Gardiner gives Rockets a split with OT win
Kelowna sniper scores twice, including the game-winner in overtime
On the night he broke a franchise record, Reid Gardiner also emerged as the overtime hero for the Kelowna Rockets.
The trade-deadline ringer — who is leading the WHL playoffs in both goals and points — scored the winner four minutes 56 seconds into overtime, as the Rockets prevailed 4-3 over the host Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday to even the Western Conference final at 1-1.
Gardiner forced a turnover inside Seattle’s zone, swooped in and lifted a shot bar-down on Carl Stankowski for his second goal of the game and 15th of the postseason.
The Rockets won despite blowing a two-goal lead in the third period and ended Seattle’s undefeated streak at nine games in these playoffs. The T-Birds had swept Tri-City and Everett before squeaking out a 5-4 victory in Friday’s series opener against Kelowna, when Ethan Bear scored the winner with just 11.2 seconds remaining in regulation.
Saturday’s spotlight belonged to Gardiner, who also scored a shorthanded buzzer-beater to end the first period with the Rockets ahead 2-0. Nick Merkley had opened the scoring for Kelowna — the first time in 10 games that Seattle didn’t score first.
Calvin Thurkauf set up both goals, finding Merkley behind Seattle’s defence for a deke finish, then finding Gardiner alone in front for a one-timer that crossed the line with 0.1 seconds left on the clock.
That goal also etched Gardiner into Kelowna’s franchise record book, surpassing Jamie Benn for the most goals in a single post-season. Benn scored 13 times in 2009 when the Rockets won the Ed Chynoweth Cup as league champions, and Benn also established the points record that year with 33 in 19 games.
Gardiner already has 27 points through 13 games this year.
By comparison, Leon Draisaitl led the 2015 post-season in scoring with 28 points, including 10 goals, in 19 games for playoff MVP honours in Kelowna’s most recent championship run.
Games 3 and 4 of this West final are in Kelowna on Tuesday and Wednesday — both 7 p.m. puck-drops at Prospera Place — before the series shifts back to Kent, Wash., for Game 5 on Friday.
In Game 2, the teams traded power-play goals in a second period that was largely dominated by Seattle.
The Thunderbirds got on the board early, cutting the deficit to 2-1 when Bear pinched in from the point to score his second of the series and fifth of the playoffs at 3:12. Bear, one of the league’s top defencemen, netted Friday’s winner by blasting a one-timer over the shoulder of Kelowna goaltender Michael Herringer, also on a power play.
Herringer only made 20 saves that night in what was probably his worst performance of these playoffs, but he bounced back on Saturday and had stopped 19 shots through two periods, including several point-blank chances in the middle frame. Herringer finished with 30 saves. Kelowna’s power play struck late, with just 25.2 seconds left, as Kole Lind’s one-timer from the right face-off circle beat Stankowski to restore the Rockets’ two-goal advantage at 3-1 after 40 minutes. Thurkauf assisted on all four of Kelowna’s goals.