Sunday, May 3, 2015

Rockets Edge Hawks 2-1 in OT: Game 5 Stats and Notes

Baillie scored the OT winner with 5:05 left and Kelowna now leads the series 3-2

Player TOI Shots Faceoff % Hits Blocked Shots
Bjorkstramd UNK 7 0/1=0% 1 0
Petan UNK 4 14/30=46.7% 3 0
Schoenborn UNK 1 N/A 6 0
WeingerUNK3N/A40
De LeoUNK715/22=68.2%10
IversonUNK10/1=0%60
BittnerUNK5N/A60
TurgeonUNK311/19=57.9%51
KoulesUNK60/1=0%30
McKenzieUNK0N/A21
OverhardtUNK0N/A20
WalterUNK0N/A60
CederholmUNK5N/A52
ViveirosUNK0N/A02
HeinrichUNK0N/A61
TexeiraUNK3N/A42
HenryUNK3N/A20
HansonUNK0N/A10
Notes/Analysis:
Schornborn

-Portland mixed up the lines completely for Game 5. They rewarded Alex Schoenborm with an excellent Game 4, by placing him on the top line with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Nic Petan. Then after that line proved mostly ineffective for large parts of the game, they switched him with Miles Koules.
-Paul Bittner and Dominic Turgeon showed some good chemistry offensively, but even though both are really good in their own zone, this line got victimized by Kelowna's attack quite a few times.
-Chase De Leo won 4/4 face offs in OT, but both Nic Petan (3/7) and Dominic Turgeon (1/3) struggled.
-Kelowna controlled the play in OT and Portland relied completely on Adin Hill to keep them playing. He made several highlight reel saves including one where he used his left arm to pull the puck off the goal line, while he was down and out in the crease.
-Hill ended the night with 47 saves on 49 shots and put together one of the best 15 minutes from a Goalie I've seen in a long time.
Hill
-Jackson Whistle was also impressive in the first 60 minutes. Portland controlled a majority of play in the first 3 periods and Whistle was able to stop 43/44 in regulation, in order to get Kelowna into the extra session, where they took over.
-Poor back-checking victimized Portland on both Kelowna goals, including Tyson Baillie's OT winner from right in front of the net.  On Riley Stadel's goal that gave Kelowna a 1-0 lead in the 1st period, Nic Petan left the front of the net to join a Portland D-man defending behind the net. This left Stadel all alone for the goal.
-On Baillie's game winner, Skyler McKenzie got to him in time, but was not strong enough in tying up his stick and the clutch scorer for the Rockets made no mistake.
-Portland had their best cycle going late in the first period and it seemed inevitable that they would get a goal. However, they ran out of time and Kelowna dodge a big bullet.
-Leon Draisaitl is getting stronger as the series goes on. He played his best game of the night, winning a majority of face offs against Petan and playing a full 200 foot game. He's got such a big frame that he is not only difficult to take off the puck, he's a great back-checker when he puts forth the effort.
-Dillon Dube made an impact in an increased role as Kelowna was missing several of their best forwards. Dube's speed gave Portland's slower afoot D-men difficulty and also beat Portland's forwards to a lot of loose pucks.
-In a scary moment Kelowna over-age forward Tyrell Goulbourne checked Keegan Iverson and got Iverson's skate blade on his leg. He left immediately in considerable pain and apparently needed surgery on his calf muscle. He leaves a depleted Kelowna forward group even more shorthanded.
-After Goulbourne left this meant the Rockets were missing: Rourke Chartier and Gage Quinney and only used Justin Kirkland sparingly.

Morrissey
-In another odd collision Evan Weinger was checked into the camera well between the team's benches and completely left the field of play.
-Full marks to Cole Martin and Josh Morrissey who were out there a ton and did a great job at limiting how much room Petan and Bjorkstrand were able to find. Morrissey used a quick stick in order to not allow Bjorkstrand good shooting angles.
-Nic Petan scored Portland's only goal and he tied Brendan Leipsic's playoff point streak team record with 16 games in a row. He also now has played in 87 playoff games in his WHL career, tying the WHL record by former Red Deer Rebel Shay Stevenson (2000-2004).
-Portland needs to be more accurate in their shooting as they had a lot of shots aimed for top corners that went high and wide.
-Brandon defeated Calgary in 5 games and now awaits either Portland or Kelowna for the 2015 WHL Final starting Friday in Brandon.
-Game 6 in the West Final goes Sunday night in Portland and Portland will rely upon their dominance in Game 6s to try and a force a Game 7 Tuesday night.