?
Edmonton Oil Kings Henrik Samuelsson trips up Portland Winterhawks Taylor Peters during WHL playoff action at Rexall Place on May 7, 2013 in Edmonton.
Photograph by: Greg Southam , Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON - The Edmonton Oil Kings know precisely how they want to play against the Portland Winterhawks, it?s putting the plan into action that?s hanging them up.
After spotting Edmonton the first game of the best-of-seven Western Hockey League championship series, and in Portland, to boot, the Winterhawks have taken a 2-1 series lead, thanks to a dominant 3-0 win on Saturday night and a neat, efficient 3-1 victory in Edmonton on Tuesday night.
?We have to make sure we play a tight game against them,? said Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal. ?We can?t afford to give up two-on-ones, and three-on-twos.?
The Oil Kings had promised to improve their puck management to minimize those turnovers, but giveaways led to all three of Portland?s first three goals by Taylor Leier, Ty Rattie and Oliver Bjorkstrand that staked them to a 3-0 first-period lead.
The Oil Kings promised to get off to a faster start, after being back on their heels in the first periods of both Games 1 and 2 in Portland. Clearly, that did not happen.
In the second period, the Oil Kings took three needless penalties that prevented them from mounting a consistent offensive push.
They were fortunate there weren?t one or two more penalties. Two or three times, winger Henrik Samuelsson seemed to get away with a cross check, a hold, a punch to an opponent?s head.
What offence they did muster came mostly from the Dylan Wruck, T.J. Foster and Michael St. Croix line. That trio combined on a nifty tic-tac-toe play that St. Croix finished off to narrow Portland?s lead to 3-1 at 9:13 of the second period.
The Oil Kings came close as time ticked down to end the middle period, but no success.
The reality was, the Oil Kings were not making life particularly uncomfortable for Portland goalie Mac Carruth. Which, come to think of it, had been another item on the to-do list for the Oil Kings.
?I think one of our game plans here is just to shoot pucks from everywhere,? said St. Croix. ?As you can see with lots of shots from below the goal-line at (Carruth?s) feet that he seems to lose.
?I think we have to get to the net on the rebounds and hopefully bury some there. We had some shots tonight. We could have had some more, maybe more quality chances. That?s one of our game plans is to get a lot of pucks on him.?
The Oil Kings also had hoped to revive their dormant power play (now goalless in its last 25 attempts, dating back to Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final against the Calgary Hitmen), too. They failed to accomplish that, either, mostly because the Winterhawks wisely stayed out of the penalty box.
Portland was only assessed the one minor, a high-sticking penalty to wheelhorse defenceman Derrick Pouliot.
The result was that the Oil Kings checked off none of the boxes on their list, or at least not nearly enough of them, with predictable results.
They did get another strong game from goaltender Laurent Brossoit, who made some key saves, particularly in the third period.
His best save came at 12:53 of the final period when he got his trapper on a shot by Bjorkstrand, who cut in on a two-on-one with Brendon Leipsic.
Just 27 seconds later, his Portland counterpart, Carruth, was brilliant on a chance by Oil Kings centre Curtis Lazar, who cut past a sliding Portland defenceman and tried to fire a puck between the goaltender?s legs from the low slot. Carruth closed the hole.
The Oil Kings did direct 20 third-period shots at Carruth, who made 38 saves, but not too many spectacular ones.
Edmonton?s lack of offence wasn?t owing to especially punishing play by the Portland defence corps, who are as opportunistic as their forwards when it comes to going from defence to offence.
?I wouldn?t say they?re as tough as Calgary?s (defencemen) were,? said T.J. Foster. ?They (the Hitmen) had a big corps back there that box you out.
?Portland, they?re smart with it. They?ll knock down shots and get going the other way, get into transition really quickly. We?ve just got to get more pucks through and we?ve got to be ready when they do get through.
?We had a couple of chances on rebounds where we didn?t bury it. We?ve to get upstairs. He?s a blocker, he takes the lower half of the ice away. We?ve got to get it up.?
Laxdal wants the Oil Kings to finish checks against the Portland defencemen, whose top four ? Seth Jones, Derrick Pouliot, Tyler Wotherspoon and Troy Rutkowski ? he said might be the best blue-line foursome in the country.
So, that?s another item on the checklist for tonight?s game.
As for Portland, their mission is simpler: Stay the course that has them up a game and in command.
?It was a good road win,? said head coach Travis Green. ?I liked our pace and our puck management early.
?Obviously, getting a lead like that is important against (the Oil Kings). They came hard. We weathered the storm and our veteran guys were real good.?
On Portland?s checklist, at least so far, all the boxes are checked off, or so it seems.
jmackinnon@edmontonjournal.com
Twitter.com/rjmackinnon
Check out my blog at edmontonjournal.com/Sweatsox
Facebook.com/edmontonjournalsports
? Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
?
?
?
?
?
?
Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F266/~3/n1aez3yIXv0/story.html
nhl jillian michaels Freddy E NHL lockout Honey Boo Boo pirate bay Psalms 91
No comments:
Post a Comment