Hawks Go Back-To-Back with 5-3 Win in Seattle
November 6, 2022 – Western Hockey League (WHL) – Portland Winterhawks News Release
Gabe Klassen scored twice and the Portland power play sizzled as the Winterhawks knocked off the Seattle Thunderbirds for the second night in a row, this time by a 5-3 final score. Jan Špunar turned aside 25 of 28 shots in the victory.
The win helps the Winterhawks maintain pace with Everett for first place in the WHL’s Western Conference.
After giving up a goal just 20 seconds into Friday’s contest, Seattle tallied first on Saturday when Lucas Ciona tapped home a fluky bounce off the end boards for an early T-Birds lead. Just three minutes later, though, Klassen responded with his first of the night as he rifled a shorthanded wrister into the top corner to send the teams to intermission at one goal apiece.
Portland’s power play began to take over in the second period with four goals on the man advantage for the visitors in the frame. Luca Cagnoni put the Hawks ahead with a one-time bomb at 2:08, followed soon after by Marcus Nguyen’s backdoor tap-in of a Ryan McCleary pass to cap off a perfect 5-on-3 advantage with a goal scored on each individual power play. Five minutes after that, Dawson Pasternak gave Portland a 4-1 advantage as he finished off an Aidan Litke rebound before a sprawling Thomas Milic could reach it.
Nico Myatovic grabbed a goal for Seattle to briefly halt the Hawks’ momentum, but just over a minute later, Cagnoni and Klassen linked up again for the Portland captain’s second of the evening. After a slick seam pass from James Stefan found Cagnoni at the right circle, he quickly slid another pass to a just-arriving Klassen at the left post for a tap-in to restore the team’s three-goal lead.
The Winterhawks continued to carry play in the final frame, but penalties caught up to them and Kevin Korchinski cut their lead to 5-3 with a blistering one-timer on a 5-on-3 sequence midway through the period. Despite playing much of the third shorthanded, the Hawks held off the high-powered T-Birds to complete the 5-3 victory in Kent.
Portland returns home to wrap up three games in three days with a matchup against the Spokane Chiefs at the VMC tomorrow at 5:00 P.M.
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT presented by BBF TECHNOLOGIES:
“I think it was really good for our team and our confidence and it shows who we can be. No matter what the situation is, like showing up an hour before the game, we just got to take what we had tonight and bring it home for tomorrow.”
Winterhawks forward Dawson Pasternak
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