KELOWNA, British Columbia – The game was deadlocked. It was a stalemate.
The Everett Silvertips and Kelowna Rockets were evenly matched in their ability to prevent the other from getting a sniff of a goal. It was clear that one flickering moment was going to decide the outcome of the game.
Leave it to perhaps the most unlikely source to provide that deciding moment.
Kelowna defenseman Colin Joe, playing for the first time in the playoffs, scored the tie-breaking goal with less than six minutes remaining – his first goal in the WHL – and the Rockets held on to defeat the Silvertips 3-2 Sunday night.
Joe’s goal helped Kelowna even the best-of-seven second-round series at 1-1. Game 3 is Tuesday in Everett.
“He hadn’t scored a goal in his career here for two years, so he’s very excited,” Kelowna assistant coach Ryan Huska said of Joe. “He’s been out with a bit of an injury and this was the first time we could get him back in the lineup, and all he did was take a shot.”
Joe’s shot from the point broke a 1-1 tie at 14:11 of the third period and unlocked a game that had been closed tight. Brent Howarth made it 3-1 with a nice individual effort moments later, and Peter Mueller scored a power-play goal for Everett with 1:31 remaining to make for an exciting finish. Troy Bodie also scored and Derek Yeomans made 26 saves in goal for Kelowna.
“It was a good playoff game,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “I thought both teams competed pretty hard and play was pretty even. You knew the first goal of the third period would probably win it because both teams had pretty tight checking.”
“We knew falling behind 1-0 and going into Everett’s building that if we were down 2-0, the odds would be against us coming back and winning the series,” Yeomans said. “This is a huge game for us and gives us a little bit of confidence going into their building.”
John Lammers scored and Leland Irving made 16 saves in goal for Everett, which outshot Kelowna 28-19. The Tips outshot the Rockets 28-18 in Game 1.
“They’re a good team and we knew they were going to respond well to the last game,” Lammers said. “I thought we played pretty good in the first couple of periods, but somebody’s got to win and I guess they wanted it a little more.
“It’s a seven-game series, though, and it takes four games to win,” Lammers said. “We knew we weren’t going to win every game. We wanted to, but they’re a good team.”
Lammers and Bodie both scored in the first nine minutes of the game, but from there on the defenses clamped down. Though there were a few more scoring chances in the first period, they were few and far between in the second and third.
That all changed as time wound down in regulation. The Rockets won a battle along the right boards in the Everett zone and the puck squirted free to Joe at the center point. Joe, who only played a handful of shifts, blasted a slap shot through traffic and past Irving to break the deadlock at 14:11.
Constantine was not surprised by the identity of the goal scorer.
“If anybody scored I thought it would be their D because our wingers were really bad at allowing point shots,” he said. “Our game weakness was the reason they scored.”
Howarth appeared to put the game away when he scored 1:20 later. He stickhandled his way into the zone, deked past a defender and fired a shot in off the left post to make it 3-1.
However, Kelowna defenseman Kyle Cumiskey took a holding penalty with 1:56 remaining, and Everett capitalized. With Irving pulled for an extra skater, Mueller received the puck in the left circle with space, then slapped a shot through traffic and past Yeomans to set up a grandstand finish.
Everett pulled Irving again, but Ondrej Fiala was unable to handle a home-run pass with space, then later had a bouncing shot gloved by Yeomans.
Slap shots: Everett defenseman Shaun Heshka, who suffered a knee injury in Game 1, was able to play Sunday. The Tips skated defenseman Eric Doyle during warmups as a precaution, but Doyle was eventually scratched. … Kyle Beach, Everett’s first-round pick in the 2005 Bantam Draft, joined the team Sunday but did not play. Beach’s midget team, the Okanagan Rockets, was swept in two games by Alberta in the Telus Cup Regionals, ending Beach’s season and allowing the talented power forward to join the Tips. … Kelowna again played without left wing Lauris Darzins because of a lower-body injury.
Rockets 3, Silvertips 2
Everett101-2
Kelowna 102-3
First Period-1, Everett, Lammers 2 (Mueller, Wheat), 5:31 (pp). 2, Kelowna, Bodie 4 (Comeau, Ray), 8:32. Penalties-Dowzak, Kelowna (delay of game), 5:00; Kress, Everett (holding), 6:17; Ray, Kelowna (diving), 6:17; Heshka, Everett (roughing), 11:10; Dowzak, Kelowna (tripping), 14:17.
Second Period-No goals. Penalties-Hromas, Everett (hooking), 11:00; Dowzak, Kelowna (roughing), 14:50.
Third Period-3, Kelowna, Joe 1 (Comeau, Bodie), 14:11. 4, Kelowna, Howarth 3 (Edler), 15:31. 5, Everett, Mueller 4 (Fiala, Lammers), 18:29 (pp). Penalties-Comeau, Kelowna (checking from behind), 3:53; Thoring, Everett (high sticking-high sticking), 15:55; Keller, Kelowna (roughing), 15:55; Cumiskey, Kelowna (holding), 18:04.
Shots on goal-Everett 12-5-11-28. Kelowna 9-4-6-19. Power-play opportunities-Everett 2 of 5. Kelowna 0 of 3.
Goalies-Everett, Irving 5-2 (19 shots, 16 saves). Kelowna, Yeomans 5-3 (28 shots, 26 saves).
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