Victory in Victoria Tuesday
The Portland Winterhawks (15-12-0-3) extended their winning streak with a 6-4 win in Victoria Tuesday over the Royals (15-14-2-0).
It was the Hawks’ sixth straight victory, the longest active streak in the league.
Portland got off to a quick start, scoring three times in the first 6:06 of the game to race out to an early 3-0 lead. Chase De Leo opened the scoring on a power play at the 3:43 mark, followed quickly by goals from Alex Schoenborn and Keoni Texeira to lead Portland to the three-goal advantage and send Victoria’s starting netminder Coleman Vollrath to the bench in favor of Jayden Sittler.
Victoria got on the board on a goal by Travis Brown at the 14:03 mark, but the Hawks responded just 45 seconds later with a goal from Dominic Turgeon to go back up by three, 4-1. Victoria got one back with 1:10 to go in the frame when Tyler Soy scored to cut Portland’s lead to 4-2 going into the second.
Brown got Victoria within one with his second goal of the game 4:26 into the second to cut Portland’s lead to 4-3 in what would be the lone tally of the period.
The Royals tied it 8:31 into the third on a goal by Brandon Magee to even the game at 4-4, but the Hawks regained the lead while shorthanded at the 10:25 mark when Oliver Bjorkstrand ripped a shot from the right faceoff circle past Sittler for a 5-4 lead.
Late in the game with Sittler on the bench for an extra attacker, Nic Petan scored an empty net goal to seal the win.
De Leo, Petan and Bjorkstrand all had two points in the win.
Adin Hill earned the win in net for the Hawks with 28 saves on 32 shots. Sittler gave up two goals on 23 shots for Victoria after Vollrath allowed three goals on the seven shots he faced early on, with Portland adding an empty net goal.
The Hawks are back in action Friday in Vancouver when they take on the Giants.
