SPOKANE — The Portland Winterhawks will play for the Western Hockey League title for the first time in a decade.
Scoring three goals in the third period, the Winterhawks won 6-3 at Spokane on Monday to finish off the Western Conference finals in six games.
Winning for the 19th time in their last 22 games away from home, the Winterhawks set up a championship series against the Kootenay Ice for the WHL title.
Games 1 and 2 will be at the Rose Garden in Portland on Friday and Saturday. Tickets for those games go on sale at 10 a.m. today at Ticketmaster locations, the Rose Quarter box office and the Winterhawks’ ticket office at Memorial Coliseum.
Troy Rutkowski scored the go-ahead goal on a wrist shot 5:22 into the third period, breaking a 3-all tie. Ty Rattie and Nino Niederreiter added goals to finish off the series.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Rattie said.
Portland came from behind for all four wins in the series. On Monday, Spokane led 2-0 less than four minutes into the game. But Portland coach Mike Johnston said he felt his team had more jump than the Chiefs.
“In the first period, we knew we could win,” Johnston said, describing a confident mood on the Portland bench.
Two goals one minute apart gave Portland the lead midway through the second period.
Ryan Johansen, chosen the series MVP, made it 2-all at the end of a three-on-two rush started by a smart William Wrenn outlet to Niederreiter, who drew the defense to him and passed to Johansen for his fifth goal of the series.
A minute later, a spinning shot from Craig Cunningham put Portland on top. A nifty pass from Rattie in tight quarters got the puck to Cunningham.
The Chiefs tied it up with 16 seconds left in the second period left in the second period. After an extended possession in the attacking zone, a blocked shot bounced right to Levko Koper who put the puck past Portland goalkeeper Mac Carruth.
Carruth finished with 24 saves on 27 shots as the Winterhawks outshot the Chiefs 38-27.
Spokane scored first for the sixth time in as many games in this series, getting a rebound conversion from Marek Kalus 2:32 into the game and a goal from Mike Aviani a minute later with Portland defenseman Wrenn tangled up with Carruth.
But Portland again showed its resilience.
“I thought we wore them down tonight,” Rattie said, “and it paid off.”
Now comes a showdown with a Kootenay team that won 11 consecutive games to claim the Eastern Conference title.
