Winterhawks open road trip with win at Everett

The Portland Winterhawks opened a four-game road trip in Everett with a 4-1 win Wednesday.

The win extends Portland’s lead atop the Western Hockey League’s tight U.S. Division of the Western Conference. At 56 points, Portland is three points ahead of Seattle and four ahead of Spokane and Everett.

Rookie goaltender Adin Hill got the start in his first career WHL game, and earned the win by turning away 28 of 29 shots.

After a scoreless first period, Derrick Pouliot opened the scoring for Hawks nine seconds into the second period with a power play goal to make it 1-0. It was Pouliot’s first game with the Hawks in a month after he, Taylor Leier and Nic Petan represented Canada at the World Junior Championship.

The Silvertips got that one back at the 7:43 mark on a goal by Carson Stadnyk to even the game at 1-1 heading into the third.

It remained tied until the 12:10 mark of the third when Brendan Leipsic scored to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead in his first game back after serving a suspension. Just over two minutes later Adam de Champlain scored as Portland extended the lead to 3-1.

Late in the period with Everett netminder Austin Lotz on the bench for an extra attacker, Keegan Iverson scored into the empty net to seal the 4-1 win.

Portland was 1-2 on the power play and a perfect 6-6 on the penalty kill.

The Hawks are back in action Friday in Victoria against the Royals at 7 p.m.