Fit to be tied
KENNEWICK – There is something fierce brewing in eastern Washington, and in the eye of the storm are the Spokane Chiefs and Tri-City Americans.
Both teams are playing desperate hockey. Both are playing with hunger and heart, weathering each other’s suffocating defense and standout goaltending. And both have a win under their belts after another double-overtime thriller.
On Sunday night, it was Tri-City’s Drew Hoff who found the net 4 minutes, 17 seconds into double overtime and goalie Chet Pickard who made 45 saves in his third shutout of the 2008 Western Hockey League playoffs as the Americans leveled the Western Conference championship series with a 1-0 victory at the Toyota Center.
In the Western Conference series-opener on Friday night, Ondrej Roman scored 49 seconds into the second overtime to give the Chiefs a 1-0 win.
“It’s unbelievable, we’ve been into double overtime on both nights in carbon-copy type of games,” said Chiefs coach Bill Peters. “Who knows, we could be in for five more just like it.”
The series heads to Spokane where the next two games – the third and fourth of the series – will be played tonight and Tuesday on Arena ice. Game 5 is set for Saturday back at the Toyota Center.
“It will be awesome to get home and have our fans behind us,” Peters said. “That’s the advantage of home ice in the Western Hockey League.”
In this series, any advantage could prove to be the difference, although the most obvious advantage is the one riddle neither team has solved: the power play.
The Americans were 0 for 4 on Sunday, while Spokane was scoreless on six opportunities, including two 5-on-3 advantages (which collectively lasted 1:30) and a power play midway through the first overtime.
“I thought that power play (in overtime) was actually our best of the series,” said Peters. “We had a couple of shots from the point, we had some guys come open, but it’s going to continue to be tough to score, so we’ve really got to bare down on our offensive opportunities and make a solid play and execute in order to score.”
Neither team has done much of that so far.
In just less than 166 minutes of play, two goals have been scored. Credit is due largely to the defense, which includes the last line of defense in hockey – the goaltender.
Dustin Tokarski, who made 33 saves on Sunday, has allowed three goals in his last 309:15 between the posts for Spokane – dating back to April 11 against Vancouver in the West semifinals.
His 1.31 goals-against average and .947 save percentage lead the league. Those numbers include two shutouts.
“He’s a byproduct of our team – the team defense has been very solid,” Peters said. “It starts in net and moves to our defense, which I thought (our defense) in the second half of the game was outstanding, and our forwards, too, are working very hard defensively.”
Pickard, who is second in the league with a 1.58 GAA and .945 save percentage, has a league-high three shutouts.
“You’ve got to credit the two teams,” Pickard said. “We kind of joked around before the game and said, ‘What if it’s 0-0 going into overtime again?’ and sure enough, both teams battled all night and a couple of fortunate bounces and we managed to pull it off.
“There have been a couple of fortunate bounces my way and a couple of fortunate bounces (Tokarski’s) way, too – that’s what it’s about in the playoffs is creating your own bounces.”
Ice chips
Spokane’s Brett Bartman (D), Jace Coyle (D), Blake Gal (F) and Dustin Donaghy (F) and Tri-City forwards Mason Wilgosh and Jason Gardiner were healthy scratches. … Tonight’s game at the Arena will be televised live on Comcast channel 78.