Underneath two minutes to play with a one aim lead in a Recreation 7 and naturally the Portland Winterhawks have been anticipating the additional attacker from the Prince George Cougars.
What the Winterhawks weren’t anticipating was their goalie to lose his stick behind the web.
Portland goalie Ondrej Štěbeták withstood the assault sans stick entrance of the web as his Winterhawks teammates did their half to maintain the Cougars from scoring the game-tying aim and the tip consequence was a 4-2 Western Hockey League playoff series-clinching win at Prince George, B.C., on Monday evening.
Josh Zakreski scored what proved to be the game-winner for Portland on a breakaway midway by means of the third interval and Diego Buttazzoni added an empty-net aim to win the first-round collection.
It’s the second 12 months in a row the Winterhawks eradicated the Cougars within the playoffs, having received the Western Convention remaining final 12 months in six video games.
Prince George opened the scoring 6:24 into the sport on a aim by Washington Capitals first-round draft choose Terik Parascak.
Alex Weiermair tied the sport for Portland about six minutes later along with his sixth aim of the playoffs and assists from Ryan Miller and Kyle Chyzowski.
Chyzowski would give Portland a 2-1 lead within the second interval with a aim assisted by Weiermair and Tyson Jugnauth.
Prince George, which outshot Portland 35-23, discovered the equalizer 5:14 into the third interval as Lee Shurgot scored off assists by Parascak and Viliam Kmec.
It was 5 minutes later when Štěbeták made a save and Jugnauth, the Seattle Kraken prospect, handed the puck forward to Zakreski who then buried the puck within the internet from high of the left circle for a 3-2 lead with 10 minutes to play in regulation.
As time ticked down underneath two minutes, the Cougars have been capable of pull their goalie for the additional attacker. Štěbeták dropped his stick and needed to play in entrance of the web with simply his pads and glove. Ryder Thompson made a block of a Prince George shot in conjunction with the web and ultimately Buttazzoni was capable of get the puck out of the zone and get an empty-net aim.
Štěbeták completed with 33 saves on 35 photographs.
Up subsequent
Portland received’t know its subsequent playoff opponent till the Seattle-Everett collection concludes. Everett had a 3-2 lead going into Monday’s Recreation 6 at Seattle. Portland will play Everett if the Silvertips win their collection. If Seattle wins, Portland would play the Spokane Chiefs.
