Sports stats



WHL Portland Winterhawks

Five Goal Comeback Comes Just Short in Valiant Effort against Vancouver

March 12, 2022 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Portland Winterhawks News Release


Portland, Ore. - Playing their fourth game in five days and facing a 6-0 deficit, the Winterhawks rattled off five unanswered goals in the final 40 minutes in a spirited comeback bid, but fell just short as the visiting Giants took a 6-5 win at the VMC on Saturday.

Vancouver dominated much of the first period, opening up a 2-0 lead on goals from Zack Ostapchuk and Fabian Lysell, then began to put the game out of reach with four goals in five minutes early in the second period. Adam Hall grabbed a pair, sandwiched around tallies from Jaden Lipinski and Alex Cotton to go ahead by a whopping six goals.

But two minutes later, Marcus Nguyen tallied his first of two goals to kick off the comeback has he tapped home a rebound at 10:23. Just over a minute after that goal, Portland netted its second goal with James Stefan's 31st of the year on a long-range wrister. And before the period was done, the Hawks had halved the lead on Nguyen's second of the night at 19:28.

Portland started hot in the third, but could not solve Will Gurski for much of the frame until Kyle Chyzowski slotted his team's fourth straight goal with a beautiful individual effort, weaving around a defender and sliding a backhand through the five-hole of Gurski. As momentum built, Stefan sent the VMC into a frenzy with a seeing-eye shot at 15:28 to make it just a one-goal game, but the comeback bid ended there.

Dante Giannuzzi started in net for the Winterhawks, but was replaced by Taylor Gauthier after making seven saves on 11 shots. Gauthier finished with 18 saves on 20 shots as the goalie of record in this contest.

Portland now gears up for a home-and-home set with Seattle next weekend, taking on the Thunderbirds on the road on Saturday and hosting them on Sunday.

Check out the Portland Winterhawks Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from March 12, 2022


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central