The Portland Winterhawks and Spokane Chiefs got together on Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum for a winner-move-on Game 7. The 3,898 fans who hastily made plans to attend after Spokane forced the deciding game with a win at home Monday night, were treated to a high-flying and energetic game, as you would expect from two teams loaded with play-makers.
Portland was put into this deciding game after Spokane came back to win Game 5 and then dominated Game 6. In those two games and throughout the series, Portland’s top line of Kieffer Bellows, Cody Glass and Skyler McKenzie had not been able to get on the score sheet as much as they were used to.
Bellows and McKenzie had combined for 88 goals in the regular season, but had just one apiece through the first six games of the opening round series. They, along with Cody Glass were not finding the same amount of room and were not able to create as many high-quality chances as they had when the games did not have quite this much weight.
Glass, McKenzie and Bellows finally broke out when a game could not have mattered any more as each scored a goal, Glass had three points and Bellows and McKenzie each had two and the Winterhawks beat the Chiefs 3-1 in Game 7.
They now move on to take on the Everett Silvertips at Angel of the Winds Arena on Friday at 7:35pm. Everett and Portland finished with the top-two records in the Western Conference.
Portland opened the scoring in the first with their first of two power play goals. They came into the night with only three total through the first six games vs Spokane and none of the trio had come from anyone who had netted any of their goals on the man advantage in the regular season.
After Luke Toporowski took a delay of game penalty, Glass got the Hawks on the board. Portland moved the puck around the perimeter well until McKenzie let go with a shot from the high slot that Glass got his stick on and redirected by Spokane goalie Dawson Weatherill for his third of the post-season.
Portland, who was put back on their heels by Spokane’s play in the first period in Game 6, returned the favor in Game 7 skating on home ice. They out shot the Chiefs 13-9 and without some high-quality saves from Weatherill this one could have been 2-0 or 3-0 after one.
Instead the Chiefs were within striking distance, despite playing sub-standard hockey for them and turning the puck over more than they had in awhile during this series.
Keeping the score close would be key for Spokane as Ty Smith used a Hudson Elynuik screen to beat Portland goalie Cole Kehler and tie the game at one with 8:29 left in the second. The goal was Smith’s second in as many games.
Kehler rebounded from a tough Game 6 to put in one of his best two games of the series. His sprawling save on Kailer Yamamoto while on his stomach was his best, but he had 29 others as he stopped 30 of 31.
The Winterhawks had controlled much of the game but found themselves tied with the Chiefs heading into the third. The Chiefs then came at the Winterhawks hard to start the third and controlled a lot of the possession. Jake McGrew had two different great looks at the net behind Kehler, but could not find it. Yamamoto also had a seemingly open net with a down and out Kehler but missed. McGrew’s line with Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Eli Zummack continued to create chances, but unlike previous games in the series, could not pick up the big goal.
Then a couple minutes before the mid-period break, Ryan Hughes, Alex Overhardt and Joachim Blichfeld put together one of their best puck-possession shifts of the series. The trio was really starting to click as the season grew old, but in the playoffs had not been able to make as much room for themselves.
Their puck-possession shift carried over for the next two lines and while they did not create a goal, the momentum had visibly swung back to Portland.
With 4:38 left in the third, Bellows netted his biggest goal in the WHL with a powerful one-timer off a great feed from Dennis Cholowski that Weatherill could not get enough of to stop.
Bellows has scored many key goals in his career, especially at the World Juniors. He adds this one to that list.
That goal would stand as the game-winner but Portland was not done yet.
Zach Fischer got a check into the numbers of Portland defenseman Keoni Texeira and was penalized for two minutes. Portland would make Spokane pay for the indiscretion as Bellows made a slick move around Tyson Helgesen and put a shot in on Weatherill that created a rebound.
McKenzie was there for that rebound, netting his second goal of the playoffs and Portland’s second power play goal on the night. It came with 2:23 left.
Spokane got a power play of their own with 2:13 left in the third and got a fresh face off in the Portland zone, down two with two minutes left.
In a puzzling move, they waited until there was under a minute left to pull Weatherill for the extra attacker and a 6-on-4 advantage. They would get some chances at Kehler, but Portland’s penalty killers kept them at bay and held on for the 3-1 win.
Weatherill stopped 39 of 42 for Spokane.
Portland went 2-for-2 on the power play, while Spokane was 0-for-2. In the seven games, Portland was 5-for-23, while Spokane went 6-for-26.
Notes:
-Overhardt was an incredible 15-of-20 at the face off dot, while Glass was 5-for-9, Jake Gricius was 2-for-3 and McKenzie was 5-for-7. Portland really tried to get Overhardt out there for as many draws as possible and it paid off.
-Bellows rebounded from his one-shot game in Spokane to drive eight on net and he did not even lead his team. Hughes had a game-high 10 shots with several coming on that one aforementioned shift. Glass had six shots while McKenzie and Blichfeld each had five.
-In Game 7s at this level you often need your overage players to be some of your best to win. That was the case for Portland as Overhardt and Texeira were two of Portland’s best two-way players and Kehler was solid between the pipes.
-The WHL careers are now over for Spokane’s Helgesen, Fischer and Elynuik and likely also for Yamamoto. The loss of that quartet along with a tough choice to be made among the four 19-year-olds that are likely to be back on Jeff Faith and Riley Woods up front and Nolan Reid and Dalton Hamaliuk on the back end will leave them with some holes to fill. They do have Anderson-Dolan, Smith, McGrew, Zummack, Toporowski and Weatherill coming back among many others and thus should be right in the thick of things in the U.S. Division yet again.
-Yamamoto lost his cool at the end of the game and needed to be restrained from going after Hughes. He is one competitive kid and that is a big reason he was able to make it into NHL games earlier this year. His actions at the end of Game 7 were a result of that competitive fire. He will very likely be right back in the NHL as a 20-year-old next year. He has been a joy to watch play over the last four seasons.
