WHL Portland Winterhawks

Winterhawks Win Third Straight in Spokane to Take a 3-2 Series Lead

March 27, 2010 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Portland Winterhawks News Release


The Portland Winterhawks won their third straight road game in Spokane Saturday as they earned a 4-3 victory to take a 3-2 lead in their first round series with the Chiefs.

The road team has now taken all five games so far in this series, but the Winterhawks will look to reverse that trend when they host Game 6 of the series Monday night at 7 p.m. at the Rose Garden.

The Winterhawks struck first in the first four games of the series, and they did it again Saturday just 1:14 into the game when Stefan Schneider won a faceoff in the Spokane zone and fed Riley Boychuk, who fired it past Chiefs netminder James Reid to make it 1-0.

Later in the period, after killing three straight penalties, the Winterhawks capitalized on a power play of their own when Luke Walker scored at the 17:48 mark to make it 2-0 heading into the first intermission.

Portland extended their lead in the second period on a power play when a shot by Ryan Johansen from the left faceoff circle went through Reid's legs to make it 3-0 at the 11:29 mark. It would be the lone goal of the period, giving the Hawks a three-goal lead going into the third.

Spokane got on the board 6:08 into the third period when defenseman Jared Cowen scored on a power play to make it 3-1. But the Hawks would again take a three-goal lead when Johansen took advantage of the puck taking an odd bounce off the boards and going in front of the net, and he corralled it and put it past Reid to make it 4-1 at the 8:26 mark.

Johansen's second marker of the game would end up looming large. The Chiefs scored their second goal of the game at the 13:07 mark of the third when Mitch Wahl scored to make it 4-2. Then with under a minute to go, the Chiefs pulled Reid for an extra attacker and it paid off when Kyle Beach scored with just 32 seconds remaining to make it a one-goal game. The Chiefs continued pressing trying to send it to overtime, but the Winterhawks held them at bay and held on for the 4-3 win.

The two teams return to Portland for Game 6 Monday night at the Rose Garden at 7 p.m. Tickets for that game are on sale now online at ticketmaster.com. Tickets will go on sale in person at all Ticketmaster locations, the Rose Quarter box office and the Winterhawks' ticket office in the Memorial Coliseum Monday at 10 a.m.

Check out the Portland Winterhawks Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from March 27, 2010


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