Blazers outslug RiverKings, tie series Blazers outslug RiverKings, tie series
By Bob Hersom
Published: April 4, 2007
The Blazers' laundry list of goal scorers got a lot bigger, brighter and bloodier Tuesday night, just in time to iron out some of their differences with Memphis.
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Oklahoma City beat the RiverKings 4-2 in a game that started and ended in fisticuffs at the Ford Center. Most of the blood was leaked by the visitors.
The Blazers tied the best-of-seven Central Hockey League playoff series at two wins each. Game Five is Friday night at Memphis, and Game Six is Saturday night in Oklahoma City. The if-necessary Game Seven would be April 10 in Memphis.
Going into Game Four on Tuesday, only four Blazers had scored goals in the playoffs, and Garrett Prosofsky had five of the team's nine scores in the series. Prosofsky's night ended with 1:04 left, after he pummeled Memphis winger Ryan Campbell, even waving for officials to stop the one-sided drilling.
"It was just a fight,” Prosofsky said. "I was fired up, and I didn't even know what I was doing. But he wanted to fight.”
The officials were busy trying to clean up the other fights, which led to 22 penalties with 64 seconds remaining.
Four different Blazers — Gordon Bell, Gio Flamminio, Michel Beausoleil and Chad Hinz — scored goals, and Ryan Watson earned the game's first star with three assists.
"That was a hard-fought game,” Blazers coach Doug Sauter said, alluding to the 47 penalties and 176 penalty minutes.
"Our power play was great (3-for-8), and our penalty killing (9-for-11) was better. Even though they got a power play at the end (with 12.4 seconds left), we shut down their power play.
"So I was very proud. It was a very physical game, and that's the way we have to play in order to win. The game was just absolutely full of positives, and we've got to do it again Friday night.”
Watson was all over the ice, assisting on three of the four goals and nearly scoring a couple of goals himself. He has five points in the four playoff games.
"This was a huge game, because if we lose this we're down 3-1,” said Watson, who played for Memphis last year. "But we knotted it up, and the momentum has shifted a little bit."
Goalkeeper Sean Connors blocked 20 of 22 shots on goal. He shut out the Kings over the first 45:11, then gave up a pair of power-play goals in the final 15 minutes.
"The main thing is that we got a win and tied the series up,” Connors said. "It might not have been the prettiest game, but we got it done.”
The game-winning goal was a power-play score by Beausoleil with 2:28 left in the second period. Remarkably, it was his first power play goal of the season — after scoring 24 in his first two years with the Blazers.
"Finally," Beausoleil said with a grin. "I'm happy about it, and it was good timing to get it in the playoffs.”
Bell's goal came 3:26 into the game, after Hinz stole the puck in the Memphis zone.
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Oklahoma City's Gordon Bell fights for the puck with Bobby Gates of Memphis during the Tuesday's CHL playoff game at the Ford Center. BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN
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