Brian Liesse

Winterhawks finish off three-game weekend strong with a 7-4 win in Seattle

Wth both the Seattle Thunderbirds and Portland Winterhawks finishing off three-games in three-nights and four in six games, which team would have the bigger jump in their steps in a Sunday evening tilt in Kent?

Portland, though the road team in this one, had to be feeling confident playing at the ShoWare Center. They would be the team that would take off the fastest out of the gate.

Their record vs Seattle in the four games previous there this year at ShoWare was 3-0-0-1, with them outscoring the T-birds 20-12. They would make that 4-0-0-1 and 27-16 by the end of the night as they raced out in front of Seattle 5-1 then had to hold off a furious rally by the T-birds to take this one 7-4.

Kieffer Bellows notched his first WHL hat trick after having many close calls, to lead the way. Cody Glass had a goal and three assists for four points and Henri Jokiharju chipped in three assists.

Kieffer Bellows (Dayna Fjord)

Portland opened the scoring just 63 seconds in on a slick passing play from its top line. McKenzie chipped a nice pass across the zone as he entered and Glass quickly slid a pass to a charging Bellows for the 1-0 lead.

Glass is finding his stride lat this year as his four point night extends his point-streak to seven games. He has 15 points in those seven games.

Jake Gricius made the score 2-0 as he drove the net and finished off a play set up by Lane Gilliss, The latter notched his third point in two games after going six games without a point.

Seattle was finally able to get the puck out of their own zone, but that backfired as well. Henri Jokiharju found Glass in behind the defense and Glass skated in alone before beating Luding on the glove side.

Jokiharju has been picking apart defenses recently with long outlet passes as they go to change lines. He has eight points in his last three games.

Portland had a 3-0 lead and were out shooting Seattle 8-1.

Seattle would slowly find their legs and found the net in behind Portland goalie Shane Farkas 15:42 into the first. The goal ended a goalless streak for Farkas that made its way to 149:14.

Mike MacLean would give Seattle their first sign of life as he redirected a shot by Reece Harsch in. This was MacLean’s second goal in the WHL and first since January 17th.

Farkas did end up stopping 32 of 36, notching his fifth straight win. His recent play has been forcing many to question whether he or Cole Kehler will get the net when the playoffs begin.

Seattle did seem a little more game in the second, but penalty trouble would derail the start of their comeback. That would be enough for Portland to add some insurance that they would end up needing.

Bellows got his second goal on a five-on-three power play after Jake Lee and Donovan Neuls committed penalties in the early stages of the second.

Bellows took a feed from Glass in front and after his first shot was stopped, he quickly batted home the rebound.

Bellows finally found his way to a hat trick a few minutes later. He redirected a shot from Jokiharju by Seattle goalie Dorrin Luding for his 38th this year. Bellows had hit the two-goal mark 11 times this year, but had yet to hit three until tonight.

The Thunderbirds cut into the Portland lead just under three minutes later, on the power play. Nolan Volcan redirected a blast by Donovan Neuls by Farkas to make the score 5-2.

Despite that goal, Portland started to rest their top line of Glass, Skyler McKenzie and Glass, in hopes that they would not be needed.

But as any team that has taken a lead on Seattle this year, they are not easy to put away.

Volcan scored from the high slot with 9:48 left in regulation to get within two. Volcan’s two goals give him 29 on the season.

Zack Andrusiak then put some fear in Portland’s heart as he tracked down a point shot from Austin Strand that had bounced off Brendan De Jong’s skate and deftly flicked it by Farkas.

Andrusiak now has 30 goals this year and had quite the week. In Seattle’s four games, he had six goals and three assists for nine points. He should get some strong consideration for WHL player of the week. Of course, so will Bellows who had the exact same amount in the same amount of games, or Glass, who had 10 in four games.

Andrusiak is having a career year (Brian Liesse)

Seattle then aggressively pulled Luding for an extra attacker and it twice backfired. First, Ryan Hughes netted his 16th this year from his own end and then De Jong added his fourth of the season as Luding, who had left for the bench. scrambled to get back.

Luding stopped 31 of 37 in the loss for Seattle.

Portland continues to be eight points back of Everett for the division lead and is running out of time to catch them, with only six games remaining for both of them. The Winterhawks do have the second best record in the Western Conference as it stands now and could have home-ice advantage in the West final, should they make it there.

The Hawks are four points up on Spokane for second in the division, with the Chiefs now having a game in hand.

Seattle took three of a possible six points this weekend and is seven points ahead of Kamloops for the final wild card spot, with two games in hand.

They are just three points behind Tri-City for the first wild card spot, setting up an important game Tuesday in Kent vs the Americans.

The Winterhawks head up to Prince George now for a two-game set with the last place team in the Western Conference. The Cougars were recently eliminated from the playoffs, but have been still giving teams with better records a hard time as of late. They beat Kelowna twice this week and took one of two over Victoria.