Saturday, April 4, 2015

Kootenay 5 Calgary 4 OT Game 5

Luke Philp recorded, a career-high five points, including the overtime winner as the Kootenay ICE staved off elimination with a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Hitmen Friday at Scotiabank Saddledome.

The ICE rallied from a two-goal deficit to force a sixth game in their Eastern Conference Quarter-Final Saturday in Cranbrook.

Calgary opened the scoring just before the mid-point of period one when import forward Radel Fazleev outwaited ICE goaltender Wyatt Hoflin, tucking the puck in from the edge of the right crease for his first goal of the playoffs.

Kootenay answered back before the period was out on a power-play marker by Rinat Valiev, as the ICE capitalized on the first two-man advantage awarded to either team in the series.

Fazleev restored the Hitmen lead at 2-1 just 40 seconds into the second period, but his goal was cancelled out just over a minute later as a hard pass from Philp caromed off Cable's skate past Calgary netminder Brendan Burke.

Tallies from Jordy Stallard and Kenton Helgesen gave the Hitmen a 4-2 lead in the late stages of the period, but Kootenay again used special teams to their advantage.

Philp converted on a short-handed breakaway at 17:48 to cut the deficit to 4-3, then set up captain Sam Reinhart on an ICE power-play to tie the game at 4-4 nine seconds before the intermission.

Calgary outshot Kootenay 9-7 in period three with neither side able to gain an advantage before the end of regulation time.

In overtime, the Hitmen enjoyed the best chance early when leading scorer Adam Tambellini was set up on an odd-man rush three minutes in, but Hoflin stretched out with his glove hand to make a sprawling stop.

Philp found his game-winner minutes later firing a shot that caromed off Burke and a Calgary defenseman in front, giving the ICE their first playoff overtime victory since 2013, and first playoff extra-time win against the Hitmen since the year 2000.

Hoflin made 24 saves to collect the victory in goal for Kootenay, while Burke made 31 stops for Calgary.

UP NEXT: Game Six of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Final is set for Saturday night at Western Financial Place. Game time is 7:00 pm. Single game tickets will be on sale at the Western Financial Place Box Office at 9:00 am Saturday.