Carruth Shuts Out Kamloops 2-0; WinterHawks Win Series 4-3

Coming into Game Seven at the Memorial Coliseum, the momentum had entirely shifted to the Kamloops Blazers. The WinterHawks needed a huge game at home from Mac Carruth in order to keep their season alive. When it mattered most, the embattled goaltender delivered.

Carruth stopped all 32 shots fired at him, and an early goal from Marcel Noebels was all the Hawks needed in a 2-0 win to close out the series, four games to three.

In the previous three games, the Blazers defensive aggressiveness had prevented the high-scoring Hawks from getting scoring opportunities, and the WinterHawks lack of a true enforcer had hurt them. The defense had been unable to clear the zone, and Carruth had allowed several soft goals, resulting in an abysmal 4.78 Goals Against Average over that span.

In Game Seven, everything that had gone wrong went right again. Troy Rutkowski, Joe Morrow, William Wrenn, and Tyler Wotherspoon cleared away rebound opportunities, and Carruth did the rest, making several key saves throughout the game, including a tremendous save on Kamloops leading scorer Colin Smith in the second period. More powerful defensive forwards like Cam Reid and Joey Baker saw more ice time, serving as protectors for the small, quick forwards.

With Carruth and the defense playing so well, all the WinterHawks needed was one goal. Marcel Noebels gave them that just one minute and one second into the game, off a pass from Sven Bartschi. Brendan Leipsic added an insurance goal in the third to secure the victory.

The WinterHawks will face the top-seeded Tri-City Americans in the Conference Finals after the Americans finished the Spokane Chiefs in their own Game Seven 3-2. Game One of the series will be Friday in Kennewick.