ECHL Idaho Steelheads

Steelheads championship reign comes to an end with 7-2 loss to Ice Dogs

Published on April 18, 2005 under ECHL (ECHL)
Idaho Steelheads News Release


BOISE, Idaho - The defending Kelly Cup Champion Idaho Steelheads were eliminated in the first round of the ECHL's West Division Semifinals Sunday night with a 7-2 defeat to the Long Beach Ice Dogs at the Bank of America Centre. Long Beach wins the series 3-1, and advances to play the winner of the Bakersfield Condors and Alaska Aces series, which is currently tied 2-2 with Game 5 tomorrow night.

Idaho gave up the first goal on a Petr Suchanek turnover in its own end. Evan Cheverie gathered up the puck and one-timed it over Frank Doyle's right shoulder at 3:45. A scuffle ensued that put Idaho on the power play, but they couldn't do anything with it. Instead, the Ice Dogs capitalized on a power play at 8:01 to gain a two-goal lead. Chris Kenady tallied as he tipped in Cheverie's slap shot from just inside the blue line that got over Doyle's left skate.

Idaho began the second frame with a man-advantage, but again were stymied by the Long Beach defense and goaltender Sebastien Centomo. Long Beach took a commanding 3-0 lead at 12:17 after Kenady fed Christian Larrivee who was set up in front of the net. Despite outshooting Long Beach 23-16 after 40-minutes, Idaho trailed by three goals heading into the third period.

Long Beach tallied two goals in less than two-minutes into the final frame. The first came at the 25-second mark after Ben Keup and Doyle played the puck behind the net, but lost it to Kenady who found an empty net to shoot on. Then at 1:35, Matt Noga notched his second of the playoffs as his shot beat a screened Doyle on the far side. For 1:09, Idaho had a two-man advantage and head coach John Olver pulled Doyle for a 6-on-3. Idaho still couldn't score, which summed up the game. Michael Lambert tallied the sixth and seventh goals of the game, and Doyle was pulled with 7:02 left to play. David Bararuk scored an Idaho goal at 15:23 after a flurry of shots, and Peter Metcalf tallied at 17:29 on a shot that was deflected in off an Ice Dogs' stick.

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