1-1 after one period....the first period unfolded as many expected, with Kitchener coming out extremely hard and carrying the play for the first 8-10 minutes of the period. They get a goal on a pass out of the corner which sees Tokarski play the puck right onto the stick of Brandon Mashinter standing in front of the net. 1-0 Rangers.....not a real big deal, they've scored first in all four games they've played in this tournament and still only won two of them.
Chiefs started coming around a little bit more after the midway point or so and get a powerplay goal from Judd Blackwater after a nice feed into the slot from Ondrej Roman going around the net. Both Rangers d-men decided to chase Roman, leaving the front of the net open....obviously defensive hockey isn't something practiced a lot in Kitchener.
Thought the Chiefs got the benefit on a couple calls/non-calls from the refs. Fans in Kitchener not happy with the refs, they might have a case. No complaints here.
Second period starts soon.....
Update: second period over now and it was a much better one for the Chiefs. They carried the play overall, and two goals in the first five minutes of the period have staked them to a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes. Fairly similar goals, the first a partially-screened wrister from Drayson Bowman at the top of the left circle, and then just over a minute later, on a powerplay, Trevor Glass takes the puck off a faceoff and puts a wrister just perfectly into the top right corner from above the right faceoff circle. Neither of them will go on Rangers goalie Josh Unice's career highlight reel but to be fair, that was a hell of a shot from Glass.
Refs were more pro-Kitchener in this period....I'd call them pretty even on the game now. Rangers powerplay is terrible though, while the Chiefs are 2-for-4. Anyone seen CHL "player of the year" Justin Azevedo this afternoon? He has 11 points in three games against Belleville and Gatineau but completely invisible in five periods against the Chiefs so far this tournament.
The Rangers' Mike Duco won the trophy for the CHL's stupidest facial hair, and it's easy to see why it was a unanimous win. He's also very lucky not to have gotten a penalty for cross-checking Dustin Tokarski as time expired in the period.
Chiefs are 20 minutes away from being Memorial Cup champs....if they keep playing like they did in the second period, it'll happen....
Update: game's over.....as I felt at the end of the second, if the Chiefs played the third the way they did in the second, they should win, and they did. The Rangers poured it on and had a number of scoring chances but could not put the puck in the net. The only goal of the period was Josh Cowen's empty-netter to make it a 4-1 final. Going all the way back to the third round of the WHL playoffs, the Chiefs won nine straight games to close out the season. Every champion team wins their last game....how many win their last NINE?
True to form, the two idiots on Sportsnet's broadcast team never stopped yapping about the Rangers, what a great team they were, blah blah blah. Only the usual platitudes were extended to the Chiefs. No respect from those goofs at all. I think Rob Faulds even introduced Mitch Wahl as "Nick Wahl" while interviewing him after the game.
The Chiefs might also end up being the last team to ever win THAT Memorial Cup, since Chiefs captain Chris Bruton dropped the Cup on the ice while trying to pass it off to his teammates, as the Cup broke into two pieces in his hands, the bowl snapping off from the base. I'm sure David Branch gave it a good whack before handing it to Bruton....Branch screwing the Chiefs yet again.
On the positive side, it meant two Chiefs players got to celebrate with the Cup at a time....one hoisting the base while the other hoisted the bowl. Sure cut down the length of time required for on-ice celebrating....
Anyways, that wraps up the junior hockey season. Big congratulations to the Spokane Chiefs and their fans, they did the WHL proud and are clearly the best team in the CHL this year. With their relatively young roster, who knows, they could be back to do it again next year. They'll certainly be one of the big favourites to win the WHL again next year come September.
Oh, and the winner of the WHL quote of the year....
"Oops!"
- Chris Bruton, May 25, 2008.
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