Winterhawks To Play for Western Conf. Title
The Portland Winterhawks are going to the Western Conference Finals. The Winterhawks beat the Kelowna Rockets 4-2 in Game 6 of their second round series Sunday to advance to the conference finals for the first time since 2001.
Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals will take place Friday night at the Rose Garden at 7 p.m., while Game 2 is set for Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Rose Garden.
The opponent for the third round is still up in the air, as the Winterhawks must now await the winner of the Spokane Chiefs – Tri-City Americans series. Game 5 of that series is in progress as of this writing, with the series knotted at 2-2 entering play tonight. Game 6 of that series is scheduled for Tuesday in Spokane, and if it goes to a Game 7 that will take place Wednesday in Spokane.
The Winterhawks’ line of Sven Bartschi, Craig Cunningham and Ty Rattie did most of the damage in the Game 6 win, scoring three of the team’s four goals. That line got Portland on the board with two goals just 51 seconds apart in the first period, when Rattie and Bartschi scored in quick succession to give Portland an early 2-0 lead, a score that would last through the end of the period.
The Winterhawks then made it 3-0 when Cunningham scored 3:14 into the second period, his fifth of the postseason. But Kelowna got one back when Geordie Wudrick scored at the 13:03 mark, as the Hawks took a 3-1 lead into the third period.
The Rockets then cut the lead to one when Brett Bulmer scored a power play goal 54 seconds into the third period, cutting Portland’s lead to 3-2. But from there the Winterhawks slammed the door, and late in the game with Rockets netminder Adam Brown on the bench for an extra attacker, Portland defenseman Joe Morrow scored into an empty net with 3.3 seconds remaining to seal the 4-2 win.
Goaltender Mac Carruth was terrific in the win, making 45 saves on 47 shots. Brown made 35 shots on 38 Winterhawks shots.
Bartschi finished with three points on a goal and two assists, while Rattie and Cunningham each finished with two points.
