EVERETT — The Portland Winterhawks have perhaps the most-lethal quick-strike offense in the WHL.
Friday night they needed less than five minutes to show the Everett Silvertips just how deadly that offense can be.
Portland scored four goals in less than five minutes to start the second period, completely turning the game around, and the Winterhawks went on to defeat the Silvertips 6-3 at Comcast Arena.
Everett used inspired play to take a deserving 2-1 lead into the second period. But in the blink of an eye both the lead and the game were gone as Portland’s wealth of top-end skill proved too much for the Tips to handle.
“We let them use their skill, and they have too much of it to give them that much time and space,” Everett coach Craig Hartsburg lamented. “That’s the bottom line.”
Nino Niederreiter, Ty Rattie, Ryan Johansen and Craig Cunningham scored the goals during Portland’s four-goal blitz. There was barely enough time for the goals to be announced over the public address system before the Winterhawks were celebrating again.
“Probably the key part of it was later in the first period we started to play a little bit better managing the puck,” Portland coach Mike Johnston said. “We’re better when we’re moving the puck and playing a passing and skating game. Sometimes you get on a roll like that, and I thought we made a few really good plays to score those goals. We were sharp around the net and went to the net hard.”
Johansen scored a second goal and Sven Bartschi also scored for Portland (46-18-0-3), which maintained a one-point lead over Spokane atop the Western Conference standings. Keith Hamilton stopped 30 shots in goal for the Winterhawks.
Tyler Maxwell, Tyler Giebel and Cody Fowlie scored for Everett (27-29-7-4), which dropped its sixth straight. Luke Siemens, who wasn’t at his sharpest in goal for the Tips, also finished with 30 saves.
The Tips remained in seventh place in the conference standings, but saw their lead over eighth-place Prince George shrink to one point. Everett remained three points clear of dropping out of playoff position.
Everett and Portland face off again tonight at Comcast Arena. The game is the Tips’ final home contest of the season.
Everett played a strong first period and was well worth the 2-1 lead it took into the intermission. However, the Winterhawks scored late in the first period on the power play to cut the deficit to one, and that proved a harbinger as Portland erupted at the start of the second.
The teams began the second period skating four-on-four, and the Winterhawks took full advantage of the extra open ice by scoring twice in the first 41 seconds, turning the game upside down. First, 23 seconds in, Niederreiter had an uncontested wraparound that slipped under Siemens to tie it. Then 18 seconds later Rattie turned in a feed from Taylor Aronson opened up by a faked shot from the point, giving the Winterhawks the lead.
And that was only the beginning. Portland quickly got another power play and converted at 3:47, Johansen putting in a rebound. Then Bartschi got around Tips defenseman Brennan Yadlowski on the rush and fed to the far post for Cunningham to tuck away, and just like that it was 5-2.
“I thought we played a really good first period,” Hartsburg said. “We played competitive, we were smart, we tried to execute the things we needed to do to against that team. I thought the second period right away we made some poor decisions checking-wise, and they make you pay for that.”
Everett called a timeout and stemmed the tide when Fowlie picked a defenders pocket and scored while short-handed at 8:41. But Portland restored its three-goal advantage 2:07 later, Johansen potting his second rebound after Siemens coughed up a shot off the rush.
Everett came out inspired and had a 2-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game. Maxwell opened the scoring at 3:51, sniping the corner from the left circle following some mayhem caused off the rush. Then Giebel scored at 6:18, dragging the puck past Hamilton after Hamilton had spilled Chad Suer’s screened point shot. At that point the Tips had outshot the Winterhawks 7-0.
However, Portland got a late power play and used its skill to cut the deficit to one at 18:25. Rattie played Bartschi into the zone, and Bartschi used a dazzling display of quick hands to freeze the defense and fire a wrister into the top corner.
Slap shots
Everett continued to be without No. 1 goaltender Kent Simpson, who has been out since suffering a sprained ankle last Friday at Tri-City. Sixteen-year-old call-up Andy Desautels continues to serve as the back-up. …. The Winterhawks were also without their top netminders as Mac Carruth is out with a leg injury. Ross Baadsvik was used as the emergency back-up. … Portland welcomed two key forwards back from injury as Rattie (shoulder) and Riley Boychuk (concussion) both returned following short absences.
Winterhawks 6, Silvertips 3
Portland 1 5 0 — 6
Everett 2 1 0 — 3
First Period–1, Everett, Maxwell 41 (Ferraro, Murray), 3:51. 2, Everett, Giebel 4 (Winquist, Suer), 6:18. 3, Portland, Bartschi 31 (Rattie, Aronson), 18:25 (pp). Penalties–Friesen, Everett (tripping), 8:12; Rutkowski, Portland (tripping), 13:05; Ferraro, Everett (holding), 17:53; Ross, Portland (roughing), 19:53; Rissanen, Everett (roughing), 19:53.
Second Period–4, Portland, Niederreiter 37 (Johansen), 0:23. 5, Portland, Rattie 28 (Aronson, Wrenn), 0:41. 6, Portland, Johansen 36 (Ross, Rutkowski), 3:47 (pp). 7, Portland, Cunningham 27 (Bartschi, Rattie), 4:43. 8, Everett, Fowlie 7, 8:41 (sh). 9, Portland, Johansen 37 (Niederreiter, Rattie), 10:48. Penalties–Birkholz, Everett (hooking), 3:32; Rutkowski, Portland (interference), 6:01; Ferraro, Everett (high sticking), 6:41; Morrow, Portland (fighting), 13:35; MacDonald, Everett (fighting), 13:35; Aronson, Portland (high sticking), 14:53; Wrenn, Portland (roughing), 14:53; Harrison, Everett (roughing), 14:53.
Third Period–no goals. Penalties–Wrenn, Portland (roughing), 11:43; Bartschi, Portland (hooking), 14:22; Niederreiter, Portland (interference), 16:45; Ross, Portland (10-minute misconduct), 16:45; Aronson, Portland (fighting), 17:44; Maxwell, Everett (fighting), 17:44; Swenson, Portland (interference), 19:43.
Shots on goal–Portland 12-16-8–36. Everett 16-11-6–33. Power-play opportunities–Portland 2 of 4. Everett 0 of 7.
Goalies–Portland, Hamilton 14-5-0-2 (33 shots, 30 saves). Everett, Siemens 6-9-2-0 (36 shots, 30 saves).
A–6,427.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at NickHPatterson.
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