Portland holds off Spokane

PORTLAND – It took awhile for this contest to get under way and by the end of the night the Spokane Chiefs were probably wishing it would have been postponed.

Snow pushed the start time back almost 2 hours, but Portland’s Ryan Johansen didn’t mind.

Johansen scored a pair of goals to lead the Winterhawks to a 4-3 victory over Spokane in Western Hockey League play Tuesday.

The Winterhawks (23-15-0-1) grabbed an early 1-0 lead when Oliver Gabriel sent a shot past Spokane goalie James Reid at the 5:03 mark of the first period.

The Chiefs (21-11-3-0) pulled even with 1:11 left in the opening period when Kyle Beach found the net for the 25th time this season.

Portland regained the lead halfway through the second period.

The Winterhawks stretched their advantage to 3-1 at the 15:09 mark of the second period when Ryan Johansen banged in his 13th goal of the season.

Spokane battled back to knot the score at 3-3 in the third period.

Blake Gal scored on a power play at the 4:05 mark and Beach smacked in his second goal of the game at 11:16 to tie it up.

But Portland prevailed when Johansen hit paydirt for the second time of the night at 17:47.