Game 7 . . . first period

FIRST PERIOD:
The winner of this one moves into Sunday’s final against the Windsor Spitfires, who are 3-0 but haven’t played since Tuesday. . . . Calgary is the home team tonight, meaning it gets last change. It also means Brandon will defend the north end in the first and third periods, and that is where most of the goofy bounces have occurred. . . . Hey, that looks like Brad McCrimmon on the red carpet tonight. The Detroit Red Wings assistant coach was a defenceman with the Wheat Kings in the late 1970s and is the older brother of Kelly McCrimmon, the Wheat Kings’ owner/GM and head coach. . . . McCrimmon is afforded a raucous standing ovation that is cut short by the public address voice. . . . Hey, you’re free to join us for a live chat over at ca.sports.yahoo.com. . . . Calgary has F Brandon Kozun back in the lineup but the pregame sheet shows him on the fourth line, alongside Cody Beach and MacKenzie Royer. . . . Might that be an attempt by Calgary head coach Mike Williamson not to show all his cards? . . . Of course, Brandon’s lineup has Scott Glennie on what would be a third line, while Mark Stone is shown with Matt Calvert and Brayden Schenn. . . . Stone is in the starting lineup with those two. . . . Brandon opens with two 30-second shifts and a look as though they will forecheck with two skaters. . . . Wheat Kings are more aggressive in the offensive zone and the shifts are shorter than in any of their previous three games. . . . Kozun’s first shift comes with Misha Fisenko and Del Cowan. . . . Kozun looked fine on his first shift. . . . Calgary is getting great mileage out of the Foucault-Bubnick-Shattock line. Brandon can’t seem to handle those three. . . . Kozun runs at D Mark Schneider, falls down and gets up, and looks to be moving just fine. . . . Calgary D Kyle Aschim rings one off a post. . . . First TV timeout. Brandon had the edge early, but the first shift by the Bubnick line seized the momentum. . . . Brandon F Brent Raedeke has a great chance from in tight and Jones gets a shoulder on it. . . . There’s Jones with his blocker on a short-side attempt by Schenn. . . . Brandon D Darren Bestland is going off for intereference — they call it boarding. He hit F Cody Beach before the puck got there. . . . Kozun is out there on the PP. . . . Jones robs Calvert. Best save of the tournament. Fans had that one on the board. . . . Schenn gave him the open net and Jones got across and got his right leg on the shot. . . . Jones is well out of the paint on a Schenn attempt, then Calgary goes down, F Joel Broda is by himself on top of the crease, gets two attempts and it’s 1-0. . . . Broda is a pure sniper and you have to be aware of him at all times. . . . Gotta have better defensive zone coverage than that. . . . And now it’s 2-0 as Hitmen captain Ian Schultz scores with 4:17 to play. . . . The crowd doesn’t know what to do. . . . Jones kicks out another Schenn attempt. . . . And Jones makes two more saves on Schenn. . . . Glennie takes a hit and it looks like his left arm is hanging a bit. . . . Calgary scores twice in nine seconds to take a 2-0 lead and you can chalk it up to Jones. He has made three or four magnificent saves. . . . Brandon F Toni Rajala has the puck in close and hits Jones in the logo. . . . It’s 2-0 after one. Calgary has a 14-13 edge in shots.