Chiefs seek clincher
Sixty-nine minutes and forty-two seconds – that’s the combined amount of overtime the Spokane Chiefs and Tri-City Americans have worked in their Western Conference championship series.
In five games, the teams have gone to overtime four times, three of which ended in double-overtime.
Judd Blackwater scored 2:28 into the second overtime on Saturday night at Kennewick’s Toyota Center to give the Chiefs a 4-3 victory in the fifth game of the Western Hockey League playoff series. The Chiefs now lead the best-of-7 set 3-2 and can close out the series tonight when the teams meet for Game 6 at the Arena.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Blackwater, who scored twice in the game to bring his playoff total to five goals. “If you make a mistake out there, both teams are capitalizing and everyone is playing every shift like it’s their last.
“To be ahead 3-2 in the series and go back home with a chance to end it is huge. But there are no guarantees. We have to play harder than we did (Saturday).”
More importantly, the Chiefs have to start taking advantage of their opportunities.
The most obvious advantage is the power play, which the Chiefs are 2 for 34 on in the series, but since neither team has scored much when skating with an advantage (the Americans are 1 for 25), the power play has essentially been a wash. Drayson Bowman, who also scored two goals for the Chiefs on Saturday, netted Spokane’s second power-play goal of the series as Spokane went 1 for 7 in the game.
But Bowman, who has scored seven goals in the playoffs, missed a penalty shot in the first overtime. He was awarded the shot 7:51 into the extra period after he was pulled down from behind by Tri-City captain T.J. Fast while heading to net on a breakaway. He skated down the slot on Tri-City goalie Chet Pickard, but shot high and the puck sailed over the net.
And that wasn’t the only missed opportunity.
When Tyler Johnson and Justin McCrae went on a 2-on-1 rush in the first overtime, Johnson got Pickard to commit to him and crossed the puck to McCrae, who missed a wide-open net.
“There are a lot of chances out there, but you have to stay patient,” said Blackwater. “You can’t get frustrated if you’re not getting those lucky bounces or anything. We stayed with it and that’s what mattered – we earned the win.”
If the Chiefs can earn one more win in the next two nights, they will advance to play the Eastern Conference champion Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL final with a berth to the Memorial Cup tournament on the line. The Hurricanes swept the Calgary Hitmen in four games in the East final.