Hawks Close in on Playoff Spot With Win in Vancouver
The Portland Winterhawks (34-29-4-0) earned a big 5-2 win in Vancouver Friday over the Giants (23-38-5-3).
The victory kept the Hawks one point ahead of the Spokane Chiefs to remain third in the U.S. Division, and opened a seven-point gap over the ninth place Tri-City Americans, with just four games remaining for the Americans. Portland will clinch a playoff spot with one more win or a Tri-Cities loss.
Portland scored the lone goal of the first when Dominic Turgeon scored a power play goal at 16:04 to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead they took into the second.
The Giants tied it 1:56 into the second when Owen Hardy scored to make it 1-1, but the tie would be short-lived, as the Hawks went on to explode for three goals in a span of just under six minutes.
The blitz started at 5:38 when a tic-tac-toe passing play ended with Rodrigo Abols banging it in for a 2-1 lead. Turgeon then scored his second of the night at 10:08 when he made a power move to the net and beat netminder Ryan Kubic to make it 3-1. They struck again 59 seconds later when Rihards Bukarts scored to put Portland ahead 4-1, a lead they took into the third.
The Hawks kept their foot on the gas, and made it 5-1 at the 7:17 mark of the third when Cody Glass poked the puck past Kubic in a goalmouth scramble. Vancouver got on back at 13:22 on a power play goal from Trevor Cox to cut the lead to 5-2, but the Hawks closed the door from there to finish with the three-goal win.
Turgeon finished with three points with two goals and an assist, while Abols, Glass and Caleb Jones each finished with two points.
Adin Hill was solid in net, stopping 30 of 32 shots. Kubic allowed five goals on 29 Portland shots.
The Hawks will come back across the border to come home and host the Seattle Thunderbirds tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
