Costly Win for Colorado

The Colorado Rockies played a solid, all-round game tonight in beating the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 on home ice... taking a 2 games to 1 lead in the series. The Rockies will look to take a strangle-hold in the series with Game 4 here in Denver.

Unfortunately, the Rockies will have to make this attempt without #1 Center, Jakub Klepis. The shifty Czech took a mean-spirited slash on the wrist from Oilers winger, Ilya Kovalchuk.

In what is believed to be a PHL play-off first, there was a total of 3, 5-minute majors handed out on the play, as both RW Mike Richards and LW Fredrik Modin (Klepis' line-mates) jumped Kovalchuk and pummeled him mercilessly. All 3 players were handed major penalties for fighting.

Oddly, neither of the Rockies players were ejected from the game. This, combined with the fact that the original slash went undetected, has brought the officiating into question. Fortunately, the Rockies were able to kill off the penalty, as it was still 3-1 at that time and an Oilers goal could have really changed the outcome of the game.

For the Colorado Complainer, this has been Nathan Livingston.