Miracle on Mark Recchi Way, Part Deux: Kamloops, Spokane both force Game 7 in Monday’s WHL action

If the Kamloops Blazers had nine lives at the start of their playoff run, they've wasted six or seven of them by now, we've lost count. To recap: Portland, their opponent in the WHL Western Conference semifinal series, took Games 1, 2 and 3, holding a commanding 3-0 series lead to advance to the Conference final series.

In Game 4, they came out flying, taking a 4-0 lead by the 11-minute mark of the first period.

Here we are, five days later, the series is tied, with an all-or-nothing Game Seven to be played Wednesday night at Portland's Memorial Coliseum, after Kamloops won a wild 7-6 game on a goal with 20.6 seconds to go by Bronson Maschmeyer in Game 6.

"When you pray a little bit, hopefully the [hockey gods] give it to you," said Maschmeyer.

While the game would be wild enough with 13 goals in the contest, Kamloops made use of another miracle comeback Monday night, surviving a 5-2 deficit headed into the third period. Brad Ross had a pair for the Winterhawks, and their deadly powerplay struck midway through the second frame, a finesse pass from Cam Reid to Brendan Leipsic that was tipped home past Blazers goaltender Cam Lanigan.

That goal deflated the crowd of 5,080, a significantly larger turnout than the one that had come to witness an improbable 5-4 comeback for the home team in Game 4. The rest of the frame was played out inauspiciously, the Blazers holding equal to the Winterhawks in shots on goal, but generating fewer scoring chances.

"We tried to stayed in a positive frame of mind. I didn't think we battling as hard as we should have. We didn't force them to battle for pucks, it was too easy for them to get possession," said Blazers coach Guy Charron in the post-game. "You know what guys, if we can dig a little bit harder and find a way to win those battles and win the loose pucks, you never know about the outcome."

Puck luck and bounces play such a key role in the small scale of a single hockey game. The Blazers had it in the third in spades. They got started when Ross, a thorn in Kamloops' side all night, took an unfortunate kneeing penalty 5:00 into the period. Marek Hrbas took a low shot that may not have left the ice, but the traffic in front of Portland goalie Mac Carruth made it tough for him to see the puck go under his right pad, but the crowd let him know.

Next, after Philadelphia Flyers prospect Brendan Ranford took the puck hard to the net, he deflected it in off of linemate Jordan DePape's skate. "It was a good goal, for sure," said Ranford, who denied intentionally banking it in off his teammate, just trying to get the puck in front. Just :11 after the ensuing face-off, Derrick Pouliot's clearing attempt took a weird bounce right to Chase Souto, who dished it to the rookie Aspen Sterzer, who tied it with his first WHL playoff goal.

Portland coach Mike Johnston was more charismatic after this loss than he was after Game 4, offering a brief explanation as to what happened to his team. "I thought the Hrbas goal started it, it gave them a little juice," he said. "The one that Pouliot had behind the net that went out to Sterzer, he threw it D-to-D, it hit a crack in the boards and, I watched it, it comes back to them and out to the slot."

"That's a bit of a bad break, but they earned a lot of what they got in the third period," he said. "Game 7s are always special."

When it was 5-5, Winterhawks' postseason star Ty Rattie, who took a hit in Game 4 from JC Lipon and was sidelined for the remainder of that game, took down Ranford in the offensive zone leading to another Kamloops powerplay. Colin Smith capitalized on a rebound from Carruth in front, making it 6-5. The Nashville Predators' prospect Reid, however, tied it back up just :26 later, given too much room on Lanigan's left side.

(There weren't an awful lot of saves in this one. Carruth stopped 36 of 43 attempts and Lanigan held on to 24 of 30. It could set up for an awesome, high scoring Game 7.)

But the Blazers didn't quit. With a late face-off in the offensive zone, Portland kept possession off the draw, but the Blazers' first line forced a turnover that sent the puck to the point. Maschmeyer, already the owner of a goal in the game, took a shot, as a mass of humanity congregated in between the circles.

7-6.

Worth noting: The Winterhawks, after the eventual game-winner, called a timeout and pulled Carruth immediately, forcing the play behind the Blazers net, but it was held there for seven seconds as time expired. When the puck eventually came free to Joe Morrow, the crowd noise was so deafening nobody had heard the final buzzer. Morrow released the shot, and perhaps out of reflex, J.C. Lipon went down to block it.

Lipon had no idea: "I saw a second left, so I celly'd [celebrated] and then I saw it got into the slot, and I was like, 'holy ----'." When Morrow released the shot, the scoreboard read 0:00 for about two seconds before the players clued in.

"I thought it was a huge block on his part. It kind of saved the game for us at the end," said Lanigan. "Was it after? He stood up to celebrate and I thought 'oh God, this might still be going in'."

As for Rattie's status heading into Game 7, Johnston said. "I don't think he's back to where he was before, he just doesn't seem to have as much jump and energy. It's taken a little bit out of him."

Spokane Chiefs 4 vs. Tri-City Americans 3 (Series tied 3-3)

You can add Liam Stewart to the list of players who have scored an overtime goal for the Spokane Chiefs in their series against the Americans, along with Dominik Uher (Game 4) and Mitch Holmberg (Game 1). The Chiefs knotted up their series against Tri-City in another pretty good WHL game Monday night.

Tri-City held onto the shot clock in this game, but Spokane kept scoring. A series that we expected to be very low-scoring has produced a few goals, as Ty Rimmer uncharacteristically had let in 2 of the first 8 shots he faced, to Uher and Holmberg, in the first period.

While the Chiefs held a 3-2 lead after a Steven Kuhn power-play goal, Patrick Holland tied it up for the Americans late in the second period, but shots and chances were restricted in the third, as noted above, before we hit overtime.

So Wednesday night will feature a Game 7 from both remaining second round series' in the WHL, this one will be in Tri-City. Rimmer holds a .917 save percentage in five home games these playoffs. Coincidentally (or it could be the small sample) Eric Williams is .917 in five road games. He stopped 27 of 30 in Game 6 and was as good as he had to be to keep his squad alive.