As expected the Portland Winterhawks had a lot of jump in the second game of their best-of-7 Western Hockey League playoff series Sunday night after losing the opener of the Western Conference championship 2-1 to the Spokane Chiefs on Friday.

The Hawks took the lead for the first time in the series with a Ryan Johansen power play goal at 7:38 of the second period and that stood up for a 2-1 victory in a game where Spokane had precious few chances.

Game 3 is in Spokane on Wednesday with Game 4 at the Arena on Friday, before the teams return to the Rose Garden next Saturday for Game 5.

3 stars: 3, James Reid, 2, Craig Cunningham, 1 Mac Carruth

Long box below.

Winterhawks 2, Spokane 1

Spokane – Sunday

First period

1, Spo, Marantz 3 (Uher) 17:49.

2, Por, Wrenn 1 (Rattie, Cunningham) 18:22.

Penalties – Cunningham, Por (roughing) 4:09; Bardaro, Spo (hooking) 4:56.

Second period

3, Por, Johansen 8 (Rattie, Niederreiter) 7:38, pp.

Penalties – Mort, Spo (high sticking) 5:50; Kuhn, Spo (hooking) 15:34; Brassart, Spo (goaltendner interference), Wrenn, Port (roughing) 18:57.

Third period

None.

Penalties – Jordan, Por (hooking) 8:09.

Shots on goal by
Spokane     14-8-13_35

Portland     11-20-5_36

Goal (shots-saves) — Spokane: Reid (L, 9-4-0) 36-34; Portland: Carruth (W, 9-2-1) 35-34.

Power plays (goals-chances) — Spokane 0-2; Portland 1-3.

Referees — Trevor Hanson, Pat Smith. Linesmen — Jusitn Hull, Clayton Richardson.

Attendance – 6,506.

 Scratches – Spokane: Cole Hamblin, Marek Kalus, Reid Gow, Mitch Holmberg. Portland: Josh Hanson, Brett Ponich, Chase De Leo, Oliver Gabriel, Pearce Eviston, Seth Swenson/Nicolas Petan, Brendan Burke, Jason Trott.

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