Third period follow-up

Published 12:50 pm Thursday, February 5, 2009

OK, I did some quick perusing of past box scores and found the following. I was able to find five instances where Everett led by two-plus goals either going into or during the third period, but couldn’t hold it. They are:

– Nov. 8 at Prince Albert, led 3-0 going into the third period, lost 4-3 in overtime.

– Dec. 5 at Prince George, led 5-3 going into the third period, lost 6-5 in a shootout.

– Jan. 11 at Portland, led 3-2 going into the third period and 4-2 five minutes in, won 5-4 in a shootout.

– Jan. 18 vs. Kamloops, led 4-2 going into the third period, lost 5-4 in a shootout.

– Feb. 4 at Kamloops, led 3-1 going into the third period, lost 4-3 in a shootout.

This doesn’t count games where the Tips lost one-goal leads in the third period, or games in which they had big third-period leads only for the opponent to make it interesting.

From a numerical standpoint these five games only represent four points dropped, since the Tips held out until overtime in all of those and still won one in a shootout, so they don’t have much effect on Everett’s place in the standings. However, particularly in the Kamloops games, the turnaround gifted points to the opposition. Those two Kamloops games represent a six-point swing in the standings. Hold on for those two victories and the Tips are ahead of the Blazers in fifth place.

The other worrying part is that it’s happening more frequently, as three of the five occurred in the past month. It’s time for the Tips to find a way to buck this trend.