It was a road game for his team, but Spencer Bennett was right at home when he scored his first Western Hockey League playoff goal on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old from White Rock, B.C., scored the first goal in the Portland Winterhawks’ 3-2 win over the host Vancouver Giants on Wednesday, helping his team pull within 2-1 in the best-of-7 conference semifinal series. Game 4 is at 7:30 p.m. today at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, B.C.
A WHL rookie, Bennett deflected a shot from the point for a power-play goal that gave the Winterhawks an early lead and needed emotional lift.
“It was cool,” said Bennett, who grew up in a Vancouver, B.C., suburb and has friends on the Giants team. “But it didn’t really matter to me where it happened. It was just nice to get a goal on the board and help the team.”
Good things keep happening for the Winterhawks when they leave town.
TODAY’S GAME
Game 4, Winterhawks at Vancouver Giants, 7:30 p.m. at Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, B.C. Radio: KXL 750 AM. Series: Giants lead 2-1.
Today, the Hawks will look to extend their road record in these playoffs to 6-0. If they do, the series will be deadlocked and become a best-of-3 battle. Game 5 is on Saturday in British Columbia, and the final two games, if needed, are scheduled to be played in Portland next week.
Like his coaches and teammates, Bennett said he cannot explain why the Winterhawks have been so productive on the road, while going 0-5 in playoff home games.
He said the team enjoys playing at home, and he doesn’t think it’s a case of trying to entertain the home crowd and getting away from the game plan.
“I don’t know if that’s the reason,” he said. “Maybe it’s because we have a bit more time (together) to prepare on the road.”
A fifth-round pick of Calgary in the 2009 NHL draft, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound Bennett is one of a half-dozen Winterhawks regulars who should feel right at home in Vancouver.
Goalie Ian Curtis, who got his first playoff start for Portland in Wednesday’s win, is also among key Winterhawks who hail from British Columbia. The others are Ryan Johansen, Stefan Schneider, Riley Boychuk and Luke Walker.
Bennett is also one of six Portland regulars experiencing the WHL playoffs for the first time. He said he’s found the tempo much faster and the physical battles more difficult than in the Junior A British Columbia Hockey League, where last season Bennett had two goals and four assists in nine playoff games.
He said the high intensity level of the WHL playoffs includes the mental part of the game.
“The mental side of playoff hockey is huge, too,” Bennett said.
Changing focus between the first and second rounds from Spokane’s skilled approach to facing a Vancouver team that — like Portland — thrives on an aggressive, direct style, is one example of the mental challenge, Bennett said.
After letting the Giants fly around in the first two games, the Winterhawks focused in Game 3 on mucking things up in the neutral zone. The game plan required the forwards to be cautious not to over-commit on the forecheck, while still remaining aggressive.
“You’ve got to think a bit more” about your assignment with forwards asked to make a mess of the neutral zone, Bennett said.
One of Bennett’s teammates on the Surrey (B.C.) Eagles last season was Giants’ defenseman Nolan Toigo. He said he is more casually acquainted with several other Vancouver players.
Such friendships mean nothing at this time of year, when each team is looking for any edge it can get.
Portland coach Mike Johnston said before Wednesday’s win that Portland’s first victory in the series would change the dynamic of the series by forcing the Giants to adjust their game for the first time.
Bennett agreed that improving to 5-0 on the road this playoff season adds to the Winterhawks’ surging confidence away from home.
“It was proving to ourselves that we can still win on the road, and win in a tough building like Vancouver’s,” Bennett said.
