Tuesday's Salt Palace hockey game was so well played and evenly matched both teams said they'd have been happy to see it end as a 1-1 saw-off.
Instead, first-place Indianapolis got a 2-1 win over Salt Lake when Bob Bassen faked a shootout shot between the skates and instead shot accurately low and to the outside of Wayne Cowley.Bassen was the fifth Ice shooter in the overtime shootout. Former Eagle Jim Johannson, the Ice's third shooter of the shootout, was the first to score on the penalty-style shot, and the Eagles' Rich Chernomaz, their third shooter, immediately tied it up with a goal. The Eagles got no more shootout goals against IHL goaltending leader Jimmy Waite, and Bassen's shot took the two points in the standings.
The Eagles got one standings point and what Coach Bob Francis considered more of an un-win than a loss.
"I hate them," he said of shootouts, which aren't used in the National Hockey League. "They're exciting for the fans, but the bad end of it is some fans go home thinking you lost, and that's not the case."
"It's a tough way to end a game," agreed Johannson. "They played a good game, and for the standings to say they lost doesn't seem right."
The roles were reversed Feb. 16 when the Eagles took a 5-4 shootout win in the Palace over Indianapolis; Ice Coach Darryl Sutter's feelings were pretty much the same then as they were after Tuesday's win.
"Yeah, I do think they're brutal. You preach the team concept and then leave it up to five breakaways," he said.
"It probably was a 1-1 game," Sutter said. "They outplayed us the first period, I thought we outplayed them the second (when Indianapolis outshot the Eagles 13-2 and had three power plays but didn't score), and the third was even up."
Sutter even had empathy for Eagle goalie Cowley. "Both goalies played so well, and now Cowley's probably sitting over there thinking he made a mistake that cost them a point. That's why it's a terrible rule," Sutter said.
The little-used Cowley, however, said he could handle the outcome. "It's been so long since I've played, just playing well is good enough for me," he said. Cowley has played in four of the Eagles' last five games, but he went the seven weeks before that with just two appearances.
He likened his performance Tuesday to the way he'd played in college and in an NHL exhibition game for the Calgary Flames two training camps ago. "It was my best outing so far. I'm back on a roll," he said.
The play in front of him helped, Cowley said, especially during a four-minute Ice power play in the second period. By Cowley's standards, the Ice had one good shot, a one-timer in the slot by Dan Vincelette, during that power play. The rest of the time, the shots were "more scrambly," and Cowley said he prefers that because they're less likely to go in.
"Wayne was outstanding," said Francis. "He gave us a chance to win."
The Eagles fired their salvo at 16:32 of the first period. With both teams a man short, Randy Bucyk took a Chernomaz pass and wristed a shot past Waite from 40 feet up the slot. Indy penetrated Cowley's net 7:13 into the third period on a power play. Brian Noonan punched in the second rebound of a Bruce Cassidy shot from the right point.
"It was a solid effort all the way around," said Francis. "We played the way you have to play to have any success against Indianapolis. You have to be patient. They're a team that lulls you and then pounces."
For the Ice, it was win No. 7 in the first nine games of its 10-game road trip. No. 10 is Friday in the Palace. While the Ice took today off in Salt Lake City, the Eagles flew to Phoenix for a game tonight.