The Columbian
EVERETT — Five different players scored, including a spectacular goal from Ryan Johansen with six minutes left, and the Portland Winterhawks beat the Everett Silvertips 5-4 on Wednesday to take a 3-0 lead in their Western Hockey League first-round playoff series.
Portland can clinch the best-of-7 series with a win tonight at Everett.
Nino Niederreiter, Sven Bartschi, Brad Ross and Ty Rattie also scored for Portland in front of 2,331 fans at the Comcast Arena.
Rasmus Rissanen scored two goals for Everett. His first came on the power-play midway through the second period to give the Silvertips their first lead of the series.
But goals by Niederreiter and Rattie 13 seconds apart late in the second period put Portland in front to stay.
Johansen scored on the rush with a tough-angle back-hand shot from the left wing to give Portland a 5-3 lead with six minutes remaining.
“I just kind of put it to the net and I think it went off one of their guys’ sticks and went over (Everett goalie Luke) Siemens’ shoulder,” Johansen said.
“It was a really close game all 60 minutes and it was a big goal for that to squeeze through and take some momentum from their team and their fans,” Johansen said.
Midway through the game, each team had 18 shots on goal. Portland outshot Everett 32-20 from there and finished with a 50-38 shots advantage.
“I think in the offensive zone we started to hang on to the puck and keep puck possession” which wore on the Silvertips’ defense, Winterhawks coach Mike Johnston said.
Portland goalie Mac Carruth made 34 saves. Siemens made 45 saves in the loss.
“I didn’t play as well as I would have liked to today,” Carruth said. “The boys got me a win though.”
Everett was 2 for 5 on the power play, and also scored on a four-on-four and with an extra attacker with 1:31 left to pull within 5-4.
“I thought we played really strong, with a lot of heart and a lot of intensity,” Everett defenseman Ryan Murray said.
But Portland’s ability to take advantage of Everett turnovers turned the game, Murray added.
