Video highlights from game 4.
This is the game story from the O for game 4.
Here was the live chat from game 4.
Game 4 in pictures:
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| its always tough to get a skyline shot, even from a stopped car in traffic |
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| 2nd nicest ballpark I've been to (KC#1) |
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| I met my friends at the Angry Beaver - a hockey bar in the Greenlake district of Seattle. This place was filling up, with everyone wanting to watch a particular NHL game. None of them had any idea that junior hockey exists, with both local WHL teams engaged in really interesting series. Disappointing. |
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| Cable Box. A really nice barn. |
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| across the street - name escapes me |
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| great seats, great view. spendy. |
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| I HATE the phony Zamboni. makes ours look pretty classy. |
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| De Leo has fans everywhere |
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| 3,000 in a building that seats 9,000 |
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| I've always wanted one of these |
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| I don't think I'd ever realized that they have duplicate sets of banners in there: The official WHL ones, and they made bigger ones on the other side of the rink. Seems a little cheezy to me. |
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| seems like the 'Hawks should be selling Leipsic wigs. if you have a jersey, go find a wig - its a good look. |
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| I had a good look at that cowbell that just missed a ref's head. Only missed by about a foot or so. Not good. |
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| On the way out of town |
****** GAME 5 ******
Photo essay - its a real small sample size, but the puck isn't laying flat on the ice in any of those photos. Seems like we never have good ice.
Austin Lotz given the #2 star in the entire CHL. Of course that poses the chicken-and-egg of 'do we make the other goalie look good' OR 'does the other goalie stand on his head against us every time'
Watching the 1st goal again, it looks like Hanson goes down to block the shot, but doesn't really commit all the way, and ends up screening Carruth - pretty much a worst case. The D man either has to block the shot, or let the goalie see it. Winquist has 6 goals in the series, which is pretty damn good.
Rough night for Hanson part 2: that second goal was really unfortunate. Carruth's 5 foot pass goes off of Hanson's skate, and right into the vacated crease. #4 ended up -2 on the night, although there were a total of 4 'Hawks who weren't minus players in this game. I'm a big backer of Hanson, who is a smart kid. That being said, I'm on Team Kirill and when you have good players you want to get into the lineup anyway, you might be quicker to healthy scratch a guy and get Vorborev some ice time. Should be interesting.
The 3rd goal was a nice breakaway move by Petryk going to the backhand. Of course that play came off a rush the other way with Rattie & Leipsic on a kind of 2 on 0 rush, where #28 had the puck, but #8 had a step on him. Rather than take his chances, Leipsic dished to Rattie, who couldn't hold on to the pass - it was late, as they were too close in to the goalie by that point.
That clear breakaway was part of a period where Carruth saw 4 shots. You always hear about how a goalie wants to see shots - he wants the work. Not 2nd and 3rd chances, not breakaways, not screens - but he wants to see shots and feel the puck. It has to be hard to stay in the game as a goalie that's seen periods of 4, 5, 1, &, 4 shots this series.
One way for a goalie who isn't getting much work to stay sharp is to play the puck on dump ins, and we all know that the 'Hawks faithful are uncomfortable with that (see goal #2). I wonder if we have forgot the puck handling game that Carruth had in game 3? I watched that game online, and he was really good. Many feel he's the best puckhandling goalie in the WHL, but I suppose its human nature to hold onto the times it goes wrong, since that's the only time it makes the stat sheet. (Semi-related note: how many of Burke's games this year did he only see 20 shots? Sure seems like a majority of the time off the top of my head.)
This has been a bizarre series statistically. The powerplay has been frustrating everyone in these losses - yet it was at 40% last night, and is at 39.3% in the series. The 'Tips PP is at 12.5%, so the PK is pretty close to where they were in the regular season as well. (The Thunderbirds PP is at 0.0%)
What's most interesting about game 5 is how widely peoples opinions vary. Between postgame interviews, the regulars in the live chat, online commenters, etc - there are many interpretations of how that game went. I read that to mean if there was any glaring concerns that the 'Hawks need to address, it would be more apparent to all. I think they had good chances, all 3 periods. I'm not even sure how much Lotz made a difference as much as pucks were hopping over sticks and going wide. I don't think you want to change much if you are the 'Hawks, except for those defensive lapses that the 'Tips have capitalized on.
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