The Portland Winterhawks finished off chances faster than their city churns out craft brews and specialty coffees.
The Winterhawks exhibited their starry array of roster talent to full advantage Friday night in jumping all over the Victoria Royals to open their second-round Western Hockey League playoff series.
There was just too much Winterhawks for the shell-shocked Royals to handle as Portland took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series with an 8-2 victory before 6,152 fans at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Second seed Portland, hitting its stride at the right time of year, won for the 12th consecutive game and 33rd time in its last 34 games.
The Winterhawks scored three goals on their 10 power-play advantages.
“When you take 10 penalties, you’re going to spend a lot of time in your own end, and you’re not going to win a lot of hockey games,” said Royals head coach Dave Lowry.
“They [referees] are calling it tight and we didn’t adhere to that. We want to continue to play physically, but we took too many penalties after the whistle.”
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A couple of costly turnovers by the third-seed Royals in the Portland offensive zone didn’t help, either, as the swift counter-attacking Winterhawks turned them into two-one-one and even a two-on-nothing goals faster than those famous roses pop up each summer in the Oregon city. It was head-spinning as Oliver Bjorkstrand, a blazing Dane under NHL contract to the Columbus Blue Jackets, scored twice in the second period to key the Winterhawks to a 6-1 lead.
The onslaught began in the first period on slick goals by 2014 NHL draft-prospect Chase De Leo and third-round Nashville Predators draft pick Brendan Leipsic. Victoria starting goaltender Patrik Polivka was chased from the net after WHL second-leading scorer and second-round Winnipeg Jets draft pick Nic Petan made it 3-0 at 3:11. But if any goalie had an excuse, it was Polivka. Just what was he to do with Petan and Leipsic both bearing down on him all alone after a Steven Hodges turnover on a bad pass?
Coleman Vollrath came into the Victoria crease but was victimized twice by Bjorkstrand, once on the power play, and future Minnesota Wild defenceman Mathew Dumba from the point.
Taylor Crunk and Brandon Magee on the power play, with his team-leading eighth playoff point in five games, managed second-period goals for Victoria.
It was the Dumba and Derrick Pouliot show in the third period as the two gifted NHL top-10 draft-pick blue-liners assisted on each others power-play goals from the point as they made Victoria pay dearly for its damaging penalties.
The third period was chippy and punctuated at times with players scrapping and jawing.
The Royals and Winterhawks are playing four games in five days to open the Western Conference semifinal series. Friday’s game was at the old Veterans Memorial Coliseum because the Portland Trail Blazers had an NBA game against the Phoenix Suns in the 18,280-seat Moda Center (formerly the Rose Garden). Game 2 is tonight in the Moda Center (7 p.m., Shaw TV).
The series swings across the border and straits into Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre for Games 3 and 4 on Monday and Tuesday. If needed, Game 5 would be Thursday in Portland, Game 6 on Saturday, April 12, in Victoria and Game 7 on Monday, April 14, in Portland.
