When you look at the two teams battling for the Western Conference title this year, anyone who has a love for hockey will salivate over them. With two games under their belt from Kelowna, BC, the Rockets and the Portland Winterhawks only served to show that this could be an epic and long series.
Friday night, the game was featured on Canada’s SportsNet and available by webcast around the world. The ratings would shoot through the roof as the battle went into overdrive.
Portland showed why it had the highest goal total in the WHL this season when they broke it open in the first period. Oliver Bjorkstrand scored just 33 seconds in to the game, with a great pass from Chase Deleo. Bjorkstrand would add another five minutes later on the power play as they opened the Kelowna defense which gave them their trademark tic-tac-toe passes into the net. Seven minutes later and on their second power play of the period, it was Chase DeLeo who worked aggressively to put one past Jordon Cooke, the Kelowna netminder.
It seemed right after that that the Hawks settled back and the Rockets, also known for scoring a lot of goals, took full advantage. Not even a minute later, Tyson Baillie knuckleballed a shot from near the blueline through the legs of Brendan Burke and gave the Rockets a little life. Towards the end of the period, while the Hawks were on the power play, they pinched up too far and the Rockets Madison Bowey made no mistake in scoring on Burke’s short side to the net. The Hawks almost put up a 4-2 goal as time expired as Oliver Bjorkstrand fired a shot through the legs of Jordon Cooke, but the puck hadn’t crossed the goal line before time expired and it wouldn’t count.
Though Winterhawks coach Mike Johnston wouldn’t agree that this may have been a turning point in the game, it seemed to flatten the Hawks defense and the Rockets were going to take full advantage of it. The Winterhawks would get their 4-2 lead before that as Keoni Texeira was assisted by third liners Dominic Turgeon and Alex Schoenborn to seemingly give them the lead that would be safe. Less than seconds later, that lead was down to one and the Rockets started to turn the tide. The Rockets would score the only goals of the third period with a powerplay marker and less than 90 seconds later, closed out the scoring and prevented the Hawks from mounting any sustainability when they pulled Brendan Burke for the extra attacker. Kelowna would win 5-4. Portland went 2 for 5 on the powerplay, Kelowna 1 for 4 and 1 shorthanded goal. The Rockets outshot the Winterhawks 36-26.
There was no time to dwell on the previous evening’s loss and the Winterhawks made only a couple of changes as they have during the other playoff games with revolving defensemen. The Rockets, fresh from their win the previous night, flowed with the Winterhawks and capitalized on a power play midway through the first period on when Alex Schoenborn took what appeared to be a makeup call. Just a minute before that, Kelowna’s Jesse Lees took an interference call which could have been waved off. The Hawks would run into penalty trouble again seconds later as Garrett Haar took a suspiciously weak hooking call that led to another Kelowna power play and goal. After one period, Kelowna was up 2-0.
The Winterhawks wasted no time in the second as Dominic Turgeon fought a tremendous amount of traffic in front of the Kelowna goal to flip the puck over the pad of Jordon Cooke 24 seconds into the second period. The Rockets would immediately answer back at 1:33 when Madison Bowey was able to shoot past Burke’s short goal side to put Kelowna up 3-1.
Coach Mike Johnston made a decision to pull Burke from the net and replace him with Corbin Boes. Boes, the 20 year old that was acquired at trade deadline from Lethbridge, had not played in any of the playoff games thus far, yet he showed his experience immediately with a couple of key saves right away. That swing in momentum seemed to be the tonic the Hawks needed as the Hawks would capitalize on the power play with a nifty goal by Nic Petan. Less than 2 minutes later, Oliver Bjorkstrand capitalized on a deflection to tie the game. The Hawks weren’t done yet as they won the next faceoff, marched into the Kelowna zone with Brendan Leipsic notching his ninth of the playoffs and the Winterhawks had their first lead of the game. They would outshoot Kelowna 24-14 in the second period. The Hawks remained as dominant in the third period by outshooting Kelowna 17-4 and preventing the Rockets from getting the equalizer. Alex Schoenborn netted the insurance goal midway through the third period and any chance of the Rockets coming back was ended when Damon Severson took a rather lazy tripping penalty in the offensive zone with less than two minutes remaining in the game, to seal the deal for Portland.
Portland outshot Kelowna 53-27 and went 1 for 7 on the power play while Kelowna would end up 2 of 3 on the power play from early in the game.
The series now shifts to Portland for games 3 & 4 and the expected large crowds in the Moda Center. Portland has done well at home in the playoffs and can make the series theirs with two wins. A split would give the Rockets home ice advantage again
In the Eastern Division Final, the Edmonton Oil Kings hold a 2-0 advantage. The first game was an 8-3 thrashing of the Medicine Hat Tigers who played just a day and a half after their grueling seven game set with the Kootenay Ice. The Tigers came back in game two, but fell 3-1. Both of the finals will resume on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ice Chips: The Booster Club will present two checks at Wednesday’s game. One will be a quiet presentation to the Gift of Gear program at the Booster Club table to outfit a few youth with equipment to play hockey that would otherwise be unable to afford it. The second presentation will take place during a media timeout for the Player’s Education Fund through WAHA. The Booster Club will also be a part of the 82nd Avenue Parade of Roses taking place this Saturday starting at 9:30am at Eastport Plaza in Portland and ending at 78th and Yamhill.
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