Alex Weiermair collected his first career Western Hockey League hat trick and it could not have come at a better time for the Portland Winterhawks.
They continued to shred the Prince George Cougars’ defence and now have a 2-1 lead in the WHL Western Conference quarterfinal best-of-seven series after they hammered the Cougars 6-3 in Game 3 Tuesday night in Portland, Ore.
The Winterhawks have outscored the Cougars 17-11 in the three games and just as they did in the first two games the Cougars fell behind early.
“We want to make sure it’s a long playoff series and I think you have to learn something from every game and when you start the game from behind like we have three games in a row you spend so much energy trying to recapture the lead and at least tie it up and you play with more anxiety,” said Cougars associate coach Jim Playfair.
“It’s a poor habit to get into and we have to rectify it going into (Wednesday’s) game. How do we push from the front instead of chase from the back and I think that’s a mindset that has to be organized in our mind.”
Playfair knows his team can play much better than the Cougars have shown in the series.
“Really there’s three parts to our season, there’s your summer training camp and you make the team, and there is the regular season where you get your team organized and then there’s the playoffs, and I think our group right now doesn’t understand there’s another level you have to get to,” said Playfair.
“There’s another level of discipline and another level of making simple plays and I think we’re stubborn in our mindset and turning too many pucks over it’s just a matter of feeling like you’re playing behind and then you start to feel like you’re going to fail. We’re playing too slow and what happens is turned-over pucks become time spent in our own zone.”
Time is running out on the Cougars and they know they’ve got to make some fundamental changes or they are heading to an early playoff exit.
The Winterhawks once again got plenty of offence from their defence. Carter Sotheran fired in two goals and Tyson Jugnauth also scored and drew two assists.
Bauer Dumanski, Jett Lajoie and Lee Shurgot were the Cougar goalscorers.
Ondrej Stebetak made 25 saves to improve to 2-1 in the playoffs.
Jugnauth got it started with a hard shoot-in that took a strange hop off the end boards past goalie Josh Ravensbergen, who went behind the net to try to stop it, and the puck slid by Carson Carels and landed right on the stick of Weiermair and the former University of Denver Pioneer blasted it into the open net before Ravensbergen could get back into position. That came 4:10 in.
It got worse for the Cougars. Lajoie got caught high-sticking Winterhawks winger Kyle McDonaugh during a face-off and just 18 seconds into the penalty Weiermair was left wide open to take a pass in the circle and he lifted the puck into the corner of the net for his third goal of the series.
The Cougars finally got what they were after with 53 seconds left in the period. Heidt led the rush into the Portland zone and turned back to hit a streaking Dumanski with a pass and he finished by picking the short side high on Stebetek for his second goal of the postseason and they went into the break trailing 2-1.
The Winterhawks took command with a three-goal second period.
It started with a turnover when the Cougars had trouble clearing their zone and Carsyn Dyck got the puck to Jugnauth and he walked in and fired off a low wrister under Ravensbergen’s arm for his sixth point of the playoffs. The ‘Hawks had 6-0 shot advantage when that puck crossed the line.
The Cougars caught a break when they got the puck in deep off the face-off. Stebetak came out to play the puck behind the net and put it right on Aiden Foster’s stick and he centred it out for Lajoie, who scored on a wraparound.
Just past the midway mark, Sotheran scored his second of the night. The Seattle Kraken draft pick cruised in from the point and whipped a wrister through the legs of the Cougar goalie to make it 4-2.
Late in the period, Hudson Darby spotted Sotheran cruising into the slot and fed him the puck and he put it in off the pad of Ravensbergen.
At that point, seeing their all-star goalie allow two goals he no doubt wanted back, there had to be some consideration among the Cougar coaching staff whether to replace Ravensbergen with Cooper Michaluk, as they did early in the second period of Game 1. But they stuck with Ravensbergen.
“There’s a perfect example of the playoffs, they’re a whole other next level and you’ve got to find it in yourself and I think you go back to when he first came in the league (last season) with a carefree attitude and he had success with that carefree attitude,” said Playfair.
“Now he’s getting lots of noise and chatter about the NHL draft and I think somehow that’s become a bit of confusion in his head as how do I have to play to get drafted. He doesn’t have to worry about that, he’s just got to worry about getting rest tonight and coming back and having that carefree attitude that makes him such a good goaltender.
“This is the part of the journey that’s a hard part for everybody, not just Josh, but I think we’ve seen him find his way through difficult situations last year and again this year and we trust he’s going to do it again (Wednesday).”
Shots were 45-28 in favour of the Winterhawks.
The Cougars didn’t get a shot until the seven-minute mark of the third period and it wasn’t long after that they cut the gap to two. Heidt put a wicked wrister off the crest of Stebetak’s chest and the puck dropped in the crease for Shurgot and he went wide with a backhander to make it 5-3.
Weiermair completed the scoring with his third of the game and fourth of the playoffs on a breakaway on a Portland power play not long after Heidt, the Cougars captain, was ejected for a cross-checking major penalty late in the third period that might result in the Cougars captain being suspended for Game 4.
He was assessed a major and game misconduct with 2:38 left after he lost his temper when McDonaugh crunched him hard into the side boards and he immediately lashed out with his stick to the back of McDonaugh’s head.
Weiermair’s hat-trick goal came 32 seconds into Heidt’s penalty.
The teams get back at it Wednesday (7 p.m.) with Game 5 to follow on Friday. If the series is extended the final two games would be at CN Centre on Sunday, April 6 and Monday, April 7.
LOOSE PUCKS: Prince George native Miguel Marques had a goal and two assists to power the Lethbridge Hurricanes to a 3-1 victory Tuesday over the Brandon Wheat Kings in Brandon. The Nashville Predators prospect now has two goals and four points in three playoff games. The Hurricanes can wrap that series up on Wednesday… The Seattle Thunderbirds scored five unanswered goals in a 6-3 win over the Everett Silvertips Tuesday in Kent, Wash. Seattle leads the series 2-1 over the Scotty Munro Trophy regular-season champion Silvertips… Former Cougars forward Carlin Dezainde scored three goals, including the game-winner, 8:10 into the second period, and that carried the Swift Current Broncos to a 5-4 win over the Medicine Hat Tigers which ended the Tigers’ 12-game win streak Tuesday in Swift Current. The Tigers lead that series 2-1…. Other WHL playoff scores Tuesday were: Prince Albert 3 Edmonton 2 (Oil Kings lead series 2-1); Calgary 4 Saskatoon 1 (Hitmen lead 3-0); Lethbridge 3 Brandon 1 (Hurricanes lead 3-0) Victoria 3 Try-City 0 (Royals lead 3-0)… The Vancouver-Spokane series resumes with Game 3 on Wednesday in Langley. The Chiefs lead it 2-0.
