The Portland Winterhawks fired nearly 60 shots on goal and earned a 5-2 Western Hockey League win over the Regina Pats on Sunday at the Moda Center in front of 9,019 fans.
The Hawks (15-4-1-1) were dominant through much of the first, outshooting Regina 16-5. They opened the scoring 4:46 into the game when Paul Bittner led a rush into the Regina zone, collected a rebound off his own shot, went behind the net and fed Nic Petan in front, who beat Pats netminder Dawson MacAuley to make it 1-0. Portland extended the lead to 2-0 with a power play goal at the 15:46 mark when Brendan Leipsic went top corner for his 11th goal of the season.
The Pats (11-10-0-0) got on the board 3:15 into the second on a goal by Dryden Hunt to cut the Hawks’ lead to 2-1. Portland again dominated play through much of the frame though, and went back up by two on a Taylor Leier blast from the point with just 37.9 seconds left to make it 3-1 heading into the third.
Regina got within one when Kyle Burroughs scored 4:39 into the third to cut Portland’s lead to 3-2, but the Hawks responded 1:21 later when Chase De Leo split two defensemen on a rush and went top shelf to make it a 4-2 advantage. Portland added to the lead at the 13:42 mark when Leier deflected a shot past MacAuley on a power play to take a 5-2 lead, which stood as the final. The Hawks never let the Pats back into the game in the final frame, outshooting them 24-10 in the third.
