Day 72: Fit to be Tied

Mounties goalie Miikka Kiprusoff (file photo) pauses to catch his breath, something he had little chance to do on Friday night.






Kitchener, ON (CP)

For the third time this season, the score was to be settled between the two top teams in the Champs conference, but for the third time the Rovers and the Mounties skated away from each other tied after 65 minutes. The latest battleground was Kitchener, where the Rovers had previously earned a 2-2 draw in the first month of the season. Last night's result was no different, a 2-2 tie which left the Rovers both encourgaed and discouraged at the same time. The story of the game was the Rovers relentless barrage of shots versus arguably the story of the season, Mounties netminder Miikka Kiprusoff, who turned aside 53 of 55 shots in earning the draw.

The Rovers knew that they had to jump on the Mounties early and try to get them to come out of their patented neutral-zone trap, so they threw everything they had at Kiprusoff in the first period. After facing and stopping 20 shots in the period, Sergei Gonchar snuck a rocket by the blocker side of Martin Gerber to give the Mounties a 1-0 lead going into the intermission despite being outshot 20-3. The second period would finally see the Rovers be rewarded for their efforts, as their 17-7 margin of shots produced two goals two minutes apart by Alexander Frolov and Olli Jokinen.

Trailing going into the third, the Mounties were forced to open up slightly and produced the equalizer under two minutes into the frame on a Daymond Langkow marker. The former Rover converted a mad scramble in front of Gerber to square the affair at 2-2. From that point the Mounties were content to sit back and play for the tie, which is what they did. The Rovers continued to gain quality scoring chance after scoring chance, but Kiprusoff stood tall. 15-8 were the shots in the third and 3-1 in OT for a final margin of 55-19 for the Rovers, who had the puck in their offensive zone a full six minutes more than Kitchener did. "He [Kiprusoff] really was the story tonight", Glen Murray said after the game. "He stood on his head. He stole the tie for them, no doubt".

The tie allowed the Rovers to maintain their three point lead on the Mounties for first place, though the Mounties still have one game in hand. The Rovers now have two days off before hosting the Roadkill and then travelling to Saskatoon to face the Funboys. Nathan Horton, who took the warm-up but didn't dress against Kitchener, should be ready to go vs. the Roadkill.