— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) February 18, 2017Despite being a really young team, Portland can play with anyone when they are on their game. That was certainly the case during Friday night's first period against the visiting Red Deer Rebels. Portland out shot Red Deer 17-8 and got just one goal. The play was not even that close and the Rebels have their goalie Lasse Petersen to thank for the game not getting out of hand early. That one goal would end up being the difference as the teams traded goals over the last two periods and Portland held on for a 4-3 win.
Joachim Blichfeld got things going just 59 seconds in as he took advantage of a turnover and skated out of the corner before firing a shot across the body and beating Petersen. The goal extended Blichfeld's goal streak to four games. He has six goals in that span.
Blichfeld hleped put the Hawks up 2-0 as he intercepted a Jared Freadrich pass in the Rebels' zone and fired a pass that was tipped in by Ryan Hughes. Blichfeld paid the price as he took a high stick as he made the pass. 1:33 later, the Rebels cut the lead to one with a power play goal. Colton Bobyk fired a point shot off the post and Adam Musil was "Johnny on the spot" for the rebound sliding it past Cole Kehler. Keegan Iverson put Portland up two once more as he made a great play in his own zone, tipping the puck off the boards and to himself as he flew out of the zone. Overson then fired a shot past Petersen and Portland was up 3-1. 39 seconds later the Rebels took advantage of a fortunate bounce to make it 3-2. Carson Sass's shot bounced around and came out to Michael Spacek in tight on the net. Spacek deftly flicked the puck in without much room to do so. In the back-and-forth second, Portland got the next goal off the stick of rookie Jake Gricius. On the rush, Gricius utilized a Lane Gilliss screen and wired a shot in past Petersen for the 4-2 lead.
Portland and Red Deer kept the flow going but nobody could find twine until there was just 5:48 left in the game. On the power play Freadrich got away a quick shot from the point that was deflected in off a Winterhawk defender. Portland's defense helped their goalie out the rest of the way by reading passing lanes and keeping many great scoring chances from getting in on Kehler. They held on for their 32nd win of the season.
Kehler got the win as he stopped 30 of 33. Meanwhile Petersen took the "L" as he turned away 40 of 44.
Red Deer went 2/6 on the power play while Portland went 0/5.
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