Ice put Hitmen in early playoff hole
Luke Philp continued his hot hand against the Calgary Hitmen on Friday.
After counting six goals and adding five assists in seven regularseason games against the Hitmen, Philp scored twice and set up another to lead his Kootenay Ice to a 4-3 win in Game 1 of the WHL Eastern Conference quarter-final series between the two rivals.
“I can’t pinpoint anything too specific,” said Philp, when asked what has led to his success against the Hitmen. “They’re a good team over there. We’ve been a longtime rival for them, so it’s just another game that you want to get up for.”
Calgary captain Kenton Helgesen said the Hitmen will have to do a better job of containing Philp in Game 2 of the series on Sunday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
“He’s a skilled player and he’s had a lot of success against us all year, so we’ve definitely got to make sure we know when he’s out there and not give him any time or space,” said Helgesen, who scored in the second period to pull the Hitmen into a 2-2 tie before the Ice rallied for the victory. “They did a good job capitalizing on their chances. We gave up a few too many and dug ourselves a bit of a hole. It was tough to battle back all game. We weren’t able to complete it.
Jake Bean and Connor Rankin scored for the Hitmen in front of 8,256 fans at the Saddledome. Radel Fazleev set up a pair of goals, while goalie Brendan Burke finished with 27 saves.
“We’ll go home and forget about it, come here (on Saturday) and have a practice, work on our system and we’ll keep going,” Fazleev said. “It’s only the first game. They didn’t win the game, we lost the game.”
Jaedon Descheneau had a goal and an assist for the Ice, Tyler King also scored while goalie Wyatt Hoflin made 29 saves to record the win.
Philp opened the scoring at 7:14 of the first when he deposited a rebound behind Burke, who made a pad save to stop the initial shot off the stick of Jaedon Descheneau.
Just over seven minutes later with the Ice enjoying a man advantage, King wired a point shot through traffic past Burke, who was screened on the play.
The Hitmen responded with a power-play goal of their own with 16 seconds left in the opening frame, as Bean converted a nice pass from Fazleev for his first WHL playoff goal.
Fazleev continued his solid play in the second period as he wove his way into the Kootenay zone before threading a pass into the slot for Helgesen, who back-handed a shot past Hoflin.
Philp then regained Kootenay’s one-goal lead at 17:17 of the second when he one-timed a perfect pass from Matt Alfaro past Burke.
Descheneau added a shorthanded insurance marker at 9:57 of the final frame when he tapped a nice feed from Austin Vetterl past Burke.
Rankin pulled the Hitmen back within a goal at 13:07 when he took a quick touch pass from Adam Tambellini in the slot and roofed a shot past Hoflin.
“We’ve just got to learn from it and move on,” summed up Helgesen.
ICE CHIPS: The Hitmen won their final five games of the season, including both ends of a home-andhome series against the Ice last Friday and Sunday. Calgary went 4-2-1 against Kootenay in the regular season and finished 17 points ahead of the Ice in the WHL’s Eastern Conference standings to earn home-ice advantage. … The Ice will host Games 3 and 4 at Western Financial Place in Cranbrook on Tuesday and Wednesday.