The Portland Winterhawks took a 2-0 series lead on the Vancouver Giants with a 3-0 shutout victory at the Moda Center on Saturday night. Brendan Burke made 15 saves for the goose-egg while Portland got goals from Nic Petan, Alex Schoenborn and Taylor Leier. Payton Lee stopped 40 of 43 shots in the loss for the G-Men.
The game was closely contested in the early minutes of the first period. Both teams battled hard and had opportunities, but the opening goal didn’t come until the latter half of the stanza when Petan struck on a power play for the Winterhawks, scoring the eventual winning goal on a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle after a nice feed from Oliver Bjorkstrand out of the left corner.
The ‘Hawks continued to ramp up the pressure in the second period and extended the lead with two goals in a 1:40 span. Schoenborn netted his first of the post season, knocking a rebound between the legs of Lee from the top of the crease, and Leier capitalized on a man advantage when he was sprung in on a breakaway after a pretty stretch pass from Derrick Pouliot, and he made no mistake, beating Lee stick side to put the home team ahead by three.
The Portland squad took the life out of the game in the third and frustrated the Giants into taking a number of penalties. Vancouver generated a couple of chances in the late going but never really tested Burke in the Winterhawk net.
Discipline was once again an issue for the Giants as Portland went 2-for-9 on the power play while Vancouver was 0-for-4. The Winterhawks had a heavy shot advantage for the second night in a row, finishing ahead 43-15.
The series will now shift to Vancouver for Game 3 on Tuesday and Game 4 on Wednesday at the Pacific Coliseum. For tickets, call 604-4-GIANTS or visit vancouvergiants.com.
Game Summary
3 Stars:
1. Taylor Leier - Portland
2. Brendan Burke - Portland
3. Nic Petan - Portland
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