Hawks and Chiefs Set For Game 7 Wednesday
The Portland Winterhawks and Spokane Chiefs are going to Game 7, as the Chiefs won Game 6 by a score of 4-3 Monday night at the Rose Garden before a crowd of 6,101.
Game 7 of the first round Western Hockey League playoff series is set for Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Spokane. The game can be heard live on Freedom 970 AM.
As has been the case in each game of the series, it was the road team who came away with the win. Spokane won Games 1, 2 and now 6 in the Rose Garden, while the Winterhawks took Games 3, 4 and 5 in Spokane.
However, another trend was broken tonight, as it was Spokane who scored the first goal of the game, 5:54 into the first on a power play goal by Kyle Beach, his sixth of the series. The Winterhawks had scored the first goal in each of the first five games of the series. The Chiefs then made it 2-0 at the 11:11 mark on Levko Koper’s first goal of the series.
The Winterhawks got on the board 4:21 into the second period when Troy Rutkowski scored a power play goal. The play had to reviewed as the puck went clear through the back of the net. However, Spokane answered back less than two minutes later when Kenton Miller made it 3-1. The Winterhawks cut the deficit to one once again at the 10:36 mark when Chris Francis made a beautiful behind-the-back pass from the goal line out to Luke Walker in the slot, who fired it past Spokane netminder James Reid to make it 3-2. But Spokane again responded, as Koper got his second of the night under two minutes later to give the Chiefs a 4-2 lead heading into the third period.
Nino Niederreiter once again brought Portland to within a goal at the 6:46 mark of the third to cut the Spokane’s lead to 4-3. However, the Hawks couldn’t get the equalizer, and Spokane came away with the win to force Wednesday’s Game 7.
Portland finished with 43 shots on goal, with Reid making 40 saves. Mac Carruth faced 37 shots from the Chiefs, and he stopped 33. Portland was 1-3 on the power play, while Spokane was 1-2.
