Ice Won’T Get Caught Up In A Sweep

There is not much point in being in the driver’s seat if you’re asleep at the wheel.

And if the Spokane Chiefs’ eagerly envisioned safari to Halifax for the Memorial Cup should somehow slip away after their incredible head start in the Western Hockey League finals - and there’s no call for high anxiety yet - Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Kootenay Ice will not be a particularly comforting memory.

Then again, now the Chiefs know how the other guy feels.

And the next player or coach who might be moved to suggest that playing on familiar ice in front of loud and loyal fans will be just the needed boost for what ails his team gets a 2-minute minor for wishful thinking.

The Ice melts twice in Cranbrook, the Chiefs stumble back in Spokane. Extrapolate that to its illogical conclusion, and the fact that Game 7 is up north winds up being Spokane’s hole card.

From above, there seemed to be a daylate quality to the Chiefs’ play in Game 3 - probably not uncharacteristic for any team coming home with a two-nil lead. And it was contagious. Just before the third period, a voice boomed over the public address system proclaiming that, “Every night in Spokane is hockey night - even Monday night!”

Good thing another department is in charge of printing tickets.

This, however, was not necessarily a view shared in the Chiefs’ locker room, and reason suggests they should know.

“We were a little wound up at the start,” said goaltender Tyler MacKay. “We had a lot of turnovers in our own end, which isn’t part of our game. We rarely do that. That’s just mental mistakes. We just needed to calm down and take our time in what we’re doing.

“We were intense enough. We put so much pressure on ourselves that we wound ourselves into the ground and couldn’t make the plays.”

So perhaps it was too much instead of not enough, and yet the result was the same - the Chiefs playing from behind, only this time with everything to lose in front of 7,819 off-night ticket buyers who fully expected a celebration.

Thus, it became a referendum on Kootenay’s poise, and this time the Ice passed.

“We’ve felt we’ve held leads real well all year,” said Ice coach Ryan McGill. “Our best periods have been the third, and we felt the first two games in Cranbrook were a little out of character.”

That may be, but Spokane’s comebacks in both of those games were very much in character. In each of their last six playoff wins, the Chiefs have had to rally from at least a goal down - and once, in Prince George, from a 3-0 deficit.

The Chiefs had to get inventive in digging their hole Tuesday night. After watching MacKay make three inspirational first-period saves without a stick - he’d lost it behind the net, and had it kicked over to the side boards - the Chiefs promptly took interference and high-stick penalties in the span of 30 seconds, and off the very next faceoff Kootenay’s Jason Jaffray put the Ice up 1-0.

Another penalty early in the second period led to another goal for the Ice power play and a 2-0 lead - and the visitors damn near ended the suspense early, only to have Jaffray’s slap shot at the 7:15 mark clank off the far post on the open side of the net. These were three juicy opportunities the Chiefs didn’t come close to getting at the other end - not in the first 30 minutes, anyway, when they were almost incredibly out of sync.

As old Chiefs like Greg Leeb, Kevin Sawyer and Darren Sinclair were introduced from the owner’s box, the Chiefs kept with the old-home-night theme and brought back last year’s power play, as well.

Nor did it help that 16-year-old phenom Dan Blackburn was doing everything right in the other net - at least until Spokane’s Matt Keith cupped one past him in the waning moments of the second period.

“This game was faster paced than the first two, and they seemed to be not clogging up the neutral zone as much,” Blackburn said. “Maybe that’s the bigger ice surface, I don’t know. But I know we got a few more bounces tonight. They weren’t scoring off our guys’ legs and stuff like that.”

Uh, yeah, hockey is certainly a game of bounces, though Spokane’s track record in the third period of late would mitigate against it all being mere serendipity.

Even Blackburn acknowledged as much.

“If anything, maybe we need an even better effort (for Game 4 tonight),” he said. “We can’t afford to give up almost 40 shots two games in a row and expect to win too many. But if we play like we did in the third period tonight, we’ve got a great chance to win.”

And just when you thought the Ice was ready for a menu and a priest. Well, the last rites can wait.

So can the driver’s seat. It just may be the worst place you can be.

This sidebar appeared with the story: WHL FINALS Spokane vs. Kootenay

(Spokane leads series, 2-1)

Game 1: Spokane 3, Kootenay 2

Game 2: Spokane 3, Kootenay 2

Game 3: Kootenay 3, Spokane 2

Game 4: Kootenay at Spokane, today, 7 p.m.

Game 5: Friday at Kootenay, 6 p.m.

Game 6: Saturday at Spokane, 7 p.m.*

Game 7: Monday at Kootenay, 6 p.m.*

*-if necessary On the air: All games will be broadcast by KXLY 920-AM