Winterhawks roll through Vancouver, 5-0

Brad Ross

Photo by Dave Giezyng.

Ryan Johansen

Photo by Dave Giezyng.

A late game skirmish.

Photo by Dave Giezyng.

Troy Rutkowski

Photo by Dave Giezyng.

The mascots face off.

Photo by Dave Giezyng.

A night after tallying a hat trick, Brad Ross scored twice and the Portland Winterhawks cruised past Vancouver 5-0 Saturday in Western Hockey League action.

Goaltender Keith Hamilton stopped all 29 shots he faced in front of a crowd of 7,868 at Pacific Coliseum.

Nino Neiderreiter and Ryan Johansen also scored - the 35th goal for each - and Portland kept pace with Spokane in the Western Conference standings in the race for the regular season title.

Portland improved to 45-17-0-3, 93 points to remain three points ahead of Spokane (42-17-4-2, 90 points), which beat Prince George 4-2 Saturday.

Portland plays at Chilliwack tonight.

WINTERHAWKS DOMINATE THUNDERBIRDS, 9-1

Ross and Niederreiter get hat tricks as Portland pounds Seattle on Mascot Night

By Jeremy Lloyd, oregonsports.com

It may have been mascot night at the Rose Garden, but the only people horsing around on the ice were wearing furry, detachable heads. The Portland Winterhawks, on the other hand, were all business, jumping out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period en route to an 9-1 victory over the cellar-dwelling Seattle Thunderbirds Friday in front of a sold-out crowd of 10,947 frenzied fans.

It was a one-sided offensive onslaught from the moment the first puck dropped, and the Winterhawks remained the aggressor throughout, peppering the Thunderbird goalies with a variety of up close and personal forays to the net on their way to an impressive 58-20 advantage in shots on goal.

Brad Ross and Nino Niederreiter led the Portland charge with three goals a piece, while Ryan Johansen contributed four assists. Luke Lockhart got the lone score for Seattle, which didn’t come until less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.

The win helped the Hawks (44-17, 91 points) maintain their razor-thin three-point lead over the Spokane Chiefs (41-17, 88 points) in the WHL’s U.S. Division with just eight games remaining in the regular season. The winner of the U.S. Division is practically a lock to get the #1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, while the second place team in the division will have to settle for the #3 overall seed in the conference. Spokane took care of business as well on Friday, defeating Prince George 5-4.

Seattle took the ice without leading scorer Burke Gallimore, while Portland was without the services of their fourth leading scorer, Ty Rattie. The Winterhawks will hit the road for their next four games before returning to the friendly confines of the Rose Garden on March 16th to take on the Vancouver Giants.

Game Flow

Period 1
Ross hit paydirt on two rebound goals early in the first period to set the tone for the Winterhawks, and then Craig Cunningham squeaked another puck past Seattle goalie Calvin Pickard as Portland jumped out to a decisive 3-0 lead. The advantage was due in part to a barrage of shots at the Seattle net that resulted in a 22-6 shots on goal advantage for the period. Pickard did an admirable job with 19 saves, but it wasn’t enough to stop the leaking dam that was the Thunderbird defense.

Period 2
The offensive bombardment continued for the Hawks in the second, who again got off more than twice as many shots on goal as Seattle at 20-9. Pickard did the best he could, turning away several point-blank Portland attempts to add to his save total. But in the end it was two deep attempts from Troy Rutkowski and Niederreiter that found the back of the net to make it 5-0 Portland.

Period 3
Seattle sent a new goalie in Michael Salmon out on the ice to start the third period, but the results were the same despite the fact that Portland played their fourth line for a good portion of the period.  Ross cemented his hat trick early in the period, Niederreiter collected two garbage-time goals to do the same, and Jason Trott found the back of the net with just 21.2 seconds remaining to make the final score 9-1. The only question mark heading into the final period was who would get into a fight. That finally happened in the final minutes of the game, as Portland’s Tyler Wotherspoon got into it with Seattle’s Travis Toomey. The conflict resulted in a few love taps before both men fell into the Portland net.