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News Article
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Posted by Kerrzy on Monday, May 23, 2005 |
If you needed any proof that the Memorial Cup was worth fighting for after the big opening game on Saturday night, it came Sunday afternoon when the Ottawa 67’s took on the defending champions, the Kelowna Rockets.
The first goal came early at 4:34 in off of a Troy Brodie redirection from a behind the net pass by Tyler Spurgeon on the power play. The 67’s didn’t have much jump early in the game and the Rockets had a lot of the momentum, but would it hold?
Danny Battochio was the story of this game, and Kelowna’s worst nightmare. During the course of the game and the two overtime periods that later ensued, Battochio stopped 62 of 64 shots, most of them quite miraculously.
At one point just into the second period behind the 67’s net, defenseman Brad Staubitz coughed up the puck to Kelowna’s Blake Comeau and he was absolutely robbed by the glove of Battochio when it looked like he had him beat. He would end up being the difference as the second night of outstanding goaltending wore on.
The 67’s got on the board at 6:56 when a blind pass by Shea Weber created an unlikely second of two shorthanded 2-on-1’s, which resulted in a Mark Mancari goal as he slid the puck five hole past Kelowna’s Kristofer Westblom.
At 11:34 the Rockets’ Blake Comeau went Cape Spear to Vancouver Island, blowing past the Ottawa defenseman down the left wing, cutting to the inside and putting it home past Battochio to restore the lead for Kelowna.
It was almost a two-goal lead when a pass from the point to Lauris Darzins in the slot ended up in the net. Unfortunately for the Rockets, Blake Comeau had run over Battochio to make the empty net for Darzins and the goal was subsequently called back, much to the chagrin of the Rockets.
In the third, 2:55 in, Elgin Reid was credited with the tying goal when a point shot left the puck bouncing around in the crease area and the puck was inadvertently kicked in by a Kelowna player. The play went to the video judges upstairs and although it’s a bit hard to tell even on the replay, the goal was given and all of a sudden we got us a hockey game here!
The 67’s had to deal with a big of the injury bug as early in the first their fifth top scorer Jakub Petruzalek went down hard when a Kelowna fore checker jumped on his back in the corner causing him to fall down quite awkwardly. They could have used him at this stage in the game but he did not return due to what appeared to be a left knee injury.
The action reached a frenetic pace in the remaining five minutes of the third period with bodies and pucks flying every which way and plenty of chances to put it away, but they would need sudden death overtime to decide this one.
Interestingly enough the Memorial Cup has never opened with back-to-back overtime games since the conception of the round-robin format in 1972. If that’s not memorable enough, this game had a bit more to offer yet.
In overtime, 1:40 in it became a goaltender duel when a cross-ice feed from Ottawa’s Mark Mancari to Brad Bonello was gobbled up by a confident Westblom, and was followed up by a huge toe-save by the larger-than-life Danny Battochio.
Shortly thereafter Kelowna’s Justin Keller came barreling down the wing and fired a shot towards Battochio but was thwarted by another tremendous glove save by the Ottawa goaltender who had just made his 50th stop of the night in a big way.
Westblom was holding his ground at the other end of the ice coming up with a couple of big glove snags himself, but although each team had a power play in the extra frame they both failed to convert sending us into yet another overtime period.
The second overtime made it the longest game in Memorial Cup history since 1972’s format change and it would only get more exciting.
A name that you’ll no doubt have to get used to hearing throughout the course of the tournament is Danny Battochio and it was certainly heard a few more times in this period. When Troy Ofukany found himself all alone in front with the puck it looked like it could be over, but not only did Battochio stop that shot, he stoned Tyler Mosienko on the rebound in close.
The Kelowna Rockets weren’t just having trouble getting past Battochio though, as the referee Richard Forest became their nemesis. The 67’s were given a 5-on-3 for 30 seconds when Shea Weber took a cross-checking minor on a play that some thought was a borderline overtime call, but a makeup call came their way 45 seconds later with the same call on Brad Staubitz.
Luckily for Staubitz the 14-minute mark Blake Comeau took a high-sticking penalty and put the 67’s on the power play again and their 8th power play of the night would prove to be their last, as Brad Staubitz would slap it home from the slot to give Ottawa the big win.
Battochio’s 62 saves in the game was yet another reason to remember this affair, and another record broken as he set the new benchmark for saves in a game, which was previously 56.
All in all for those who thought that this was a two-team tournament, Sunday afternoon was more than enough proof that this tournament will be a dandy. |
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