Portland evens series with Seattle after 3-0 shutout

Seattle was looking to take a commanding two-game lead in its best-of-seven opening-round tilt with the Portland Winterhawks but came up short, getting shut out 3-0 at the Moda Center.

BY ANDY EIDE

Mar 30, 2015, 12:26 AM Updated: 9:18 am

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PORTLAND, Ore. – If ever you’ve found yourself wondering what playoff hockey looks like, all you had to do was watch Game 2 between Seattle and Portland Sunday night.

Seattle was looking to take a commanding two-game lead in its best-of-seven, opening-round tilt with the Portland Winterhawks but came up short, getting shut out 3-0 at the Moda Center. The Winterhawks got a goal in the first period from Nic Petan, 21 saves from Adin Hill and two late empty net-scores to even the series at a game apiece.

It was a low scoring, hard-checking game and room on the ice was often paid for at a premium.

“That’s playoff hockey,” Seattle head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “That’s what you’ll get from both teams, I think, the rest of the way. Both teams want to play that way. We’ve got to stick with it, correct a few things and try to rebound here.”

Sunday night it was Portland that rebounded from Saturday night’s loss in Game 1. The Winterhawks got on the board first when Miles Koules tried to skate out from behind the Seattle net. Scott Eansor disrupted his shot but the puck was left in the slot, where Petan swooped in to fire it past Seattle goalie Taran Kozun.

Portland had the early lead and it made it stick as the T-Birds were unable to solve Hill.

Seattle had its chances. The T-Birds pressed for stretches of the game and had many near misses. Hill would either make the save or they just couldn’t find the loose puck or rebound they needed. Konowlachuk liked the effort his team gave him but thought Seattle could have executed better.

“I thought we passed up on some shots at times,” Konowalchuk said. “We didn’t create chances off of shots from the outside, that might have helped. Give them credit, they rebounded the way they needed to and played a solid game. I thought there were a couple of opportunities we could have turned some momentum there and get a goal. We’ve got to rebound next game.”

There was the chance late in the first period when Cory Millette and Kaden Elder broke into the Portland zone on a two-on-one but couldn’t convert. There was another chance in the second period where Hill was out and Shea Theodore – who was deep behind the Portland goal – threw the puck out in front, only to have it find a Portland stick rather than one of his mates.

In the second period the T-Birds had a big power-play opportunity and again created a couple of chances but Hill would make the saves. In what was a pretty disciplined game by both clubs, Seattle was 0 for 2 with the man advantage.

“It was a pretty fast-paced game and just missing on a couple things there,” Konowalchuk said. “Missing a little of the execution, I thought we could have played a little better. They played a good game.”

In the end, Hill would pick up his first career playoff shutout in only his second postseason appearance.

The matchup game continues to be an intriguing one early in this series. Saturday night, Portland coach Jamie Kompon did not shy away from playing the Petan-Oliver Bjorkstrand line out against Seattle’s shutdown line centered by Scott Eansor. In that game, Eansor and his linemates kept the high-scoring Portland line from finding the net and managed to score a big goal of their own.

Sunday Kompon adjusted and kept Petan and Bjorkstrand away from Eansor’s line for most of the game. One positive for Seattle is that the line was still held somewhat in check by the its other lines. As the series shifts to T-Birds home ice, Konowalchuk will get to dictate the matchups more.

“It’s going to be a team effort, especially on the road,” Konowalchuk said. “I thought Eansor’s line did a good job against them, when they were out against them. Again, everybody’s going to have to be good against them.”

Portland still had its chances to extend its lead but Kozun had a great game. He kept the T-Birds in it, giving them a chance to come back while making 36 saves. His biggest save came near the end of the third when Bjorkstrand fired a deadly looking shot through traffic. Kozun did the splits and snagged the shot with this glove to keep the score 1-0.

With just over 2 minutes left Konowalchuk pulled Kozun for the extra skater. They were unable to capitalize, however, and the Winterhawks would end up scoring twice – by Dominic Turgeon and Bjorkstrand – on the empty Seattle net.

The two empty-net tallies brought a huge roar from the 9,119 Portland faithful in the stands in what was both celebration and relief. For the Winterhawks, they avoided falling behind two games early in the series and will hope to build off Sunday’s victory Tuesday at the ShoWare Center.

The T-Birds have to feel good about the weekend overall. While they failed to get the win on Sunday they got the split they wanted and now have home-ice advantage in the series. The key to that is winning at home, something that will be no easy task against a talented Portland squad.

“We’ll take a step back and that’s what we’ll take out of it,” Konowalchuk said of the split. “It is a positive at the end of the day. Now we have to go take care of everything we can to give ourselves a chance to win next week.”

Game 3 will be Tuesday night at the ShoWare Center and Game 4 will be played on Thursday night.

Notes

• Officially, both teams were held without a goal on two power-play chances. In reality, each club only had one full power play. Portland’s Evean Weinger was called for charging 19 seconds into the contest. Six seconds later Seattle’s Roberts Lipsbergs was tagged for a high stick negating the Seattle power play • that only lasted 6 seconds • and giving Portland a 6-second power play of its own.

• Seattle’s Nick Holowko had a strong game on Sunday. He was one of the T-Birds’ best players and came close to scoring on a couple of occasions.

• In the two games so far the referees have let the teams play. There have only been nine power-play chances combined and Konowalchuk prefers they call the game that way. “It’s good to see come playoff hockey, playoff time,” he said. “You want to be able to be physical and grind it out and not have the refs really decide what’s going on.”

The T-Birds were last shut out in a playoff game back in 2008 when Tri-City blanked Seattle 5-0 in Game 5 of their second-round series.