Hockey is a lot like poker. Or, at least it was on Tuesday night, as Ryan Huska pulled out an ace and his team didn‘t fold.
At Prospera Place, back-up goaltender Mark Guggenberger rallied the Kelowna Rockets to a must-win victory, as the home team overcame an early 3-1 deficit by scoring four unanswered goals for a 5-3 decision over the Everett Silvertips. The game‘s turning point came after Huska replaced starter Adam Brown with Guggenberger midway through the first period.
“I‘m moreso happy that we didn‘t fold after the first,” said Huska, Kelowna‘s head coach. “I thought we were tentative early on, but we continued to gain momentum as the game went on, and that‘s something we‘re proud of.”
The Rockets certainly weren‘t proud of their start after the Silvertips scored just 42 seconds in, then made it 2-1 at 11:28. Enter Guggenberger, Kelowna‘s starting goalie last season who stopped 22 of 23 shots in relief.
“The first goal I know Adam would have liked back, and (there‘s) not much you could do about the second one,” Huska said of Brown, who gave up two goals on nine shots. “But it was more about getting a little change and getting us going. (Mark) was good; there were a few that snuck by him, and one hit the post, but coming in cold like that, I thought he did a very good job.”
Said Guggenberger: “It‘s tough, any time you get the call and you‘re not expecting to play. I just tried to dial in as quick as I could, and it helped to really get the boys going in the second (period) and take a little pressure off me.
“We knew we had to get this game. (Game 4) is going to be another big one, because we‘d love to go down to Everett tied up.”
Geordie Wudrick and Mitchell Callahan, both with two goals apiece, and Brett Bulmer scored for Kelowna. Wudrick made it 3-2 early in the second with a power-play goal, then Callahan levelled the score seven minutes later at 10:14. In the third, Bulmer buried a cross-crease pass to give Kelowna a 4-3 lead. Callahan later closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal.
Scott MacDonald, with his first playoff goal, Shane Harper, with his third, and Byron Froese, with his second, scored for Everett. Kent Simpson made 33 stops for the Tips, who had several chances in the second to ice the game, but couldn‘t beat a steady effort by Guggenberger.
“I thought Guggenberger played on his head; he played very, very well,” said Callahan. “It was good motivation and a good confidence booster for us by making the big saves. He generated a lot of energy for us.”
“I don‘t think we played our game tonight,” said Silvertips captain Zack Dailey. “We took a night off on the work scale, and they were working hard, and they took it to us the last two periods.
“We weren‘t getting pucks deep, we turned a lot of pucks over trying to be too cute and we tried to put skill ahead of work. Whenever you do that, it doesn‘t work."
Teammate Shane Harper echoed Dailey‘s comments.
“It‘s a series now,” said Harper. “Next game, it could be 2-2, that‘s how close it is. We could have had a good grip on the series . . . it could have been 3-0 and now it‘s 2-1. That‘s pretty huge.
“We didn‘t come out in the other two periods as hard as we did in the first. We started the first the way we wanted too, and they tied it up in the second. I guess we weren‘t the same.”
ICE CHIPS: Scratches – Kelowna: C Cody Chikie (shoulder, 1-2 weeks), C Sean Aschim, D MacKenzie Johnston and RW Kyle St. Denis (concussion, indefinite). Everett: D Radko Gudas (upper body), D Gabe Minville, C Tyler Giebel, C Josh Winquist and D Nicholas Walters. . . . In special teams play, Kelowna was 2-for-2 on the power play while Everett was 1-for-4. Top of Page
