Cascade Cup Playoffs: West Sound penalty shot spills Nationals
WHITEFISH — With a deke and a flick of his wrists, West Sound’s Peter Mingus converted a penalty shot to give the Warriors a 4-3 win that ended the Glacier Nationals’ Cascade Cup hopes Friday at Stumptown Ice Den.
Mingus, who scored all four of West Sound’s goals, was hauled down from behind by Nationals defenseman Kyle Watne with 25 seconds remaining and the forward scored on the ensuing penalty shot to give the Warriors a series sweep in the best of five NORPAC semifinals.
Mingus’ other three goals all came on the power play and two were scored with a two-man advantage. The Nationals outscored West Sound 1-0 in even strength situations.
“It was a lot of frustration,” Nationals forward Sebastian Adnell said. “We were better than them 5-on-5, but the penalties killed us.”
Adnell’s snap shot 11 minutes and 3 seconds into the third period evened the score at 3, but a kneeing penalty against Glacier’s Tucker Spooner put the Nationals back on the penalty kill 20 seconds after the tying goal.
The Nationals got a chance on the power play later in the period but Watne’s one-timer was saved by West Sound goaltender Jordan Werezak with 1:50 remaining.
“Five-on-five we’re a great team,” Nationals captain Paul Kinder said. “Penalties have been our weakness all year.
“They capitalized on chances we didn’t capitalize on. Penalties killed us and they put it into the net.”
Kinder said the Nationals were confident entering the game despite trailing the series 0-2. West Sound, which was 3-1 against Glacier during the regular season, won games one and two in Bremerton, Wash., by scores of 5-1 and 6-3.
“We were pumped up for it,” he said. “We were in our home barn and we knew we would have the fans to support us. It was a bummer that we lost, but these guys are a great bunch of guys and I’d love to play with them next year.”
Glacier got off to a fast start when Spooner received an outlet pass from Kinder along the left wing and beat Werezak high to the glove-side on the Nationals’ first shot of the game. Danny Roe nearly added to the Glacier lead less than a minute later, but his shot was turned aside by Werezak and West Sound scored twice with the extra man to take a 2-1 lead.
With time winding down in the first period, West Sound’s Addison Wells took an interference penalty and John Tesarek struck on the power play, receiving a pass from Adnell and scoring top shelf eight seconds before the first intermission.
The Nationals successfully killed 50 seconds of 5-on-3 time midway through the second period but, shortly after regaining even strength, Glacier took two interference penalties 50 seconds apart to give West Sound another 5-on-3. Mingus capitalized, scoring with 3:14 left in the period to put the Warriors ahead 3-2.
Despite being swept out of the semifinals, Kinder said he was proud to be a part of Glacier’s turnaround from its inaugural season a year ago when the Nationals finished 6-35-1 and were a distant last place in the NORPAC.
“These guys fought hard,” he said. “We picked it up a lot this year. The heart was there, the attitude was there. That was the big thing, the attitude.”
West Sound will play the Bellingham Blazers in the Cascade Cup championship series. Bellingham is also coming off a sweep after beating the Eugene Generals 4-1 on Friday.
West Sound 2 1 1 — 4
Glacier 2 0 1 — 3
Scoring summary
First period
Gla - Tucker Spooner (assist Paul Kinder), 1:27
WS - PP Peter Mingus (Kai Wilkins, Max McInnis), 7:38
WS - PP Mingus (Graham Collins), 14:57
Gla - PP John Tesarek (Sebastian Adnell, Travis Redman), 19:52
Second period
WS - PP Mingus (Wilkins), 16:47
Third period
Gla - PP Adnell (Chris Cutshall), 11:03
WS - Mingus (penalty shot), 19:35
Team statistics
Shots on goal - West Sound 50, Glacier 42. Saves - West Sound 39 (Jordan Werezak), Glacier 46 (Mitch Tyson). Power plays - West Sound 3-11, Glacier 2-9. Penalty minutes - West Sound 20, Glacier 26.