WHL Portland Winterhawks

Kelowna Shuts Out Winter Hawks 6-0

Published on January 25, 2004 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Portland Winterhawks News Release


Tonight the Kelowna Rockets showed why they're ranked number one as Kelly Guard tie's the Western Hockey League shut out record, with ten, as he and the Rockets shut the Portland Winter Hawks out, 6-0 in front of 6,087 in Kelowna, British Columbia at Skyreach Place.

The Kelowna Rockets scored four power play goals in their 6-0 win over the Portland Winter Hawks as the Hawks wrapped up their stretch of three games in three nights and 7th game in 9-nights at Skyreach Place. Kelowna's Randall Gelech (18,19) scored the Rocket's first two goals early in the first period, his second being on the power play to give the Rockets a 2-0 lead heading into the second period. Kelowna opened up the second period of play with 1:54 of 5-on-3 by scoring back-to-back power play goals by Shea Weber (9,10) and who also recorded an assist on the night. Also in the second period of play, the Rockets added a fifth goal by Cam Paddock (15) at 9:27, then Rocket's right-winger Simon Ferguson (12) put the Hawks away as he scored Kelowna's fourth power play goal of night at 12:48 to give the Rockets the 6-0 shut out win. Following Kelowna's fourth goal, Portland's starting goaltender Krister Toews was pulled and replaced by Dustin Butler, early in the second. Kelowna's starting goaltender Kelly Guard tied the League shut out record with ten shut outs in one season in the Rocket's win as he faced a total of 26 shots. Portland out shot the Rockets 26-25 but were unable to shut down the Kelowna power play.

The number one ranked Kelowna Rockets took a two goal lead over the Winter Hawks in the first period, while Portland's starting goaltender 20-year old Krister Toews had a hard time controlling long shots during the first 20-minutes of play. Rockets right-winger Randall Gelech scored his 18th goal of the season, on a 2-on-1 break to put the puck short side of Toews, just inside the right circle to give Kelowna a 1-0 lead, 4:01 into the game. Gelech (19) then scored his second of the night and gave the Rockets a 2-0 lead at 6:06 while on the power play after Portland's rookie Garrett Festerling was called for checking from behind just 33 seconds prior to Gelech's second goal. Things got physical between the two teams after Kelowna's scored their second goal as Portland's Richie Regehr dropped the gloves with Kelowna's Cam Paddock, where both would be given two minutes for roughing and five for fighting, while Hawks 17-year old Brandon Dubinsky was handed a 10-minute misconduct for not leaving the neutral corner during a fight. About six minutes later, Winter Hawks 18-year old left-winger Brian Woolger was also sentenced with a 10-minute misconduct penalty along with two for interference. The Winter Hawks best scoring chance came as 19-year old enforcer Robin Big Snake was open along the left wing as he took it in on Rocket's netminder Kelly Guard, but was rejected by Guard with a blocker save. Portland however, did a good job at times getting in on the Rocket defense. Kelowna held Portland to just 3 shots in the period and would end the period up 2-0.

The Rockets opened up the second period with 1:54 of 5-on-3 power play man advantage and took advantage of that as they went on to score back-to-back power play goals to give them a 4-0 lead over the Hawks. Rocket's Justin Keller took the initial shot 33-seconds into the period as the puck bounced off the crossbar to Shea Weber who sent a blast from the top of the right circle, past Toews for his 9th of the season. Then at 1:17, while 5-on-4, Weber netted his 10th

of the season and second of the night, off the rush as he broke down the left wing circle to put it between the pads of Toews. Toews would then be pulled and replaced by rookie Dustin Butler between the pipes. The Rockets then took a 5-0 lead at 9:27 as 19-year old Kelowna left-winger Justin Keller forced the turn-over on Winter Hawks defenseman Richie Regehr and the Hawks were caught with no defenders down low on Cam Paddock who was able to put it in from the goal line as the puck came loose, for his 15th of the season. At 10:48 of the second, Hawks 18-year old center man Ivan Dornic was called for cross checking, which would give the Rockets yet another power play that they would go on to take advantage of. Former Winter Hawk and Kelowna Rocket Jesse Ferguson's younger brother, right-winger Simon Ferguson would go on to put the puck past Butler for his 12th of the year as he was all alone in front of the net as he received a cross feed pass from Blake Comeau at 12:48 to give the Rockets a 6-0 lead over the Winter Hawks. Portland played well territorially and had quick physical fore-checking in the Kelowna zone and were able to generate more shots (14-13) in the period, but could not stop the Rockets power play.

It was a quiet final period of play as Hawks finishing goaltender Dustin Butler only had to stop 3 shots and Kelowna's Kelly Guard stopped 9, to go on to tie the Western Hockey League record with ten shut-outs in a season, to give the Rockets the 6-0 win over the Winter Hawks, advancing the Hawks record to 23-21-4-0 on the season and ending their 4-game winning streak.

Tonight the Hawks scratched (RW) C.J. Jackson, (D) Tomas Fojtik and (D) Taylor Sutherlin all due to numbers. The Portland Winter Hawks will now have 5-days off before playing host to the Everett Silvertips on Friday night at 7:00pm in the Rose Garden, where the first 5,000 fans thru the door will receive a free Winter Hawks wallet. The Hawks are scheduled to practice this week at the Rose Garden on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2:00-3:30pm.

Check out the Portland Winterhawks Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from January 25, 2004


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