TALKING POINTS
When Kevin Constantine invokes the memory of Game 5 against Prince George in the 2007 playoffs during a postgame interview, you know bad things went down.
This was an absolutely brutal loss for the Tips. Everett led 3-0 after two periods and was in complete control against a road-weary Kootenay team playing its third game in three nights. But the Tips went full Keystone Kops in the third period and overtime to toss this one away. Two mistakes early in the period led to goals that got the Ice right back in it. Then Everett went into a timid shell after that, allowing Kootenay to seize the initiative, and the tying goal was an inevitably.
Then came the ugly overtime winner. Kootenay’s Tyler King was left all alone in front, and Everett goaltender Carter Hart made a good toe save to deny King. However, in trying to cover the puck, Hart inadvertently knocked the puck into his own net, giving Kootenay an unlikely victory.
The loss in its own right is bad enough. However, this also continues a worrying trend for the Tips, who have made an unhealthy habit of playing passive when holding third-period leads, thus allowing the opposition back into the game.
The Tips can’t lean on the injury excuse for the third-period swoon in this one. Nikita Scherbak and Remi Laurencelle were both back from injury for this one, and the Tips rolled four lines pretty religiously. Add in that Everett was off Saturday night while Kootenay played, and there’s no room for tired legs.
Suffice it to say this is something the Tips need to figure out, and pronto.
TURNING POINT
Just 1:35 into the third period Everett defenseman Cole MacDonald made an ill-advised decision to try and skate the puck out from behind his own net with Kootenay’s Jaedon Descheneau draped all over him. Descheneau picked MacDonald’s pocket, then immediately dropped a pass to the far post where Tim Bozon put it in. That began the train wreck.
THREE STARS
First star: Scherbak. One goal and one assist, got into the groove in the second period.
Second star: Descheneau. One assist, that play early in the third turned the tide.
Third star: King. One goal, and it won the game.
The Herald’s honorable mention: Bozon. One goal and one assist, scored the goal that got Kootenay on the board, set up the goal that won it.
BOX SCORE
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