Dommett, Calkins lead Klippers over Stars

Well, this one sure was entertaining but maybe not for the reasons you'd expect.

First, to address the officiating tonight. It was all over the arena and it's all over the web, how lopsided the penalties were tonight. Al Smith handed out 10 power plays to the Klippers and two to the North Stars.

Were there a couple calls missed on Kindersley? Yes. Not many. When the penalties are that one-sided, normally you see a make-up call or two, and that didn't happen tonight. As for the Stars' penalties, each one that I saw was legit.

And here's the thing. The Battlefords North Stars were very much in this game late in the third period. They lost their composure as a result of the penalties and their coach's behaviour. The penalties they took in the last few minutes were no one's fault but their own.

What set off the powderkeg with four minutes left was Blake Tatchell failing to score on a breakaway with Jesse Mysiorek coming at him from behind. Let's make one thing clear, Tatchell was NOT hauled down as some are claiming. Did Mysiorek interfere with him? You could make an argument. He was poking around his legs trying to knock the puck off his stick from behind. Did it slow him up? Maybe, but he still got a good scoring chance. Maybe it should have been a penalty, but it was not a blatant case of interference.

After the breakaway, the puck came down the other end of the ice.

And then Ken Pearson lost his mind.

I saw the first water bottle and thought it had come from the stands. Then another one, and I look down and Pearson is livid. Next came an entire rack of sticks. Then a medicine cabinet, which shattered and left pills all over the ice. Then fans began to throw various objects on the ice.

On the one hand, it's hard to blame Pearson because of the penalty situation and the pressure his team is under to win. On the other hand, you can't expect your team to keep their cool if you don't do the same, especially late in a game that they absolutely still had a chance to win.

In any event, it was Rockie Zinger's first win as the Klippers' interim head coach. He started the game with the same lines that Larry had been going with lately, but switched back to the regular lines early in the game and each of them clicked again, most notably the Calkins unit.

Andrew Dommett scored a hat trick, his first of the year, and Johnny Calkins was unbelievable with a goal and three assists, controlling the tempo of the game, leading the rush and doing a bang-up job in his own end as well. As impressive as Dommer was, you easily could have handed the first star to Johnny as well. These boys were motivated tonight, no question.

Ryan Benn scored the other goal, a one-timer off a pass from D. Jay McGrath early in the third.

It started badly for the Klippers when Tim Rollins squeezed the puck between Sean Cahill's pads at the side of the net just 14 seconds in. But Dommett responded at 11:51 when he took a pass in the high slot and buried it low glove side.

Kyle Hall scored twice in the first 16 minutes of the second to put the Stars up 3-1, but Dommett fired back again on a play that started with hard work and ended with a fluke. The captain somehow held in a booming clearing attempt, beat his man along the boards and sent a quick pass across the front, looking for Braeden Adamyk. It went off a Battlefords skate and past Graham Hildebrand.

Hildebrand was nailed for unsportsmanlike at the end of the second period and Calkins scored on the PP, 34 seconds into the third. It was the same play he scored on against Notre Dame Thursday as he set up along the right half-boards, took a pass from the point and wired it short side. Less than two minutes later, Benn tied the game on a great shot.

Dommett rounded out the hatty and made it 5-3 at the 8:54 mark on yet another power play. Then all the madness started. With the way the Stars were running around late in the game, I figured they were done, but Tatchell did score a shorty with under two minutes left to make sure it went down to the buzzer.

The shots were 39-35 for the Klippers.

I watched the game with some of John Sonntag's family, and he had a heck of a game.

Here is what Rockie Zinger had to say about his first SJHL victory as a head coach. I talked to a few of the boys after the game... but it's late, and I'm really tired. I'll try to get the other interviews (Dommett, Calkins, Benn) up tomorrow, but I'm heading to Gull Lake too so there may not be time.