Home-ice advantage may be little comfort for T-birds

This time it's the Seattle Thunderbirds who have the home-ice advantage, but in this tight series, that hasn't meant much.

The T-birds meet the Kelowna Rockets in Game 7 tonight at KeyArena in an opening-round Western Hockey League playoff series in which the visiting team has won four of the six games.

The Rockets forced the decisive game by winning 4-3 in overtime on Saturday night in Kelowna after Seattle took a 6-2 decision in Game 5 at KeyArena.

This is the second time in four seasons the teams have met in a Game 7, the Rockets taking a 2-1 decision in 2005 in Kelowna before going on to win the WHL championship.

The winner plays the Tri-City Americans in the second round, beginning Friday in Kennewick. The loser is finished for the season.

"We played hard, we just didn't play as well as we needed to close a team out," Seattle coach Rob Sumner said of his team's effort in Game 6. "Our guys respected the situation and played with intensity, we just didn't play our best game."

The game-winning goal came at 10:59 of the extra period when Lucas Bloodoff took a sharp angle shot from the corner that bounced off Seattle goaltender Riku Helenius' skate and went into the net.

Sumner wasn't as upset about the goal as he was about a hit by Tyler Myers on Thomas Hickey a few minutes before the game-winner was scored.

Hickey took a backhanded shot in front of the Rockets goal and was steamrolled by the 6-foot-7 Myers. The hit, which knocked Hickey over backward and broke his helmet, would have been an obvious charging penalty during any other part of the game. In overtime, it was ignored.

"It was a blow to the head," Sumner said, "an extremely high hit that warranted a penalty."

Hickey, the first-round pick of the L.A. Kings, was uninjured and played on. He'll be back in the lineup tonight with a new helmet.

Colin Long, who scored 100 points in the regular season, leads the Rockets with two goals and 11 points in the series. Ian McKenzie has three goals and six assists and Hickey a goal and eight assists for Seattle.