Overtime Heartbreak – Portland Winterhawks Drop Two Thrillers As Everett Tips Take Series Lead

As anticipated and as mentioned in the last column, the Portland Winterhawks are good, but not that good. The case could be made if only one lucky bounce or maybe a tad more experience, and we might be looking at an even series or the Hawks up by two. In each game, it took overtime to decide; in both cases, the Tips found their way to the scoresheet first.  

In the first game, Tyson Jugnauth made a screened five-hole shot to put the Hawks up by one, which stayed through the period. Everett got that one back on the powerplay, with Austin Roest shoving it past Ondrej Stebatek. Everett took the lead on another in front of traffic, and the Tips led two to one through a pair of periods.  

Carter Southern replied for the Hawks just as an Everett penalty expired with just over five to go in regulation. Overtime hit and the Tips were able to spring a 3 on 2 with the final pass to Jesse Heslop, who circled his shot around the pad of Stebatek and the win heading the series 1-0 after winning 3-2 in overtime. Everett led in shots 43-32; powerplays went Everett’s way 1-4, while the Hawks blanked twice. 

The following night, the two squads met up again. Landon DuPont, the much-heralded exceptional player this season, scored his first of the playoffs and held that through the period. Portland wouldn’t be denied, as a pair of goals, one by Hudson Darby and the other by Josh Zakreski, gave the Hawks their only lead of the game and the period. 

In the third period, Everett tied and then took the lead, with the last one on the powerplay. Just like the night before, the Hawks found a way to tie courtesy of Kyle Chykowski. 

The Tips won with a throwout pass from behind the net to be redirected in by Julius Miettmen and the final 4-3 in overtime, and the Hawks look to rebound at home this week. Shots favored the Tips 49-38 and went 1-2 on the powerplay, again shutting the door on the Hawks’ 2 2-man advantage opportunities. 

Out East, Medicine Hat continues its Eastern Division dominance with 6-4 and 4-2 wins respectively. The Calgary Hitmen are in danger of being swept by Lethbridge as the Canes have 4-0 and 2-1 wins over the Hitmen while in Calgary. The series shifting to Gas City this week is what some, including me, had thought. Even though Calgary is a strong team, those trade deadline deals by the Canes give them some power. 

Medicine Hat went up 2-0 following a gritty 5-4 win in overtime after a 6-4 win the night before. The overtime game was made possible with three Raider goals to 1 to the Tigers in the 3rd period, which was a shorthanded tally. The Raiders had two of their three in the 3rd period as powerplay goals. However, a boarding penalty to the Raiders resulted in the powerplay for the Tigers and a goal just eight seconds after it was called. The series heads to Prince Albert for the next two.  

With an event in Spokane this weekend, game one couldn’t be played until Sunday and then Monday, with three straight games in Victoria before games six and seven could be done in Spokane, Victoria took the lead with 35 seconds left in the first by Cole Reschny and added to it with his second of the game just over five minutes into the second, Nine minutes later, Spokane finally got on the board in a relatively penalty free game.  

Action would pick up in the third with the Chiefs snagging an early goal to tie the game up, only to see Victoria retake the lead less than a minute later. Spokane started to see the ice tilt as they scored four minutes later, after Victoria called a timeout to settle things down. Spokane then poured on the pressure with many opportunities to go ahead. After 60 minutes, it was still tied as the Chiefs showed offensive power with 37-24. Strange how Victoria shot 8 times in each of the three regulation periods.  

To overtime the two teams headed. Victoria took a tripping penalty at 2:25 and Spokane pressed, but weren’t able to get the puck past Jonny Hicks in the Victoria net. Both squads were unable to squeeze out a marker in overtime. Spokane continued the shot total, leading 10-6.

The second overtime saw a powerplay due a trip right at the blueline and with the tired bodies, you knew a goal was imminent. Rasmus Eckstrom was the Chiefs hero a minute later as he finished off with a sniper through a bit of traffic in front of Hicks to secure the win.

Both games on Sunday require extra time as the matches get tighter as we go on. 

To the Ontario Hockey League with Brantford Bulldogs up 2-0 on Oshawa Generals following 5-2 and 8-5 wins. The Barrie Colts are up 2-0 after 6-2 and 7-4 wins over Kingston Frontenacs. The London Knights are up 2-0 in their series with the Erie Otters after posting 6-3 and 7-2 wins. After back-to-back 5-1 wins, the Windsor Spitfires lead their series 2-0.  In those series, only the 5th seed Erie Otters took out the fourth seed Saginaw Spirit, but the others have been dominant in the regular season and now the playoffs. 

The QMJHL saw most of its teams sweep series, except two: Halifax Mooseheads over Drummondville Voltigeurs in 7, and it took six games for the Cape Breton Eagles to drop to Baie-Comeau Drakkar. Unlike the OHL and WHL, the seeds are top teams, making playoffs, so nine teams from the Western Conference and 7 from the Eastern Association played. In addition, the standings saw some teams very weak in the regular season, like Halifax, which was 19-35- 8-2, play in the playoffs. They are still in the hunt, though down 2-0 in the series. 

So far, the Moncton Wildcats have 7-0 and 4-1 wins, Rimouski Oceanic has 5-2 and 3-2 OT wins over Chicoutimi Sageneens, Rouyn-Noranda Huskies have 4-1 and 5-0 wins over Halifax Mooseheads, and Shawinigan Cateractes have 5-2 and 5-4 wins in their series. Rimouski will host the cup, so if they participate in the Presidents Cup final, their opponents will also be in the cup as the QMJHL representative. 

With building difficulties, games will stagger throughout this week except Thursday, which seems to be the only non-hockey day.

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Author: Hey PDX

Hey PDX Team