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Portland Winterhawks' power play difference-maker in 5-2 series-opening win over Cougars

Visitors from Prince George ready to push reset button for Game 2 Saturday in Portland

After a nightmarish beginning when everything seemed to go against the Prince George Cougars in their playoff opener Friday night in Portland, the Cougars settled down and proved the big bad Portland Winterhawks are mere mortals after all.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, that 3-0 hole they dug themselves in the first nine minutes of the game proved insurmountable and the Winterhawks left the rink at Veterans Memorial Coliseum with a 5-2 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series.

Goals from Aidan Litke, James Stefan and Cross Hanas chased Cougars’ starting goalie Ty Young from the game and that wakeup call for the rest of the Cougars seemed to do the trick. Tyler Brennan replaced the 17-year-old Young and was solid the rest of the game, allowing only one goal, a power-play marker from Gabe Klassen, on the 29 shots he faced. Jack O’Brien capped the scoring into an empty net.

Connor Bowie and Riley Heidt scored for Prince George.

Taylor Gauthier made 32 saves for the win against his former teammates to improve to 3-0 this season against the Cougars.

The Cats knew going in they’d be playing with fire if they took undisciplined and unnecessary penalties and the Winterhawks made that abundantly clear in the early stages. Litke got them started just 1:55 in, with Carter MacAdams off for roughing. The Portland winger was standing in front of the Cougar net when Gabe Klassen let the shot go and the deflected puck went high into the net.

Just past the six-minute mark, while Cougars winger Aiden Reeves was racing to get into the play after serving a tripping penalty, James Stefan took a backdoor pass in the face-off circle from Clay Hanus and deposited the puck into the top shelf behind Young. Technically it wasn’t a power-play goal but it came just two seconds after the penalty expired.

Then at the 8:43 mark, Cross Hanas got a shot away from deep in the Cougars’ zone and it went low under Young’s pad just inside the post for a 3-0 lead. Not exactly the start the Cougars were looking for in what was the franchise’s first playoff game in five years.    

Buoyed by Brennan’s confident relief efforts, Cougars played much better in the second half of the period and actually outshot the ‘Hawks 17-14 in the opening 20. They kept Portland in their own zone for most of a two-minute power play late in the period and Hudson Thornton rattled the crossbar just before the penalty expired. He and Koehn Ziemmer forced Gauthier out of his comfort zone and the 21-year-old goalie was forced to make two rapid kick saves in the final minute of the period.  

The Cougars continued to have the edge in play after the first intermission and through the first 14 minutes of the second period they’d held the Winterhawks to just 11 shots and no goals over a stretch that started right after Portland scored its third goal.

“Five-on-five we were real happy with our game and for our compete level, for our composure and our structure, that part was really good,” said Cougars associate coach Josh Dixon. “For a whole team full of players who had never played a playoff game, boy we got some good experience here tonight. If we continue to play that way five-on-five, I like our chances.”

The Prince George power play finally got to Gauthier, 5:51 into the second. Bowie, a Winterhawks draft pick in 2017, was there for the rebound of a Thornton shot and lifted it in over two sprawling bodies in front of the net. That made it a 4-2 game.

“Once we got through the first few minutes of taking those penalties we started to push back and they had to take a timeout on an icing (call), we really had them on the ropes and we were coming,” said Dixon. “Gauthier, give him credit, he made some big saves. We were pushing and really playing like we were not intimidated by them. We gave them the right amount of resect and there’s a lot we can take away from tonight’s game.”

The Cougars had a chance to make it a one-goal game 17 minutes into the second when Jonny Hooker took off on a shorthanded breakaway, but the Cougar captain nailed the goalpost with his shot. Not long after on the same Portland power play, Winterhawks centre O’Brien took the puck deep into the Cougars’ end and fed a long pass through the crease for Klassen, who shot on the fly for a 4-1 lead.

“I didn’t think the penalties we took were saving goals or saving scoring chances, they were penalties we need to avoid,” said Dixon. “We talked at length about the weapons they have on the power play and you give them opportunities, that’s exactly what they’re going to do. Three power-play goals, really that’s the hockey game.”

Heidt, the 16-year-old Cougars leading scorer in the regular season, continued to have success against the Winterhawks in his rookie season and he scored the Cougars’ second goal, following up on a give-and-go with linemates Ziemmer and MacAdams. Combined with his assist on Bowie’s goal, that gave Heidt six points in five games this season against Portland.

The game ended with the Winterhawks on a five-minute power play after Craig Armstrong got his stick up on a charging Kurtis Smythe and made contact with his head right after Armstrong laid a clean hit on Ryder Thompson against the boards. Armstrong will likely face a suspension over the hit.

The teams will meet again Saturday (6 p.m. start) in Portland. The Cougars will host Games 3 and 4 at CN Centre Tuesday and Wednesday.

LOOSE PUCKS: Cougars defenceman Viliam Kmec sat out Game 1 and his spot was taken by Jaren Brinson. The 17-year-old rookie from Airdrie, Alta., played well in his first game since April 1st in Kelowna... ‘Hawks defenceman Clay Hanus left the game with an apparent injury seven minutes into the third period and did not return. Hanus was Portland’s top defenceman in the regular season… Josh Albinati, a native of Prince George, shared the refereeing duties Friday in Portland with Bryan Pancich… The Cougars had absolutely no WHL playoff seasoning going into Friday’s game, while Portland had a cumulative total of 25 games shared by five Winterhawks - forwards Jaydon Dureau, Robbie Fromm-Delorme, Tyson Kozak and Cross Hanas, as well as defenceman Clay Hanus. Portland last completed a playoff series in 2019 when the Hawks lost a five-game set to Spokane.

WHL playoffs

Western Conference quarterfinal

Prince George Cougars vs. Portland Winterhawks

(Winterhawks lead best-of-seven series 1-0)

Friday summary

Cougars 2 at Winterhawks 4

First Period

1. Portland, Litke 1 (Klassen, Nguyen) 1:55 (pp)

2. Portland, Stefan 1 (Hanas, Dureau) 6:02

3. Portland, Hanas (Hanus, Schelter) 8:43

Penalties – MacAdams PG (roughing) 1:01, Reeves PG (tripping) 4:00, Hanus Por (Hooking) 14:01

Second Period

4. Prince George, Bowie 1 (Thornton, Heidt) 5:51 (pp)

5. Portland, Klassen 1 (O’Brien, Cagnoni) 17:35 (pp)

Penalties – Kozak Por (tripping) 1:26, Litke Por (holding) 4:18, Ziemmer PG (tripping) 12:16, Singer PG (interference) 15:49.

Third Period

6. Prince George, Heidt 1 (Ziemmer, MacAdams) 4:44

7. Portland, O’Brien 1, 18:19 (en)

Penalties – Smythe Por (delay of game) 6:50, Armstrong PG (check to the head major, game misconduct), Dumanski PG (roughing), Thompson Por (roughing), Smythe Por (charging) 19:55.

Shots on goal by

Prince George    17           7             10           -34

Portland               14           12           12           -38

Goal – Prince George, Young (L,0-1, eight shots-five saves) and, at 8:43 of first, Brennan (29-28); Portland: Gauthier (W,1-0)

Power plays – PG:  1-3; Por: 2-4.

Attendance – 3,813.

Referees – Josh Albinati, Bryan Pancich; Linesmen: Brett Mackey, Toby Wolfe.