Twenty-two minutes into Saturday’s Memorial Cup opener against Halifax, the Portland Winterhawks held a 3-1 lead after Ty Rattie sliced through the Moosehead defense for a power play goal. By the second intermission, however, any hope of a Winterhawks victory had evaporated as Halifax center Nathan MacKinnon’s hat trick spurred a five-goal second period that propelled the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions to a 7-4 win.
Portland took the initiative against Halifax goaltender Zachary Fucale in the first period, outshooting the Mooseheads 16-7 and going into the first intermission tied at 1-1 on a Seth Jones goal late in the frame. The Winterhawks then stole the lead 39 seconds into the second period as Portland captain Troy Rutkowski snapped home his first of two goals of the night, and Rattie followed him less than two minutes later to make it 3-1. Looking potent offensively and solid on the other end of the ice, Portland returned to the faceoff circle appearing to have stamped their mark on this matchup.
But the Winterhawks’ third goal seemed to wake up the lethargic Halifax line. Jonathan Drouin started the goal glut for the Mooseheads a minute after Rattie’s marker, potting a rebound behind Mac Carruth to cut the deficit in half. MacKinnon, parked in front of the Winterhawks’ crease, redirected Brendan Duke’s shot from the blue line to add the equalizer with 15:24 left in the period. For the next five minutes the two sides traded scoring opportunities, waiting to see who would bend next.
When defenseman Derrick Pouliot’s slashing penalty put Portland a man down midway through the second period, Halifax got the opening they needed to open the floodgates and put the game out of reach. On the ensuing power play, Luca Ciampini streaked down the left wing, fighting off tight marking from Jones and switching from backhand to forehand before finding a gap between Carruth and the near post to give Halifax a lead they would not relinquish.
MacKinnon added two more goals before the second period ended, beating Carruth on the power play with 5:57 remaining and nabbing a shorthanded tally with less than two minutes remaining before the intermission.
“They can score at the flip of a switch, and that’s what they did,” Rattie said after the game.
Rutkowski narrowed the gap to 6-4 with his second goal of the game early in the third period, but the Winterhawks would find no more holes in Fucale’s defense on the night. Stephen MacAulay restored the three-goal lead for Halifax with 14:27 remaining, the seventh goal allowed by Carruth on 35 shots.
“There’s a reason they’re ranked number one [in major junior hockey],” Rutkowski said. “We got away from our game the last 15 minutes of the second period, and it cost us.”
The round-robin stage of the Memorial Cup concludes tomorrow, when the Winterhawks face the Saskatoon Blades. The champion of junior hockey will be crowned in the tournament’s finale on May 26.