SEATTLE -- Bud Holloway may be the biggest prankster on the Thunderbirds. So it was fitting that he would be the hero in the T-Birds Game 7 win of their first round playoff series against the Kelowna Rockets on April Fool‘s Day.
Holloway used crafty stick work to earn a goal and an assist and goaltender Riku Helenius saved 31-of-33 Kelowna shots to win the deciding game of the series 4-2 at KeyArena last night, giving Seattle a 4-3 series win. They will face the Tri City Americans in the Western Conference semi-finals beginning Friday in Kennewick.
“Bud was strong all over the ice,” T-Birds head coach Rob Sumner said. “He was physical, he used his speed, he forced turnovers and his penalty killing was exceptional. I thought Bud was very, very good.”
The trickery started early for Holloway and the T-Birds.
Holloway gained control of the puck in his own end and passed the puck between his legs to Lindsay Nielsen, then bolted up the ice. Nielsen lead Holloway with a pass and Holloway pulled back his stick for a slapshot, only to sling a pass to Greg Scott rushing the net. Like an April Fool’s joke, Kristofer Westblom searched for the puck, only to find it on Holloway’s stick, then in the back of the net for a 1-0 Seattle lead at 8:06 of the first period.
“It’s a big boost when you get that first one, especially coming off the overtime loss,” Holloway said, noting Seattle’s 4-3 overtime loss in Kelowna in Game 6. “It was crazy out there but it was working pretty good tonight, I guess.”
Ian McKenzie added to the lead at 19:30 of the first period, ripping a slap shot from the left side off a cross-ice pass from Jan Eberle to put Seattle up 2-0.
But the Rockets bounced back before the period got out. Jamie Benn battled for the puck behind the net and found Brady Leavold unmarked in front of the net for a one-timer. Leavold’s sixth goal of the series brought Seattle back to a one-goal lead at 2-1 at 19:54 of the first period.
Holloway continued to work his magic in the second period. With the Rockets skating on a 5-on-4 advantage, Holloway stole the puck off the stick of … against the boards at the centerline. He carried it over the blue lineand passed to Nielsen. Brandon McMillan got his stick on the pass and knocked it into the air, but Nielsen batted it out of the air with a backhanded shot that found the back of the net for a shorthanded goal to give Seattle a 3-1 lead at 2:30 of the second period.
Shortly after Nielsen’s goal, the crowd of 3,077 at KeyArena erupted when the T-Birds killed a lengthy 5-on-3 penalty, ridding the Rockets of their best opportunity of a second period that saw Kelowna out-shoot Seattle 12-5.
“For a rink that doesn’t really come alive too much, I thought the Key was really behind us on that one,” said Holloway, who was named WHL Player of the Month after notching 16 points on 11 goals and five assists in just nine regular season games in the season’s final month. “You feel good after a big kill like that and we got some momentum.”
Seattle killed four third period penalties, all in the first 11 minutes of the period, and held the Rockets at bay for most of the period.
Then, in a near mirror-image of their first goal, Colin Long found Benn from behind the net and Benn hammered it in for his third goal of the playoffs to close Seattle’s lead to 3-2 at 17:35 of the third period.
Scott regained the cushion for Seattle though, taking a pass from Scott Jackson and slipping it into an empty Kelowna net for the insureance goal at 19:32 of the third period.
The T-Birds will face the Americans for the third time in the last four post-seasons. After playing in Kennewick Friday and Saturday, the series will turn to KeyArena for Games 3 and 4 Tuesday and Wednesday. The Ams won the season series 5-4, though Seattle has won each of their two previous playoff meetings.
Matt Gaschk for the Seattle P-I and KJR
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