After two straight years of coming tantalizingly close to winning the WHL championship only to be thwarted at the final hurdle each time, the Portland Winterhawks reached the summit at last on Sunday. Missing out on a prime opportunity to finish off the Edmonton Oil Kings at the Rose Garden Arena in Game 5 on Friday, Portland traveled north to Rexall Place, the site of the Winterhawks’ heartbreak in Game 7 of the finals last year. This time, Portland was able to fight through the noise and a dangerous Edmonton squad to claim the Ed Chynoweth Cup in a 5-1 victory. In doing so, Portland booked its first trip to the Memorial Cup since 1998.
Ty Rattie, the Winterhawks’ right winger and alternate captain, picked the least likely of moments to emerge as the catalyst for Portland’s coronation. Falling behind early on a Travis Ewanyk goal that caromed off Portland defenseman Derrick Pouliot’s skate and past goalie Mac Carruth just 1:04 into the contest, the Winterhawks faced another potential setback when Chase De Leo was hit with a four-minute double minor penalty for high-sticking Edmonton center Henrik Samuelsson. But instead of going on the defensive to try and kill Edmonton’s power play, Rattie took the occasion to catch the home team off guard.
Portland’s standout winger tied the game a minute into the penalty kill. Nicolas Petan raced out ahead of the backpedaling Oil Kings power play unit, corralling the puck behind goalie Laurent Brossoit’s net. Wrapping around, he served up the puck to Rattie right in front of the net, and Rattie calmly snapped a one-timer past Brossoit’s outstretched glove with 15:32 remaining in the period. The goal was Rattie’s 48th career playoff marker, pushing him past former Medicine Hat forward Mark Pederson for sole possession of the WHL postseason goals record.
Less than three minutes later, Rattie added to his record with a second shorthanded goal on the same penalty kill. Pouliot fed Petan with an outlet pass and Rattie stayed onside as he streaked along the right wing. Petan then slid the puck over to Rattie, who wrapped around the net and shoveled the puck in faster than Brossoit could cover the post. The lead would hold at 2-1 as the two teams went in for the first intermission.
“[Edmonton] came out to an early start with that lucky goal there,” Rattie said. “It was big for us to get a couple goals and kind of set the pace for the game.”
Coming back from the break, the Winterhawks continued to bombard Brossoit with shots. Portland broke through four minutes into the second period as Oliver Bjorkstrand extended the lead for Portland. Moving through traffic, Bjorkstrand snatched up a Ty Wotherspoon pass from the right face-off circle and sent the puck past Brossoit before the beleaguered goalie could even track it through the bodies blocking his vision.
Then, with 6:35 remaining in the period, Rattie completed his hat trick and put the game effectively out of reach. Streaking into the offensive zone, Petan once again found his winger in front of the crease with a perfect tape-to-tape pass. Settling the puck, Rattie switched to his backhand before shooting over the sprawled netminder to stretch the lead to 4-1 at the second intermission.
Asked about the three-goal night that would make him the first player in WHL history to score 50 postseason goals in a career, Rattie’s analysis was simple: “My dad told me before the game that big-time players step up in big-time games,” he said.
Edmonton would get several more scoring opportunities in the third period, but Carruth proved impenetrable in net after giving up the early goal. The Winterhawks veteran finished with 26 saves on 27 shots in the win.
Hoping for a miracle to get the series back to the Rose Garden for a deciding Game 7, Edmonton head coach Derek Laxdal pulled Brossoit for an extra attacker in the waning moments of the third period, and Taylor Leier took the opportunity to deposit a fifth goal for Portland into the empty net with 39 seconds remaining, putting an exclamation point on the victory.
The game provided another prime example of how the Winterhawks have responded to adversity all season. Losing head coach and general manager Mike Johnston to a season-long suspension as part of the unprecedented sanctions levied against the team for impermissible player benefits, the Winterhawks could easily have folded up the season and prepared for 2014.
Instead, they went out and topped their efforts of the last two years, claiming home ice throughout the playoffs with a league-record 29 regular-season road wins under acting head coach Travis Green, eventually coming through with the victory that had eluded them in the recent past.
“It means a lot,” Green said after the game. “It’s been a tough year. We’ve got a guy in Portland right now we dearly miss, and I give our team a lot of credit. I give Mike a lot of credit. He’s instilled a lot of things in these young men, and I give the team a lot of credit for being able to carry on and not miss a beat. It was a great series. We had to play well to beat Edmonton, and we did.”
The Winterhawks begin their quest for the third Memorial Cup in franchise history when they take on the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday afternoon. The four-team tournament comprises the champions of the WHL, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey League, plus a host team, for the top honors in North American junior
hockey. The tournament runs May 17–26.