WHL Portland Winterhawks

Winterhawks' Win Streak Hits 5 with 6-5 Overtime Win Over Spokane

Published on January 24, 2011 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Portland Winterhawks News Release


Nino Niederreiter scored the overtime winner with 36.6 seconds remaining as the Portland Winterhawks (32-14-0-3) extended their winning streak to five games with a 6-5 win over the Spokane Chiefs (29-12-4-2) in front of 2,649 fans at the Memorial Coliseum.

The game was a matchup between the top two teams in the Western Conference, and Portland's victory gives them a three-point lead over the Chiefs, and a six-point lead over the Tri-City Americans, who lost tonight to Kelowna.

It was Spokane who struck first at the 10:14 mark of the first period on a goal by Brenden Kichton to make it 1-0, then extended the lead to 2-0 at the 14:51 mark on a goal by Jared Cowen.

But the Winterhawks would strike back with two quick goals before the end of the period in a span of 1:06. First, Taylor Aronson carried the puck deep into the Spokane zone and fed Ryan Johansen in front, who beat Chiefs goaltender James Reid to make it 2-1 at the 17:42 mark. Then just over a minute later Nino Niederreiter picked up the puck at his own blueline and sped down the ice on a breakaway, beating Reid to even the game at 2-2 heading into the second period.

The Winterhawks jumped on the Chiefs again with two quick goals just 10 seconds apart in the second period. First it was Sven Bartschi at the 7:41 mark of the second period when he fired a shot at Reid that squirted through his pads into the net to make it 3-2, followed just 10 seconds later by a goal by Riley Boychuk. Reid was injured on Boychuk's goal, and was replaced by Mac Engel.

The Chiefs got to within one with 2:18 left in the period when Levko Koper scored his 24th goal of the season to cut Portland's lead to 4-3.

Spokane tied the game at 4-4 when Kichton got his second of the game 3:37 into the third period, but the Winterhawks answered at the 10:13 mark when Ryan Johansen went behind the net and tucked a wraparound past Engel to make it 5-4. But the back-and-forth contest took another turn when the Chiefs' Koper scored a power play goal with 5:34 remaining to tie the game at 5-5, setting up overtime and Niederreiter's winner.

Niederreiter and Johansen both finished with two goals and an assist. Mac Carruth earned the win in net, making 42 saves on 47 shots. Reid stopped 14 of 18 shots before his injury, while Engel made 17 saves on the 19 shots he faced.

The Winterhawks' next game is Wednesday at 7 p.m. when they host the Chilliwack Bruins at 7 p.m. at the Memorial Coliseum.

Check out the Portland Winterhawks Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Western Hockey League Stories from January 24, 2011


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