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| Mac Carruth |
Portland jumped out the lead for the fourth straight time when 10:53 into the game, Chase De Leo peeled the puck off of the end boards and walked in on Spokane goalie Eric Williams, picking the corner on him for his 4th of the playoffs.Then a couple minutes later Portland defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon was called for roughing and th the Chiefs went on a rare power play. It would be Portland that would get the important goal, once again, however, when Reid Gow failed to hold a Seth Jones clearing in at the line and then fell down trying to recover. Taylor Peters picked up the puck and skated in going forehand-backhand and beating Eric Williams for his first of the playoffs.
In the second period Portland started with a 5 on 3 power play after Tyler King was called for roughing and the Chiefs were caught with too many men on the ice. Portland would take most of whatever life the 4,012 in attendance still had when Ty Rattie buried a terrific backhand feed from Brendan Leipsic past a sprawling Williams. This period was more of a back and forth affair as the teams traded good scoring chances. Portand(15) and Spokane(10) combined for 25 shots in the period.
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| Taylor Peters |
The third was more of tight checking affair as Portland played tough defense and kept the Chiefs from ever amounting a serious comeback. It would be Portland, not the increasingly desperate Chiefs, who got 2 goals in the period, both on juicy rebounds. The first came when Taylor Peters led a 2 on 1 rush and snapped a shot on Williams. The rebound came right to a waiting Joey Baker who buried his second of the playoffs. The last goal of the evening when Oliver Bjorkstrand fired a shot that Williams scrambled to make a fine save on. The rebound came right to Taylor Leier, who put it into the empty net for his 5th of the playoffs.
Eric Williams stopped 30 of the 35 shots he faced. Carruth stopped all 30 shots he faced. He extended both his team record for playoff shutouts(5) and his WHL record for playoff wins(41). Spokane was 0/1 on the power play and the Hawks were 1/4. Spokane finished the series 1/9 in the series and Portland finished 3/19.
3 Stars:
#3- Seth Jones- 1 assist in this one and was a +2. Tyler Wotherspoon and him were an impenetrable force for most the series, not allowing any direct shots at Carruth and clearing out any potential rebounds. They were fantastic despite a relentless fore-check from the Chiefs.
#2- Taylor Peters- 1 goal and 1 assist and played much better this series then vs. Everett. He played a much better defensive game and was un-stoppable at the faceoff dot. Spokane had only 2 true centers(Dylan Walchuk and Mike Aviani) and Portland exposed this by winning a majority of the draws.
#1- Mac Caruth- 30 saves for the shutout. He allowed only 3 goals in the entire series vs. the Chiefs. He is playing at the top of his game going into the Western Final and should be raring to go next Friday.
Random Notes:
-In the 10th playoff series vs. the Chiefs, the Hawks win makes them 7-3 overall.
-The Hawks outscored them 18-3 overall.
-Rattie's 41st playoff goal of his career makes him tied for 2nd in WHL history with Reg Leach. Leach played for Flin Flon from 1967-70. He trails Mark Pederson(47) by 6 for the record.
-Spokane scratched regular season leading scorer Todd Fiddler and 18 year old Jackson Playfair and put in two 16 year olds instead(Jacob Cardiff and Markson Bechtold).
-Cardiff and Bechtold had played a combined 11 games the entire season.
-Kamloops finished off Kelowna in a 4 game sweep with a 4-3 overtime win. Kale Kessy scored the winner.
-Kale Kessy, Brendan Ranford and J.C. Lipon are playing otherworldly right now and were in on all 4 goals in Game 4.
-Edmonton came back from a 2-1 deficit mid-way through the 3rd to finish off the Medicine Hat Tigers in four: 4-2.
-3 of the 4 Semi-finals ended in sweeps. The only series still alive is Red Deer vs. Calgary. Calgary leads 3-1.
-Portland's second straight Western Final vs. Kamloops starts Friday April 19th at the Coliseum.
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