Too bad for all of those fans who either couldn’t make it to Saturday’s West Division Final at KeyArena or those who just didn’t want to drive down to Seattle. … You missed the most gripping, edge-of-your seat end to a game this season.
After Edmonton tied the game with two goals in the final 55.3 seconds, Paul Rabil netted a spectacular one-on-one goal eight seconds into overtime to give the Stealth a 12-11 win and send the team to the Champion’s Cup against former Stealth captain Colin Doyle and the Toronto Rock.
The atmosphere inside KeyArena wasn’t as loud as Comcast Arena because of its size and high ceiling, but the crowd of 4,242 was into it and the lower bowl was pretty crowded.
Here’s what some of the Stealth players had to say about KeyArena and the atmosphere:
“I thought it was pretty cool. It was a little different with the one end shut off (blocked with black-out curtains). It was a little weird with the black background and there’s no fans to celebrate with when you score. It was pretty cool, it looked real packed in the lower bowl. It’s a big venue, Seattle’s obviously a bigger city than Everett so we wanted to see how we could do fan-wise do here and I think it was a good indication of what we could do in this whole area.” — Jeff Zywicki
“I had a great time. I looked up to the stands and saw all the familiar faces of Everett though. It was the same thing as like playing at home. We came here representing the greater Washington area so it’s good to build a fan base in a different market in Washington. For the Seattle fans that came tonight (we hope) they will travel up to Everett next weekend.” — Paul Rabil
“For me it was a nostalgic time really, I was a 12-year old kid when the World’s Fair was here in 1962 and got to see the Space Needle for the first time. … We (Chris Hall and his family) used to come down here a lot to watch the show (the Seattle SuperSonics, among others) and tonight it was a real treat because we were the show, so it was pretty special.” — Chris Hall
Zywicki “100 percent”
After missing out on three straight games in April with a lower-body injury, Stealth forward Jeff Zywicki made his return in the final regular season game against Rochester. Zywicki scored five goals in a 14-10 West Division semifinal win over Minnesota and added three goals in the West Final win over Edmonton. The forward said he is feeling good and happy to be back on the floor.
“I feel pretty good, I’m back 100 percent. It’s good to get back out there, it was pretty frustrating having to take a couple games off especially at the end of the season right at crunch time.” — Jeff Zywicki
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
