PORTLAND — On a night when it started to look like goals might not come, a rare fight helped ignite the Portland Winterhawks offense on Thursday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Keegan Iverson took exception to a hit on Nic Petan, delivered several choice punches to Everett’s Dawson Leedahl midway through the second period of a scoreless Game 3. Two goals 21 seconds apart near the end of that period then sent his Winterhawks on their way to a 5-3 win that gives Portland a 2-1 win in their best-of-7 Western Hockey League playoff series.
Game 4 is at 7 p.m. Friday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Game 5 is at 4:05 p.m. on Sunday in Everett.
“Anytime a guy steps up for another one of their teammates it boosts everyone,” Portland’s Chase De Leo said. “There’s a lot of energy, especially on home ice. The fans loved that. Anytime you get the fans involved it helps tremendously.”
Another rare event — a goal from defenseman Anton Cederholm — opened the floodgates as Portland put five pucks into the Everett net in a span of 16 and a half minutes. The outcome looked settled when Dominic Turgeon scored to make it 5-0 with 5:33 left in the game. But Everett — which had not beaten Hawks goalie Adin Hill in almost five full periods — scored three times in less than two minutes to pull within two goals with 2:09 left to play.
“It doesn’t matter what the score is. You’ve got to play the right way. And you’ve got to play the full 60 minutes of the game because that (finish) is unacceptable,” Winterhawks coach Jamie Kompon said.
Until that flurry, which started when Hill led a wrister from defensemen Kevin Davis get past him, the Winterhawks had the Silvertips frustrated. Everett hadn’t scored since the closing seconds of the second period of Game 2, and had only 14 shots on goal before their late flurry in Game 3.
“Make smart plays in the defensive zone the neutral zone and the offensive zone,” said Oliver Bjorkstrand, explaining the formula for locking down Everett’s attack. “We’re trying not to give them too many rushes and try to keep them to the outside.”
The Silvertips kept Bjorkstrand under control until his overtime winner in Game 2. On Thursday he scored twice early in the third period to put Portland into what looked like a comfortable lead.
Cederholm’s first point of these playoffs was the breakthrough on a night when Everett goalie Carter Hart was on his game.
Cederholm skated into open space, tapped his stick on the ice to alert Miles Koules, whose cross-ice pas found Cederholm a back-door finish 17:52 into the second period.
“Anton’s not known as the most offensive guy, but anytime a guy like that scores it’s huge,” De Leo said.
The situation was doubly good for the Winterhawks 21 seconds later. Everett’s Nikita Scherbak was cited for tripping and Nic Petan cashed in 7 seconds into the power play to make it 2-0.
Bjorkstrand scored two goals in a 1:47 span early in the third period.
But it was Iverson’s fight and Everett’s late fight-back that were focal points of the Winterhawks.
“It’s part of the game,” Kompon said of the fight. “But it energized our team. Those are the kind of penalties we’ll (gladly) kill off, and we did a great job.”
The coach said he was thrilled with the performances up and down the lineup – until the final few minutes.
“Whether the score is 2-1, 5-0 or 10-0 you’ve got to play the right way, otherwise you’re in trouble,” Kompon said
The Winterhawks are up 2-1 in the series. But if Thursday proved anything, it’s that momentum can swing quickly. On Thursday, it rolled with a few Iverson punches.
