PORTLAND — Minus one of their top offensive weapons, the Portland Winterhawks showed off their attacking depth in the first game of the Western Hockey League championship series.
With veteran Brendan Leipsic serving a one-game suspension, Paul Bittner scored twice in a playoff game for the first time in his Western Hockey League career and the Winterhawks beat the Edmonton Oil Kings 5-2 on Saturday at the Moda Center.
Nic Petan had three assists and Derrick Pouliot two helpers, and Winterhawks goalie Corbin Boes made 31 saves in the first chapter of the best-of-7 series.
Game 2 is at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Moda Center.
“It was fun,” the 17-year-old Bittner said of his two-goal night. “It was obviously a little bit of a confidence booster. But it was two good plays from my teammates that made it happen.”
The most significant goal of the night was scored by defenseman Matt Dumba with Portland on a four-on-three power play late in the second period. Dumba ripped a shot from the left circle past Edmonton goalie Tristan Jarry to put Portland up two goals 37 seconds from the second intermission.
“We just worked the play that we wanted,” Dumba said.
Portland coach Mike Johnston called that goal a significant momentum shifter after Portland failed to convert from a wild goal-mouth scramble that led to the power-play that Dumba converted. In one sequence, multiple Winterhawks appeared ready to put the puck in the net but it didn’t happen.
“I couldn’t believe we didn’t score four times” during the scramble, said Portland captain Taylor Leier, who saw his chance go over the net in that bit of chaos.
Bittner scored his second of the game early in the third period, beating Jarry from the top of the left circle off a Petan drop pass to make it 5-2 for Portland.
Portland took three undisciplined penalties in the first period, but led 3-0 after scoring twice late in the first frame. Within 57 seconds of each other, Bittner popped home a drop pass from Pouliot and Chase De Leo beat Jarry from the right of the goal to put the Hawks on top by three 19:04 into the game.
After killing off a penalty on Oliver Bjorkstrand 11 seconds into the game, Keegan Iverson pounced on a rebound for the first goal of the game 2:50 into the contest.
Edmonton got back in it quickly as Brett Pollock turned a Portland turnover into an unassisted goal 20 seconds into the second period and Henrik Samuelson put home a rebound chance two minutes later. Replays showed that the second Edmonton goal came after the puck cleared the blueline, and the play should have been whistled dead, which didn’t please the sellout crowd of 10,947.
“We had to really regroup and get the momentum back” after the Edmonton goals, Leier said. “We had a couple of shifts there where we had the puck the whole time, then we had that scramble shift.”
Johnston said the mood on the Portland bench never wavered after the two quick Edmonton goals.
“We talk about it a lot in the playoffs, handling momentum, both capturing it when you have a little bit of an edge, the crowd behind you and you have some push, and also breaking momentum,” Johnston said. “We’d made a couple mistakes, but we’ve been through this a lot in the playoffs. Our guys have a lot of playoff games behind them, and they know what to do. There’s a certain way you have to play in those situations.”
With Leipsic suspended for Game 1 because of a major penalty at the end of the Hawks clinching win over Kelowna in the conference finals, Leier joined Petan and Bittner on Portland’s top line. Adam de Champlain took Leier’s spot alongside De Leo and Bjorkstrand on the second line, while the third line of Iverson, Turgeon and Schoenborn stayed together. Leipsic will return for Game 2.
Portland was 1 for 5 on the power play, Edmonton 0 for 4. Edmonton pulled Jarry for an extra attacker with more than three minutes left, but the Oil Kings couldn’t beat Boes who improved to 5-0 in the playoffs.
NOTES — Game 2 on Sunday is the only game of the series that can be seen live on Root Sports. All other games will be tape delayed.
This is only the second time in WHL history that the same two teams are meeting in the league finals for a third consecutive season. The original Oil Kings, who moved to Portland from Edmonton in 1977, met the Flin Flon Bombers. That was during a run of four straight finals appearances for Flin Flon. The New Westminster Bruins won four consecutive titles in the 1970s. Portland is the third WHL team to play in the championship series for a fourth consecutive season.
The Winterhawks are in the league final for the 11th time in their 37 seasons in Portland. They are chasing their fourth WHL title.
