Drawing a blank: Steelheads in 0-2 hole

Frustration and disbelief, mixed in with some resolve.

That might be a good way to describe the Idaho Steelheads after they lost 2-0 to the Victoria Salmon Kings on Sunday night at Qwest Arena.

The loss gives the Salmon Kings a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven ECHL West Division semifinal series.

And it backs Idaho up against a wall.

"We've dug ourselves a hole here," Idaho coach Derek Laxdal said. "... It's tough, it's tough. I'd love to be up 2-0, but we're down 0-2."

The series now shifts to Victoria, where Game 3 will be played Wednesday. Games 4 and 5, if necessary, also are road games for Idaho. If the Steelheads don't win at least two of those three contests, they have played their last home game of the season. If they can stretch it to a Game 6, that contest would be played April 21 at Qwest Arena.

"We have to make sure we show up on Wednesday night and try to get a 'W' there," Laxdal said. "We've won in there before. We won three out of four, and the regular season doesn't mean anything, but the fact that we did win in there does mean something."

The regular season obviously doesn't mean anything when it comes to this series.

Idaho defeated Victoria six out of seven games coming into the playoffs, but the Salmon Kings - and especially goalie Todd Ford - are looking like world-beaters in the postseason.

Ford stopped all 51 shots he faced and his coach, Mark Morrison, said the fifth-year pro played as well Sunday night as he seen him play.

"He steps up for big games," Morrison said. "... He's obviously a big reason we won the hockey game."

Ford went 1-3 against Idaho during the regular season, but he's taking his game to another level.

"It's the playoffs, right?" Ford said. "I'm feeling pretty good out there and I'm seeing the pucks and the guys are letting me see the pucks and they're making it easy on me."

Ford's counterpart, Idaho goalie Matt Climie, allowed one goal on the 21 shots he faced - Victoria forward Olivier Labelle scored a little more than 8 minutes into the first period. The Salmon Kings' other score was an empty-netter with 2 seconds remaining in the game.

Idaho has scored one goal in its first two playoff games, and its lack of offensive production is almost shocking when compared to the way the Steelheads finished the regular season.

Forward Bryan McGregor, for example, came into the playoffs on a nine-game point streak and he had 14 goals and 16 assists in those nine games. He has yet to register a point, and Idaho's power play is 0-for-8 through two games.

Still, the Steelheads said they saw something to build upon late in Sunday's game, including the fact that they outshot Victoria 51-22.

"We did a lot of things good tonight," Climie said. "We got a lot of pucks on the net. ... I thought in the third period we started getting some traffic and going to the net and there were some chances."

Time is running out to cash in on those chances.

"The next game," Climie said, "is obviously the most important game."