FLAT
Frankly, I'm surprised the shots were so close--43 for the Chiefs, 35 for the Ams. It seemed the Americans never had control of the puck for the entire game, let alone for long enough to get 35 shots off.
After Thursday's terrific team effort, last night it was back to sloppy, discombobulated play. Once again, thank God for Drew Owsley. And Brock Sutherland, he had another great night. The rest? Meh. Full marks to Spokane, again, for putting the pressure on and not letting the Ams have any control of the game. The Americans came out flat, Chiefs scored the first shift. At one point Spokant mused that even Mason Wilgosh looked flat. It's true. Just not a lot of life there. When there was life, it was towards the end of the 3rd--to little too late. Yes, they got the equalizer with less than a minute left, but that was luck. The only luck they had all night.
Big question--how come no one was on Gal coming out of the box???
Another big question--Why Big Mess? I love the kid, he works damn hard. But he couldn't buy a goal right now if it was on sale at the Dollar Store. And yet he was on the ice pretty much every other shift towards the end of the game. Personally, I would have gone with Neal over Jordan, but what do I know? Once again Prokop saw little to no ice time in the 3rd.
Hey boys, Drew can't do it all. He comes close, but he needs help at the other end.
If that's the last time I see Neal Prokop I will be extremely sad. Pokey and Schmidt too, but mostly Neal. And that sexy beard. I don't even want to think about all the 19-year-olds that we may not see again either. Oh mercy.
"Just some bad luck," Reddick said. "It stinks. But we didn't get the job done on the power play."
"We battled back the whole game, and losing like this takes a little out of us," Ashton added. "But we know the task ahead of us. We've won big games in Spokane before. We're confident we're going to get the job done." (Examiner)
I'm glad Ashton has confidence. Not sure I do (#badfan). If they put out and effort like they did Thursday, sure. But not if they lay out another stinker like last night. I do not think the score and the overtime was indicative of the effort.
Even one of the few moments the Ams did have the puck, Pokey shot it up to get it out of the defensive zone and it hit Matt MacKenzie smack on the foot as he was coming onto the bench. It hit him hard. Mac was in obvious pain and didn't take that shift. That sequence of events sorta sums up the whole night. No luck, no chances to make any luck because Chiefs were all over them.
7 comments:
I'm still far too pissed off at the classless asshats that sat behind us (AGAIN!) to say much about the game other than, yes, they were flat.
They have not come out hard to match the intensity of Spokane since game one. I'd like Pokey, Carter, and everyone else that keeps saying "we know what needs to be done" to stop saying it and actually DO IT!!! They've had more than enough chances to "do what needs to be done". I hope they regroup and decide whether or not they're willing to battle for a win the next game because Spokane's going to be on fire from the start. And hopefully last night was a lesson that you can't show up for the third and expect to get lucky every time.
I thought they matched/exceeded Spokane's intensity in game 5. They did to Spokane what Spokane had done to them in every other game: got to the loose pucks first, forechecked like crazy, clogged up the passing lanes, blocked shots, had the edge in puck possession, won faceoffs, SHOWED DESPERATION. Last night they went back to playing like they did in games 2 and 3 and paid the price.
I'm disappointed, but not upset, because they didn't want it bad enough. And well, if they didn't want it that bad then I guess the fans shouldn't care. Yeah, I know, some of the players/billets/parents/staff members might read that and think of course they WANTED it, but Spokane obviously wanted it more. They worked harder. They deserved to win.
The Suds/MacKenzie pairing was a bright spot. Everybody (and I mean everybody) else was underwhelming.
I'd beg to differ that everyone else was underwhelming--but only to add in Drew as a bright spot. Otherwise, yeah.
@DS your not a bad fan, your honest with your opinion. As we were leaving last night I was scolded by my mother (yes my mother..and I am 29 1/2 yrs old) when I said"F*ckin' hell...tonight may have been the last" mom came out swingin' with the "confidence in our team" lecture. I felt terrible that I could doubt the guys but at the same time...its games like last night that make you wonder.Drew has been outstanding and a few others as well but we all know they can do better.It was hard to be boo'd out of our house by spokane fans in sec C.
Last night was a lot like game 3. I saw the Ams not getting a handle on the puck. Lots of whiffs and bad passes. They were lucky to have made it into overtime.
But I'll just reiterate most everyones thoughts... we are getting outdone.
"do what needs to be done" - put up or shut up.
@DS - Drew has been outstanding for the majority of the playoffs, but I'll be honest in that I didn't think he had a very good game last night. He gave up a lot of rebounds early and 2/3 goals were soft. JMO.
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