Dayna Fjord
Insight, U.S. Division

Winterhawks get key 3-1 win over visiting Americans

Written by Brandon Rivers on

Dennis Cholowski finally got a goal as a Portland Winterhawk and his team went on to score twice more and beat the visiting Tri-City Americans 3-1 in front of 7.741 at Mode Center.

It was not for lack of trying as the former Prince George Cougars blue liner had fired 41 shots on net since coming to Portland, but had not once found the opponent’s net.

That all changed with Portland down by one in the second period. Cholowski used a screen by Lukus MacKenzie to beat Tri-City goalie Patrick Dea and finally score a goal for the team that traded so much for him at the deadline.

It’s not that the Detroit Red Wings signed prospect has not produced as he has 12 assists since coming over from P.G. in early January. He now has 14 goals in his first year in the WHL.

The 3-1 win was a key one for Portland as it increases their lead over Tri-City for second in the U.S. Division to eight points. Spokane, with their overtime win over Everett Friday actually is closer now, seven points back of the Winterhawks. The Chiefs have two games in hand on the Hawks.

With the Silvertips loss, Portland creeps closer to the division lead. They are now just two points back of Everett, with only one game remaining between the squads.

It was the Americans that opened the scoring Friday in the third game between the two teams in a week. The goal was a strange one as a pass from Keoni Texeira to Matthew Quigley behind the Portland net eluded Quigley and bounced out to Jordan Topping in the low slot. Topping smartly one-timed the ricochet on net and Portland goalie Shane Farkas and the Winterhawks netminder could not get his pads down in time. The goal was Topping’s 31st this year.

The first, which saw the two high-flying teams exchange 22 shots gave way to the second, which saw them combine for 30.  After Cholowski tied the game up 3:24 in, Portland took the lead just 1:09 later.

Scoring the game winner for the second game in-a-row was Portland’s second line. The line of Joachim Blichfeld, Alex Overhardt and Joachim Blichfeld has shown flashes of brilliance but have struggled to stay healthy as a unit.

This time it was a Hughes pass that set up the winning goal. He floated to the blue line and created some space for Blichfeld, whom he found in the high slot. Blichfeld then wired a shot over Dea’s left shoulder for his 18th on the year and the 2-1 lead.

Shane Farkas was again solid for the Hawks and he was at his best late in the second period, where he made many key saves. Farkas would go on to stop 32 of 33 for his fourth win in five starts and fourth straight game with a save percentage above 0.914.

Instead of Tri-City tying the game in the third period it was Portland getting the game’s fourth goal. The Americans were pressing and their d-men both pinched in as they looked to be creating a good scoring chance. Instead it was Cody Glass getting a piece of the puck and Henri Jokiharju finding a wide open Kieffer Bellows for a breakaway going the other way. Bellows beat Dea with a backhand for his 29th of the year and fifth in three games.

The end of the game would see tensions finally boiling over between players that had been competing hard against one another three times in the span of one week. Nolan Yaremko and Overhardt came together after the whistle and this led to a fight between Overhardt and Dylan Coghlan and 10-minute misconducts handed out to Maxwell James, Topping, Yaremko and Hughes.

The late-game antics set the table for another entertaining matchup between the two rivals on February 27th in Kennewick. The two teams play each other three more times.

Portland leads the season series 4-2-1 so far.

Portland continues their important weekend with a home-and-home series with the Seattle Thunderbirds. The first will go at 6:05pm in Kent on Saturday.

Tri-City hosts Spokane on Saturday after losing three straight, all within the division.