Game 7: Team Tippett 3 Team Hartley 2
1st:
1-0 TIP Wayne Babych 6 (Ron Schock, Gerry Hart) 9:12
2nd:
1-1 HAR Viktor Yakushev 3 (Billy Breen, Shirley Davidson) 11:37
3rd:
2-1 TIP Mikko Koivu 3 SH (Pat Boutette, Bryan Marchment) 5:34
3-1 TIP Brian Gionta 2 (Mike Knuble) 19:54
3-2 HAR Martin Rucinsky 1 (Ales Hemsky) 19:59
Hebert 21 Saves
Holmqvist 22 Saves
Three Stars:
1. Mikko Koivu
2. Brian Gionta
3. Guy Hebert
Team Tippett opened the scoring with Wayne Babych sniping a Ron Schock pass five-hole on Holmqvist. Billy Breen had a chance to tie the game up in the same frame, but put his back hand off the cross bar. Al MacNeil nearly scored the series' first goal by a defencemen, but the puck trickled past the post.
Breen's line would strike in the 2nd, creating a beautiful feed to Viktor Yakushev, left wide open on the right post, who slammed the puck into the goal.
After a disappointing performance on the PK last game, Mikko Koivu had what Pierre McGuire would scream at top of his lungs "a monster game." Koivu broke took Boutette's pass and broke in alone on Holmqvist, where deked to his backend and roofed the puck over Holmqvist's outstretched leg for the series' nicest individual effort. Team Hartley had their chances, and Hebert made a couple of huge stops off of Ronald Pettersson and Nils Nilsson. With the extra attacker pulled, a slew of Team Tippett players missed the empty net (including Ragnarsson and twice by Mike Rathje, the first off the post). Finally, with only six seconds to goal, Brian Gionta sped past the tired Hartley players and put the game away. Off the faceoff, Hemsky fed Rucinsky, who's long range wrister caught Hebert off guard with 0.9 seconds to goal. ( presumably Hebert was already planning his celebration)
Player Comments
- No goals by a defencemen. They had their chances, but nothing went in for them.
- Svetlov had 5 or 6 great chances, but like all series, was unable to bury them
- The difference in the series when Holmqvist/Hebert were in net and when others were in net was quite noticeable, even though the quality of goals surprisingly didn't change.
- It was disappointing that this game had the fewest chances of the series
- Scott Hannan had struggled somewhat through the series, but was wonderful this game
- The series' offense was pretty much generated by the top 6 of Team Hartley and the bottom six of Team Tippett. Combining the two might make for a team that could challenge a AAA squad
- The scratches were Ashton, Berry, Dukowski, Fox, Flett, Martin for Team Hartley and Horcoff, Hunter, McEachern, McLaren, Norton, Sturm for Team Tippett.