Hawks rule playoff opener, but Cougars ‘nobody to sleep on’

Goaltender Taylor Gauthier was Portland’s first star Friday night at Memorial Coliseum, making 32 saves in leading the Winterhawks to a 5-2 win over Prince George in their playoff opener (courtesy Winterhawks)

The Winterhawks drew first blood in their first-round Western Hockey League playoff series with Prince George Friday night at Memorial Coliseum. But there was certainly no reason for the local club to rest on its laurels.

Portland won 5-2 behind the superb goaltending of Taylor Gauthier, getting the jump on the visitors with three goals — two of them on power plays — in the game’s first 8:33.

At that point, Prince George coach Mark Lamb replaced starting goalie Ty Young with Tyler Brennan, who helped keep the Cougars in the thick of it until an empty-net goal in the final two minutes.

The Hawks scored only once on the 6-4, 185-pound Brennan. From the time he stepped between the pipes, the game was even. The Cougars, the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, will likely go into Saturday’s 6 p.m. Game 2 with plenty of confidence against the No. 3 seed Hawks.

“They’re nobody to sleep on,” said right wing Cross Hanas, a first-team All-U.S. Division selection who scored Portland’s second power-play goal. “They’re here for a reason. They battled hard at the end of the (regular season) to get in this spot.

“Coming on the road, you need to split the first two games to have a chance at (winning) the series. They know that. We know that. We knew they weren’t going to come lightly. They played a physical game, tried to take us out. We put it back in their face a bit and prevailed.”

Portland dominated the regular-season series with the Cougars, going 22-8 and outscoring them by an aggregate 22-8. Friday night’s postseason opener wasn’t easy, though — at least after the opening minutes. The Hawks won the shots-on-goal battle only 38-34, surviving a second period in which they had only one shot on goal in the first 12 minutes.

“We had a lot of energy early,” Portland coach Mike Johnston said. “The second period, the tide turned. They got a couple of power plays in a row and all of a sudden, we were back on our heels. I liked our third period. We didn’t give them a lot of chances.

“For the game, I didn’t like the number of scoring chances we gave up — more than we usually do. We have to be better in that area. But we got the win. It was an important win, because for so many of our guys, it was their first game of playoff hockey.”

Johnson was fortunate he had Gauthier, going against his former teammates in the first playoff action of his major junior career. The 6-2, 210-pound Calgary native, acquired by Portland in a trade with Prince George during the Christmas break, was voted goalie of the year in the U.S. Division. Gauthier, who signed a three-year, entry-level NHL contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins last month, finished first in the WHL during the regular season in save percentage (.928), fourth in goals-against average (2.34) and tied for fourth in wins (31).

The Cougars launched a pretty good attack on Gauthier, who made 32 saves and always seemed under control.

“He was really good,” Johnston said. “He was our best player tonight. We hopefully won’t need him to be our best player every game, but tonight he made some key saves. He made some saves look easier than they really were.”

Gauthier said nerves played “a little more of a factor than usual” going up against his former team.

“But it’s a lot easier as a team, and for me personally, when you get that goal support early like we did tonight,” he said. “Then the boys can focus on playing defense and playing the right way.”

Brennan started 39 games to Young’s 23 during the regular season, but Brennan, 18 and ranked by Central Scouting as the No. 1 prospect among North American goalies for the 2022 NHL draft, was the one who came up big in the playoff opener. It would be logical that he’ll get the starting nod in Game 2.

“They have two good goaltenders,” Johnston said. “They went with Young to start with, but Brennan’s a good goaltender. They feel they have two guys who can play in this series.”

This is an unusual team for Johnston, in his 12th season as the Hawks’ coach. Missing are top-drawer scorers from the past such as Ty Rattie, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Brendan Leipsic, Nic Petan and Cody Glass.

Portland’s leading scorer during this regular season was Hanas, fourth in the league with 60 assists and ninth in scoring with 86 points, but with only 26 goals. The Hawks have six 20-goal scorers, though, and rarely have an unbalanced sheet.

“We have depth of scoring,” Johnston said. “(Kyle) Chzyowski, (Josh) Mori and (Luke) Schelter were on our fourth line tonight, and they gave us some shifts with good energy.”

Everett, the Western Conference champion during the regular season (45-13-5-5, 100 points) was 25 points ahead of Portland at the Christmas break.

“We had a lot of catching up to do,” Johnston said.

The Hawks nearly did, beating Everett twice while winning their last six games and nine of their last 10. Everett, Portland (47-16-3-2, 99 points) and Kamloops (48-17-3-0, 99 points) finished in a near dead-heat. As champions of the U.S. and B.C. divisions, Everett and Kamloops got the No. 1 and 2 seeds in the West. If Portland gets past Prince George (29-34-4-1) to advance to the second round, the bracket will be re-seeded. The Hawks will likely have to go through Kamloops, then Everett en route to the WHL Finals. Johnston isn’t putting it past his club to get there.

“In the playoffs, injuries are big, momentum is big,” he said. “The more experience we get, we could (be a title contender), if we could claw our way to get some good experience.

“We had a lot of positive things happen for us during the year. But it’s different when the pressure is on in the playoffs. There’s no way to simulate playoff hockey during the (regular season). The intensity, the emotion, the physical play, just goes to another level.”

The Hawks have the right guy in goal. What they put in front of him over the next few weeks will dictate what level they will reach as a team.

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