Isotopes season over in dramatic fashion

When looking at a game seven, you can look at it in many ways.  Does a team rise to the occasion or did their opponent shrink under the pressure?  In the game seven battle against the Rejkjavik Puffin the answer to that hypothetical is pretty clear, something happened in that Isotope room to cause them to crack and not rise to the efforts put forward by the Puffin.

Through the first 40 minutes, the Isotopes were outshot 24 to 7 and though they did manage to get 11 shots on net in the third it was a herculean effort by Bobrovsky that kept this game interesting as he stopped 43 of 45 shots, including 24 in the final frame, but the Isotopes lost 2-1.

The buzzer to end the game was like a dagger to the hearts of ‘topes fans everywhere, the dream of challenging for the cup over before it even really started.

Perhaps the most upsetting part was that Springfield held a 3-1 series lead and watched it slide away by being outplayed three games in a row.  “I am not going to lie; that (the series lose) was not what I was hoping for.  We had the series and we just needed to close it out and we couldn’t.  We took our foot off the gas and the Puffin made us pay”, said a visibly upset GM Stacey before adding, “That isn’t to take anything away from the Puffin, we wanted to avoid them in the first round for this very reason, they have the ability to shut you down whenever they decide to.”

Now the team is left with questions about the future and wondering who will be around for next season and beyond.  Immediate concerns are free agents and who may be signed using the single UFA rule and what the lines could look like.  The obvious outcome of this loss is that even though the Isotopes may have exceeded expectations this year, there is still room for improvement.



Springfield times