Spokane, Portland In Battle Chiefs-Winter Hawks Series Filled With Momentum Swings

An hour before the puck dropped Friday night, Brent Peterson sounded like a sandbagger.

Three hours later, his words seemed more like prophecy.

Before the Western Hockey League West Division quarterfinal resumed in the Arena with Game 5, the Portland Winter Hawks coach was guessing what it would take for his club to eliminate the Spokane Chiefs from the playoffs.

“We were OK Wednesday night,” Peterson said, referring to his club’s 5-3 loss in Portland. “OK isn’t good enough.”

Peterson’s sixth-seeded Hawks are still within a win of eliminating the Chiefs, the regular-season division champion. The Winter Hawks lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 heading into tonight’s 6 o’clock game in Portland Memorial Coliseum.

Should the Chiefs win, the teams will play Game 7 on Wednesday night in the Arena.

“We have zero chance of winning if we don’t play our best and they don’t play a little sub-par,” Peterson said. “If both teams are at their best, they’ll win. They’re bigger, faster, older. We can’t have a so-so game. We need everybody at their very best.”

The Chiefs are older, but Portland has size and speed edges in some individual matchups.

But Peterson’s pregame gut feeling was borne out that night, when the Chiefs broke open a scoreless game with a goal inside the final minute of the first period, then added the crucial second goal midway through the second period on the way to wearing down the Winter Hawks, 5-0.

As pleased as he was with the effort, Spokane coach Mike Babcock is mindful of how precarious momentum is in hockey.

With two straight wins, his team has it. Yet his team is also still one game from bowing out in the first round.

“We’re aware of how tough it’s going to be, back in their building. They’re still in the driver’s seat,” Babcock said. “They only have to win one game. We’re still clawing away.”

Peterson is welcoming the change of scenery. The first two games in Portland were played in the palatial Rose Garden, with its regular-sized 200-by-85-foot ice surface.

The Coliseum is 185-by-85.

“We play better in the Coliseum,” Peterson said.

The Hawks coach said when his club was up 3-0 that he wanted to see his team match the Chiefs’ desperation.

It didn’t happen, but desperation is changing sides.

The Winter Hawks don’t want to come back to Spokane.

, DataTimes