<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Friday, March 29, 2024
March 29, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Winterhawks answer with win

Portland evens WHL playoff series against Kelowna

By Paul Danzer, Columbian Soccer, hockey and Community Sports Reporter
Published: April 11, 2011, 12:00am

GAME RECAP

Portland 6, Kelowna 3

Player of the game: Portland’s Ryan Johansen scored his first career WHL hat trick.

Turning point: Johansen scored twice in the final five minutes of the second period, turning a tie contest into a 4-2 Portland lead.

By the numbers: Portland outshot Kelowna 39-14 over the last two periods.

PORTLAND — Ryan Johansen was clearly frustrated.

Several times during the first half of Sunday’s Western Hockey League playoff game, the Portland Winterhawks’ leading scorer was visibly upset.

And Johansen wasn’t alone in the frustration as his Winterhawks found themselves down a game and down a goal to the Kelowna Rockets.

GAME RECAP

Portland 6, Kelowna 3

Player of the game: Portland's Ryan Johansen scored his first career WHL hat trick.

Turning point: Johansen scored twice in the final five minutes of the second period, turning a tie contest into a 4-2 Portland lead.

By the numbers: Portland outshot Kelowna 39-14 over the last two periods.

But the No. 4 pick in last summer’s National Hockey League draft shook off his annoyance — and the Rockets’ defense — to score two momentum-generating goals late in the second period that lifted Portland to a needed win. And Johansen finished with his first career WHL hat trick as 8,053 watched at the Rose Garden.

Portland’s 6-3 win knots up the best-of-7 second round playoff series 1-1. Games 3 and 4 are at Kelowna on Tuesday and Wednesday. Game 5 is on Friday at the Rose Garden.

Ty Rattie and Joe Morrow each contributed a goal and two assists Sunday, and Craig Cunningham also scored for the Winterhawks.

“I felt like I didn’t play that strong in the first game, so I really wanted to make a response,” Johansen said. “In the first period, it felt like pucks were kind of getting away from me, so it was a little frustrating at times.”

Portland head coach Mike Johnston said his club looked a bit nervous in the first period on Sunday. He said he asked for more from Johansen and Riley Boychuk during the first intermission, and liked the results.

“The checking pressure and the way the physical game goes in the playoffs, it’s going to get to you,” Johnston said. “You just can’t let it show through frustration. You’ve got to channel it through energy on the ice.”

The energy shift in Sunday’s game, and perhaps the series, came in the second period.

After being blanked through the first period on Sunday, trailing 1-0 and having scored only once through the first four periods of the series, Portland put four pucks behind Kelowna goalie Adam Brown during the second period.

By shifting his energy to his skates, Johansen was a big part of the momentum change.

“I thought (Johansen) regrouped well in the second and third (periods), and he turned his energy into the right types of things,” Johnston said. “He’s a great skater, and when his energy is that high he’s hard to handle.”

The first two Portland goals came during four-on-four play. First, Sven Bartschi won an offensive zone faceoff, stepped around the Rockets Mitchell Callahan and shoved a pass across the crease for Rattie to slam into an open net. Portland took a 2-1 lead on Cunningham’s deflection 9:21 into the second period.

That lead didn’t last long — but with their confidence restored, Johansen and company pulled away.

Johansen’s first goal put Portland ahead to stay. Just out of the penalty box, Rattie attacked down the left boards to set up an odd-man rush, and floated a perfect pass over a Rocket stick for Johansen to pound home.

With eight seconds to go in the period, Johansen converted from point-blank at the end of a rush that started with a defensive zone faceoff win.

That one was a bit of luck, Johansen said.

“To be honest. I was just about to shoot and mine and their defenseman’s sticks collided and it just kind of went five-hole. So I’ll take it.”

Maybe there was some luck involved, but the Rockets were never closer than two goals the rest of the way. By game’s end, frustration had turned into jubilation for Johansen. His sharp angle shot deflected off Brown and into the net for a power-play marker with just more than a minute to play, capping a great bounce-back night for a top-flight forward and securing a must-have win for the Winterhawks.

Loading...
Columbian Soccer, hockey and Community Sports Reporter