WHL Portland Winterhawks

Hawks Get Big Win Over Kelowna

February 16, 2009 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Portland Winterhawks News Release


The Portland Winter Hawks won the special teams battle, getting two goals from Luke Walker on the power-play, and the Hawks get a big 4-3 victory over the Kelowna Rockets in a Presidents Day matinee on Monday afternoon at the Memorial Coliseum.

Portland went 2 for 5 on the power-play and killed 8 of 9 chances against in the win.

Colin Reddin got the Hawks on the scoreboard early in the first period, driving to the net and putting home a rebound of a Brett Ponich entry shot past Rocket goaltender Mark Guggenberger.

The game would remain 1-0 until the final minute of the second period when Walker deflected home a Travis Ehrhardt entry shot on a 4-on-3 power play. Chris Francis assisted on the play to extend his point-streak to eight games for Portland.

Walker would add another goal in the opening minute of the third period, again deflecting home an Ehrhardt entry shot, to extend the Hawks lead to 3-0. Francis also assisted on the play, giving him 13 points in his last eight games. Walker leads the Hawks in goal scoring with 21.

Kelowna would get a goal back from Jamie Benn to make it 3-1, but Portland's Sawyer Mick would get the eventual game winner, filing home a wrist shot from the slot, off a feed from Joel Ridgeway to chase Guggenberger from the Rocket net in favor of Adam Brown.

Benn would make it interesting, scoring twice more to finish his hat trick, but the Hawks would hold off the Rockets for the victory.

Kurtis Mucha was solid in net for Portland, stopping 39 of 42 shots for the victory. In the third period, Mucha faced the 6,000th shot of his WHL career. Guggenberger took the loss for Kelowna, stopping 15 of 19 shots while Brown finished up, stopping all three shots he faced.

Next up, the Hawks will travel to Everett to take on the Silvertips on Wednesday evening at 7:00.

Check out the Portland Winterhawks Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from February 16, 2009


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