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Last Updated: Jul 2nd, 2008 - 20:21:03
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Great efforts don't always yield great results, just as great seasons don't always end with championship pictures.
The first part played out Tuesday night at the Enmax Centre, while the Lethbridge Hurricanes will try and stave off the back half of that statement tonight.
Tyler Johnson put the Hurricanes on the brink of elimination with his scrambly overtime winner at the 6:20 mark of the first extra session, capping a late comeback by the visiting Spokane Chiefs and giving the Western Conference champs a 2-1 victory and 3-0 lead in the Western Hockey League final.
“We lost a hockey game tonight, we didn't lose the series,” Hurricanes head coach Michael Dyck said resolutely after what had to be a dispiriting loss for his club.
Lethbridge needed its best effort and produced just that in an entertaining, technically-solid performance that was undone by one defensive breakdown late in the third period. The Chiefs are that opportunistic though and that lethal and it's the biggest reason they are one win away from advancing to the Memorial Cup.
“I thought we had a great game today, I thought we played the way we've played all year long and certainly changed the momentum of the series,” Dyck said. “We made a mistake towards the end of the game and those things happen.”
It took nearly eight full periods before the Hurricanes got a lead in the series but they finally forged a 1-0 advantage at the 19:57 mark of the middle frame. A won battle following an offensive zone faceoff with eight seconds to play led to Jeff May's one-time point blast that Dwight King deflected high over Dustin Tokarski's right shoulder, giving the sold out crowd of 4,950 a reason to finally explode.
It looked as though the 1-0 advantage would hold in a tense third period. The Hurricanes spent shift after shift clogging up the neutral zone, dumping the puck deep and working the Chiefs in their own zone. When Spokane did get its chances, Juha Metsola was there. Judd Blackwater, a lurking danger all night, ripped a short side shot off the post just over two minutes in and Metsola made his best stop of the night off Johnson after the Chiefs forced a turnover and the pint-sized winger found himself alone in the high slot, Metsola snapping the glove for a huge stop.
The Hurricanes had their chances too, the best coming off a Zach Boychuk maneuver only top-10-rated draft picks make. With no space at the right post, he toe-dragged the puck back and lifted it high, banking off Tokarski's shoulder, then before the rebound could come down to ice level, whipped it off the far post. That extra goal wouldn't come though and it ended up costing the home side.
“It's always good to get some goals on the board and it helps you defend a little bit better but we didn't get it,” King said after scoring his eighth of the post-season.
Spokane had one life left and it came from their captain, Chris Bruton producing a one-man dandy of a tying goal with just 2:04 to play. He picked up a short Justin McCrae pass, danced across the line, slipped the puck through defenceman Ben Wright, then reached out to corral it before a backhand deke zipped the puck under the bar past Metsola.
“We took a hit to make a play in the neutral zone and got a clutch play from a clutch player at a key time and that's what it's all about,” Spokane head coach Bill Peters said, referring to Justin McCrae taking a big hit before dishing to Bruton as he crossed the line.
Still, Lethbridge had another chance to get it back and it came virtue of a power play that crossed over into the extra period. Johnson was called for holding with 18 seconds to play in the third and Lethbridge's Mitch Fadden came within an inch of making it a 2-1 series when he fired a short-side wrister off the post 1:30 into overtime. Johnson, now saved, then turned hero.
“I had full confidence in my team, we played great today, our (penalty kill)'s been outstanding but I felt bad taking that penalty and I regret that but it was wonderful for them to bail me out there,” Johnson said.
As close as it is to being over, the Hurricanes proved Tuesday they still have life. Lethbridge takes that into what could be a deciding Game 4.
“This hockey club has handled adversity all year long,” Dyck said. “We've never lost four in a row but we've won four in a row.”
ICE CHIPS — Hurricanes scratched F Craig Orfino and D Paul MacDonald, inserting F Austin Fyten and D Lucas Alexiuk . . . Lethbridge was 0-for-3 on the power play and is now 0-for-8 in the series, while Spokane was 0-for-1 . . . Hurricanes fell to 3-2 in overtime playoff games, Spokane is to 4-3.
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