star for the game winner and a +2 rating and the work he does on the PK and Rai was dangerous as well and had the blast that gave Seattle the 2-1 lead.

Seattle is back to work tonight at the ShoWare Center against the Swift Current Broncos before starting their 7 day winter break. I, of course, have another party tonight and will miss the game so I'll throw up a game thread and you guys can all tell me how it goes.