Well well well

Wasn't that an interesting game....especially the third period and overtime.

Firstoff, the OT goal has to be the nightmare scenario the WHL feared - a disputed goal without a clear angle for a replay. Or at least, the angles Shaw had sucked. If there were no better camera angles in the building than that, then why have replay at all?

For what it's worth, I thought it was rather clearly a high stick by Backlund. He's what, 6'2" or 6'3" with skates on, and his stick was up around his head. The crossbar is four feet off the ice. How can that not be a high stick. But the rule is that the replay has to provide conclusive evidence that the call on the ice was wrong, and the quality of the replay was so crappy it couldn't conclusively prove anything other than that the WHL needs more cameras for their replays next year. 

And goal or no goal, the Giants still choked on a 4-2 lead with 4 minutes left in the game. To me, you can't do that and ever make a case that you deserved to win. Championship teams don't blow two goal leads in the first period of these critical games, let alone the last four minutes.

I'll make a prediction too, and say that WHL scoring champ Casey disaPierro-Zabotel will never play in the NHL despite his size and skill. The start of the Giants' choke job coincided with him pulling the chute on that puck in his own corner, preferring to turn it over deep in his own end rather than get hit by a smaller player. Million dollar talent, complete absence of heart.

Also, it's going to be interesting to see if the Rockets have the services of Tyler Myers when they open the WHL final in Calgary on Friday. That was a pretty nasty hit on Schira, and considering how badly Schira was hurt (which always seems to carry a lot of weight in these matters), you'd have to think Myers would be looking at something like at least a one game suspension. If there were a game seven here, I'd be pretty confident he wouldn't be playing. But you never know, considering the magnitude of the upcoming games, and because suspending Myers won't help Schira or the Giants one bit, the league might let this one slide. We'll see.