Spokane Seeks Return To Form For Sixth Game
The footsteps you may be hearing are those of the Kamloops Blazers, sneaking back into the picture.
Once down three games to none, the Blazers have closed to 3-2 in the Western Hockey League West Division finals.
So who would you rather be heading into tonight’s Game 6 in Kamloops? Ed Dempsey or Mike Babcock?
Dempsey and the Blazers have the momentum. Babcock and the Spokane Chiefs still have the series lead.
Both coaches sounded confident after Thursday night’s Game 5 in the Arena - won by Kamloops 6-5 - again left Spokane a win away from knocking out the Blazers and jumping into the WHL finals for the first time in five years.
“With any luck we’d be going home with the lead,” Dempsey said, “but I’m very happy to be going home to play again. We have an opportunity to get this thing tied back up at 3.
“Spokane is a very good road team but we’re going to be doing everything we can to get back here for Game 7.”
Game 7, if necessary, is in the Arena on Monday night.
The Kamloops-Spokane survivor goes on to the WHL championship series against either Brandon or Prince Albert. Brandon leads the series 3-2 after beating Prince Albert on Friday night in Brandon 6-3.
The WHL champion goes on to Peterborough, Ontario, to play for the Memorial Cup May 11-19.
The Chiefs are in a building tonight where they’ve won six straight and haven’t lost since Oct. 8, 1994.
“This being a playoff game I don’t know if that’s as big a deal as it might be, but the fact is you’ve got to feel pretty confident going up there,” Babcock said.
Babcock also tackled the dreaded M word.
“We go up 3-0, we’ve got all the momentum,” Babcock said. “They won the last two so now I guess they’ve got all the momentum. We can speculate on all this stuff but all we know is this: There’s a game tonight. We’re going to be there.”
From the first drop of the puck, Chiefs fans hope. Slow starts in their last two games have led to Spokane losses.
The great goaltender debate
Hanging the Chiefs’ two losses at home on goaltending lapses is too simplistic.
The Chiefs’ David Lemanowicz in the playoffs has been brilliant at times, average at other times, but his saves percentage is a little better in 12 playoff games than it was in the regular season when he was the league’s top netminder.
Lemanowicz has a saves percentage of .898 in his dozen playoff games. He went .897 in 62 regular-season games.
Lemanowicz’s playoff goals-against average is not nearly as good - 2.89 in the season, 3.72 in the playoffs - but he’s seeing a lot more rubber in the playoffs.
Randy Petruk - applauded as the difference for Kamloops in Game 5 - has an .877 saves percentage in 15 playoff games. That’s worse, significantly, than Lemanowicz’s playoff percentage.
“Our guy was good (Thursday night),” Babcock said, “but what happens so often in the playoffs is to win you’ve got to be great.”
Notes from the ‘Loops
Defenseman Brad Lukowich (concussion) is expected to play for the first time since taking a hit in the second period of Game 2 in Kamloops. At the time, Lukowich was the Blazers’ top-scoring D-man in the playoffs… . Tickets for tonight’s game were sold out in less than 2 hours… . Kamloops tough guy Rob Skrlac will miss tonight’s game, the last he’ll sit out as part of a WHL suspension for leaving the penalty box to jump in a line brawl in Spokane.
Chiefs notes
Spokane’s power play in the Kamloops series is scoring at a healthy 25.9 percent, but the Blazers PP is even better. The Chiefs are killing off just 65 percent of their penalties. “You hardly ever kill off the dumb ones,” Babcock said. “More often than not those end up it back of the net.”
, DataTimes