The Blazer fans would be right to be livid at the officiating in this one as the refs lost control early and flailed for the majority of the game. The Giants failed miserably at taking advantage of all of the benefits of doubt they were getting though, as the refs tagged the Blazers for some very soft calls and were thoroughly inconsistent throughout the game. Derek Herman should never be allowed to ref a playoff game, as he just doesn’t get it. Pair him with the always lame Matt Kirk and you have a recipe for official abuses and tonight was no exception. The Giants opened the scoring early short-handed and then gave up three quick unanswered tallies before getting one back before the end of the first. The Blazers spent the second and most of third sitting back in the neutral zone protecting their lead. They managed 4 shots in the second, zero in the third and 1 in the OT session. The Giants got the puck to the net, but were not getting the kind of traffic they should be getting in front of Mucha. Tying the game late in the third they got a very quick one in OT to get the victory.

Craig Cunningham popped the puck loose along the boards in the neutral zone. Going in alone he cut across the slot and rifled a wicked shot past Mucha for the first goal of the game. Austin Madaisky found the twine from the point on the PP, with Mark Segal screened by two Blazers. It was the Blazers first shot on net and yet another chapter in the tale of Segal’s weak first periods. Brendan Ranford scored less than a minute later off of a horrific defensive gaffe and some suspect goaltending, making it now two goals on three shots. Less than five minutes after that Tyler Hanes scored a real stinker, which should have got Segal pulled in my estimation. Tomas Vincour who despite losing three teeth in practice yesterday and was wearing the full birdcage, played a hard-hitting game and scored a very nice goal on Kurtis Mucha. The official WHL stats say it was Nolan Toigo, but I seem to recall that it was James Wright who made a perfect saucer pass onto Vincour’s stick. Mucha had a good night, but was rarely tested with fantastic scoring chances. The Giants rattled several pucks off the red iron in the first. Those chances were some of their best on the night and could have really changed the nature of this game early on.

After the first it became a very uneventful game as the Blazers sat back and protected their lead, stoning the Giants on the PP as the G-Men kept trying to make that perfect pass. The Giants kept up the pressure, but the vast majority of their pressure was from outside and they rarely created traffic in front of Mucha or drove the net without the puck. Mucha saw most of the pucks they got on net and at times had to be good down low, but rarely faced a wall of Giant players on his doorstep. Herman went nuts with the calls in the second tagging the Blazers for some decent ones and then some really soft and awful calls. The ones he missed or ignored only compounded the bad calls he made. The Giants were earning some of their PPs, but the number of invisible roughing calls and poor judgements made all of the fans shake their heads. The Giants should have sailed away with this game, but squandered chance after chance failing to really try to score seeming to be more interested in playing passing games and looking for that perfect play. The thing is - especially in the playoffs, ugly goals count as much as the pretty ones. The Giants will need to gut out a whole lot more goals with their opportunities if they want to do well in this series. The Blazers have played the Giants very tightly this season and pushed the season series games to OT four times.

I’m not sure if it was the Blazers sitting back and not taking chances or the Giants puck control or more likely a combination of both, but the Blazers failed to get a single shot on net in the third frame, preferring to spend another period clogging up the neutral zone and sending in one fore-checker if any at all and trying to protect a one goal lead. For me this is usually a recipe for disaster and that strategy finally allowed the Giants the ability to tie the game and get the win in OT. It took until 14:48 of the third for the Giants to get the tying marker. All of the fan’s nails had been bitten to the nub by then waiting for the Giants to get some traffic to the net. Lance Bouma, who had a good night returning from injury with a couple of practices under his belt, got the puck out front from the end boards. A quick pass to Craig Cunningham at the face-off dot saw the puck ripped top corner on Mucha. Brendan Gallagher did some good work to get the puck down low to Bouma. A late roughing call lead to a Giants advantage to end the third. The penalty carried over into OT and just after expiring a great hit by Bouma in the Blazer end, sprung the puck loose to James Henry at the sideboards. Henry cut into the face-off circle and blasted one through Mucha for the win just 33 seconds into the extra frame. The goal was unassisted.

The Giants out-shot the Blazers 37-14, going 0 for 9 on the PP, while the Blazers went 1 for 3. Mucha made the game tight and was solid. Mark Segal put together another poor first period before recovering and stopping the miniscule 5 shots he faced after the first, total. Segal will need to be much better in the coming games and hopefully hold his team in there with some early stops. I still don’t understand when Segal proved so soft early on - that the Blazers didn’t continue to take the puck to the net instead of spending two periods in a defensive shell. Its not like goals were tough to get versus the Giants ‘tender tonight. The two teams tangle again tomorrow night and the Blazers are hoping to get the split, while the hometown boys would love to go up by two before heading to Kamloops. The puck drops tomorrow at 7pm.

Three Stars

1. Craig Cunningham
2. Kurtis Mucha
3. Tomas Vincour