Everett V Portland - Game 1

photo courtesy of WHL memes

I think its as easy as a couple defensive breakdowns + a hot goalie.

Video highlights here.

Scoresheet  here.

The obvious thing is that there's a lot of "SAVE BY LOTZ" in there - he had plenty of opportunities to shine.  He's in his draft year, and got some love from Central Scouting in November.  Yahoo! had him as the #1 star across the entire CHL.

I seem to remember at least two chances for Rattie in the 1st period that he should have buried that didn't make the highlight package.  Both times a lesser player wouldn't have scored, but we've seen Rattie feast on bad angle shots and bang-bang plays for years now.

I thought that Petan played really well defensively.  The play in the third where he banged a rebound off of the glass behind Carruth was a particularly nice play, as the conventional wisdom would be to advance the puck, which was the danger zone in this instance.

You look at the goals against the 'Hawks, and its hard to fault Carruth on any of them.   The first 'Tips goal was a rebound that kicked off of Rutowski's leg and in.

The second goal found Petan & Pouliot in the same spot, and just between you and me - Pouliot flamingos a little bit on that shot.  Its easy for me to say from my cushy Rose Garden seat, but there's a lot of hockey players who would rather attempt to block a shot like that than flamingo.  I wonder if Steve Kariya will bring that up today.

The 3rd goal was just a 3rd effort rebound goal by Kohl Bauml.  It went in 2 seconds after the powerplay expired, for what its worth.  Carruth makes the save, then the save on the rebound - get him some help. 

The game winning goal was off of a nice rush - looks like Seth Jones may have been victimized a little.  I know he's been on the big stage, winning several gold medals, but this was his first playoff game in major junior after all.

Lastly, there are several instances of hits on Leipsic & Rattie in that highlight package that the fans wanted calls on, and I'm with them.  Seems like you can do whatever you want to Leipsic and rarely get called.  I think that's largely due to reputation.