PORTLAND — There figures to be little margin for error in the Western Hockey League conference finals between the Portland Winterhawks and Spokane Chiefs.
On Friday at the Rose Garden, the Chiefs gave the Winterhawks little space to generate offense, and the 7,642 fans little reason to get excited. The result was a 2-1 win for the visitors in the first game of this best-of-7 series.
Brady Brassart and Levko Koper scored goals and goalie James Reid made several big saves, leading Spokane to the road win. Game 2 is at 5 p.m. Sunday in the Rose Garden.
With a little better fortune for Portland — say converting a couple of empty-net opportunities — the result would have been different. But Spokane was the deserving winner on a night the Chiefs outshot the Winterhawks 43-28.
“They hit a lot harder, they forechecked a lot harder, and they outworked us tonight,” Winterhawks defenseman Taylor Aronson said.
Spokane took a 1-0 lead thanks to a fortunate bounce just 2:11 into the game.
Portland goalie Mac Carruth — who was strong in a 41-save performance — sticked aside a shot from Marek Kalus. The puck bounced to Carruth’s left, and Brassart eluded the stick of Portland’s Derrick Pouliot and pushed the puck under Carruth’s left pad.
Koper made it 2-0 Spokane at 4:25 of the second period, scoring on a point-blank deflection seconds into a power play.
It wasn’t so much the Spokane goals early in each of the first two periods that took the sizzle out of the building. More sobering for Winterhawks fans was the Chiefs’ smart checking game.
“We could have had a couple of our lines with a little bit more jump,” Portland coach Mike Johnston said. “There’s a few players there who could have been better. I didn’t think they had enough energy, but certainly we had our chances.”
None better than on a second-period power play, when two Hawks sent the puck through the blue paint with Reid out of position. When Ty Rattie watched his attempt slide through the crease he gazed in disbelief at the Rose Garden ceiling.
“You’ve got to convert those empty-net chances,” Johnston said.
Reid’s best save stole a goal from Sven Bartschi with six minutes left.
The Spokane goalie reached back with his left glove, closing a wide-open net. With four minutes left, Reid stoned Nino Neiderreiter, who had a doorstep chance denied.
The save on Bartschi denied a chance these Winterhawks usually bury. But, ultimately, the Winterhawks never got the tempo of play they wanted.
The Chiefs’ positional play was solid from the start. Spokane denied Portland any odd-man rush chances in the first two periods and was effective both on the forecheck and the backcheck.
“We tried to be a little bit too fancy tonight,” Aronson said. “We tried to play the style we played against Kelowna and Everett, and we need to be a lot more hard and gritty and win the puck battles, and put pucks on net.”
Reid’s shutout disappeared when Ryan Johansen scored from a rebound at the end of a rush with 24 seconds to play and Portland employing a sixth skater.
“They did a good job in their zone of shutting us down, smothering us a little bit and not giving us second-chance opportunities,” Johnston said.
