Rockets blanked in 1st game of playoff series with Americans
Goaltending and special teams often decide playoff series.
That combination was the difference for the Tri-City Americans in their dominant opening win over the Kelowna Rockets, routing the hosts 5-0 on Thursday night in front of 5,168 frustrated fans at Prospera Place.
Frustrated because a controversial call blew the game open, with Tri-City scoring three straight power-play goals in the third period, including two during a five-minute advantage after Dillon Dube was assessed a charging major and game misconduct for colliding with Americans goaltender Patrick Dea in the dying seconds of the middle frame.
The refs ruled that contact was intentional, but it looked incidental on video review.
“It’s a tough call for us, Dillon’s doing what he’s told to do, he’s going hard to the net,” said Rockets captain Cal Foote.
Not surprisingly, Rockets head coach Jason Smith shared in that frustration.
“The refs made the call based on what they saw, it is what it is, can’t really say much about it,” said Smith, whose club was trailing 2-0 at the time despite outshooting the Americans 30-20 through two periods. “I know he didn’t go to the net with the intention of hitting the goaltender, that’s for sure. That’s what they called . . . but we’re past that and we’re moving on.”
That call and those goals — three in a span of two minutes 22 seconds, all with the man advantage — overshadowed a decent effort for Kelowna, which included a strong start in outshooting Tri-City 19-9 in the first period.
“Obviously it changed the momentum in the game,” Smith admitted. “We did some good things on that (penalty kill), but we made one mistake and it turned three and the puck ended up in our net.
“That’s what happens when the momentum changes in junior hockey . . . and now it’s about we change the momentum and get ready for the next one.”
Down the hall, the Americans were elated with the outcome.
“We’ve had a history of not doing too well in this rink, so to come in here and get the first one like that, that’s really big for us,” said Morgan Geekie, who led Tri-City in scoring in the regular season and paced this Game 1 victory with a three-point performance that included two goals. He opened the scoring with what stood up as the game-winner — the lone goal of the first period, at 15:22 — and netted the all-important 3-0 at 3:38 of the third period, finishing off a perfect passing sequence from defenders Jusso Valimaki and Jake Bean.
As for his take on Dube’s penalty, Geekie said: “I didn’t see it too much, I saw it on the Jumbotron a little bit and heard the boos from the crowd, but that’s a little bit of their own opinion on things. He’s a good player and it was unfortunate, but I think we took advantage of it.”
Michael Rasmussen also scored twice, tacking on the 4-0 and 5-0 power-play markers, and Isaac Johnson had the 2-0 goal for Tri-City in the second period.
At the other end, Dea — the CHL’s reigning goaltender of the week to wrap up the regular season — stayed hot in pitching a 39-save shutout. He was named the first star but was getting treatment afterwards and thus unavailable for comment.
“Patty played unreal and stood on his head for us when we needed him to, and was just solid back there,” said Geekie.
The over-age netminder, who had a .913 save percentage in the regular season, was tested early and often but was up to the challenge in denying the likes of Dube and Carsen Twarynski on point-blank chances.
Dea’s heroics helped the Americans weather the early storm on the road and Geekie got them on the board by firing fivehole on James Porter from the slot. That goal occurred seconds after Kelowna’s top defenceman, Foote, was forced to make a save on Rasmussen during a scramble in the crease.
Dea, an undersized goaltender listed at 5foot-11 but seemingly smaller, continued to channel his inner Eric Comrie over the final 40 minutes. He was unbeatable on this night, but the Rockets still sounded optimistic about their chances going forward.
“Next game for us, we’re going to want to get in this guy’s face,” said Foote. “We’re going to want to make sure we’re in front and not let him see all the pucks flying at him. He played great . . . obviously with a shutout, he did his job. But I think things will go our way if we get more guys in front.”
“He made some saves, but I think we had some opportunities that generally we’ll capitalize on and we didn’t put them in the net,” added Smith. “That’s a credit to him, and we’ve got to fix our aiming sights a little bit and be better in the next one.”
Both teams realize it’s only one game — in this first-round, best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal — and that score will be irrelevant once the puck drops on Game 2, set for Saturday (7:05 p.m., Prospera Place).
“The series is a long way from being over and our guys will bounce back,” assured Smith. “We’ve dealt with adversity, we’ve dealt with disappointment, and we’ll be ready to play on Saturday.”
“We can’t dwell on this game,” echoed Foote. “We’ve got to, not forget about it, but we’ve got to learn from it. We’ve got to go back and watch video and try to get better. That’s the only thing you can do right now, is just try to get better and learn from our mistakes.
“It’s nice to have a day in between games, to watch video and try to get the upper hand on these guys.”
ICE CHIPS: Porter stopped 27 of 32 shots. Tri-City was 3-for-3 on the power play, while Kelowna was 0-for-4 . . . . Kelowna scratched G Roman Basran (knee, indefinite), LW Wil Kushniryk, LW Colum McGauley, LHD Kyle Pow, LHD Kelvin Hair, LHD Cayde Augustine (affiliated player) and RW Dallon Wilton (AP) . . . . These teams split their four-game season series, with each winning twice, including once in overtime. All four games were decided by a goal.