Saturday night

First intermission in Vancouver.....the Giants are all over the Chiefs in this one, it's 2-0 after 20 minutes but could easily be 4-0 if not for Tokarski and/or bad luck. Chiefs need to pick up their play in the 2nd period or they'll be going home down 2-0 in the series for sure.

I can't get over how physical this series is already. Tons of hits being dished out by both sides. Shaw showed a collection of hits from game one and there were a few in there from both teams which, upon a second viewing, were late and/or head shots. The kind of thing which might get you tossed out of a regular season game but doesn't even get you two minutes in the playoffs.

Update....second intermission now and it's 4-0, the Chiefs still haven't had a good scoring chance in the game and their frustration at being beaten all over the ice is boiling over. Right after the 4th goal, Ryan Letts takes an 80 foot run at Lance Bouma, then after the whistle drops a glove and gives Bouma a bare-fisted sucker-punch in the side of the head. Real smart for a guy coming off a 10 game suspension for trying to injure Chet Pickard. Letts should get a suspension for this one too.

Then in the last minute there's a scrum in front of the Chiefs net and Dustin Donaghy drops the gloves and punches Craig Cunningham in the head several times. Cunningham didn't want to fight and just happened to be paired up with Donaghy in the scrum....amazingly, Donaghy only gets a double minor. C'mon refs....if they want to play cheap, toss them out.

Update #2.....game's over now, 4-1 final for the Giants. Chiefs played much better hockey in the third period and looked like a team that could have a shot at beating the Giants if they could play 60 minutes that way. They'll get their chance to do that at home on Tuesday I guess. Chiefs probably need to win both games 3 & 4 at home.

In other games.....Brandon beat the Tigers in Medicine Hat 6-3 to win the first game of that series, and Kelowna gassed a 2-0 lead in the third period in the Tri-Cities to lose 3-2 and fall behind 2-0 in that series. You can't blow two-goal third period leads in the playoffs, those are the losses that just kill you. That's two games in a row now that Kelowna was leading or tied late in the third period only to lose the game on a goal in the last three minutes of the third. Rockets really need to win games 3 & 4 in their rink now too.

One other note - as chippy as the Giants-Chiefs might have been, it's got nothing on this game from the OHL tonight. Windsor beat Plymouth 8-2, outshooting the Whalers 72-21. I'm sure the shots on goal can be explained in part by the fact that Windsor was also 6-for-17 on the powerplay. Yes, 17 powerplays. By my count, Plymouth spent about 25 minutes of the game shorthanded.