Hockey / Cobras top Blazers to take 1-0 series lead

Cobras top Blazers to take 1-0 series lead

Date:  Source: Butte Cobras

It wasn’t their best game of the season but the Butte Cobras will take it.

Earl Webb helped erase what looked like a shaky start with a pair of goals and an assist, leading the Cobras to a 5-3 playoff win over the Bellingham Blazers, Saturday night at the Butte Community Ice Center.

The victory gave Butte a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series, with Game 2 scheduled for 2 p.m., Sunday.

 

“It’s huge,” Webb said of the Cobras’ first-ever playoff win. “The crowd was going. Everybody knew it, and we knew we had to come out and perform. I think we did that. It was good to get the first win for sure.”

The Cobras were hoping to jump out of the starting blocks and continue to dominate a team they have already beaten six times this season, but instead took a penalty 18 seconds into the contest.

No worries. Butte killed off the penalty and took its first lead of the game when Joel Johnson scored at 4:44 of the opening period.

Though the Cobras offense controlled the tempo for much of the opening frame, it wasn’t able to get much done against the Blazers.

It seemed as if they were content to play a shoot-and-chase style of hockey through most of the first two minutes. They were able to shoot the puck deep into the offensive zone but the Blazers seemed to be ready for that approach and held the Cobras scoreless through the remainder of the period.

Thomas Steven tied the score at 15:31 of the period by shoveling a loose puck into the net. Ilya Abubakirov shot the puck toward the net from the right point and a scrum for the rebound led to Steven’s game-tying tally.

The Cobras regained the lead early in the second period on a power-play that had started in the first period.

Webb delivered the lead with his first goal of the game but the Blazers tied the score on a Trey Cadwell goal midway through the period.

 
 
 

Tyson Liverance put the Cobras back in front a couple of minutes later with Ethan Cooney and Jacob Rudloff assisting. It was Rudloff’s second assist of the night.

The Cobras had a chance to add to their lead late in the second period when they had a 5-on-3 power play but they failed to take advantage of it.

“That’s kind of been our team thing,” Webb said. “We play at the level of every team we play against and that was the case here (Friday) night. They are a good team. We got the win but everybody in the room knows that if we bring it all, we should be dominating this team.”

Some of that dominance started to show itself in the third period. Jan Marcillis scored at 4:22 of the frame to give Butte a 4-2 lead but a five-minute major penalty against Bellingham opened the door for the Cobras to pull away.

Instead, Butte scored just one goal during the extended power play, with Webb giving the Cobras a 5-2 advantage.

The Cobras were dominant during that stretch, however, with several shots whistling past the Blazers’ goalie.

Dane Halstead scored a power-play goal for the Blazers in the game’s final minute.

“Their offense was good,” Webb said of the Blazers. “We dominated them on the scoreboard all six times we played them but they were impressive with the puck. I think they showed us that we have to step up defensively.”

Cobras head coach Ty Smith concurred.

“We’ve got to use our speed more and we can’t be giving up two-on-ones,” he said, “We gave up about 20 shots but about 10 of them were two-on-ones. If you give a young team like that chances, they’re going to get fired up.”