After finishing the regular season with a record of 28-7-0-1 at home as they split their time between the Rose Garden and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Portland Winterhawks sputtered their way into the second round after losing two of their three home matchups against the Everett Silvertips. Opening their next series of the WHL playoffs with two games in Portland versus the Spokane Chiefs, the Winterhawks responded with a pair of dominant performances to reassert their status as the top seed in the postseason.
Winterhawks back to winning ways at home
After finishing the regular season with a record of 28-7-0-1 at home as they split their time between the Rose Garden and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Portland Winterhawks sputtered their way into the second round after losing two of their three home matchups against the Everett Silvertips. Opening their next series of the WHL playoffs with two games in Portland versus the Spokane Chiefs, the Winterhawks responded with a pair of dominant performances to reassert their status as the top seed in the postseason.
Game 1
Surprisingly, the high-octane Winterhawks were actually outshot 40-39 by Spokane in the series opener on Friday at the Memorial Coliseum, as the focus fell squarely on the respective goaltenders in an explosive offensive battle. Portland’s Mac Carruth, playing in his final WHL postseason, stopped 38 of 40 shots by the Chiefs to earn his 38th career playoff victory. The win tied Carruth with current Carolina Hurricanes netminder Cam Ward for the all-time record in the WHL postseason, a mark that the former Red Deer goalie set from 2001–04.
Carruth wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t need to be in the win. Spokane erased a pair of one-goal leads by Portland in the first two periods, the second equalizer coming on a shorthanded score by Todd Fiddler seven minutes into the second. But after Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his second goal of the night with 5:16 left in the period and Derrick Pouliot added an insurance marker two minutes before the intermission, the Chiefs fell apart in the third.
Ty Rattie punctuated the 7-2 victory with a trio of tallies in the final 20 minutes. He beat Spokane goalie Eric Williams 47 seconds into the period on the power play for his first goal of the night, and then notched his second five minutes later with assistance from Brendan Leipsic and Nicolas Petan. Rattie completed the hat trick for his ninth goal of the postseason on another power play with 3:37 remaining in the game. Williams was in the crease for all 60 minutes, stopping 32 of Portland’s 39 shots and suffering the full brunt of the defeat.
Game 2
The following night, 10,326 fans were on hand in the Rose Garden as Carruth saved all 27 Spokane shots for his fourth career playoff shutout in a 3-0 victory. In addition to breaking the record for WHL playoff wins, Carruth also took sole possession of the Winterhawks’ franchise record for playoff shutouts, which he had shared with Lanny Ramage.
The top two lines shined in the victory for Portland. Taylor Leier and Bjorkstrand set up linemate Chase De Leo with 6:43 left in the first period, as great puck movement left the center with a wide-open net to put away the goal. Leipsic and Rattie then assisted Petan as he beat Williams with just a minute to go in the second period, and Leipsic netted one more midway through the third. Though Williams gave up fewer goals than in his previous game against the Winterhawks, he faced a comparable barrage on Saturday, ultimately unable to withstand the onslaught of a 43-shot night in Portland.
The series now shifts to Spokane, where the two teams take the ice tonight at 7:05 p.m., followed by Game 4 on Wednesday. The Winterhawks were 3-0-0-1 this season at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, scoring 20 goals while conceding nine. Carruth was in net for all four games on the road against the Chiefs, including a 36-save shutout in the most recent Winterhawks trip to Spokane on Jan. 25.
