Somebody had to step up offensively in a great goaltending duel between Taylor Gauthier of the Portland Winterhawks and his former teammate Tyler Brennan of the Prince George Cougars.
It was Gabe Klassen who answered the call as the 18-year-old forward tallied twice in the second period for the Winterhawks in a 2-0 win in front of 1,821 fans at CN Centre Tuesday night.
“We need to get more. We are killing too many penalties and it’s really hard to generate a lot of offense when your offensive players are out of the lineup. That makes it tough – it’s tough anyways because it’s playoff hockey so it was hard but the guys played hard,” said Mark Lamb, Cougars head coach, and general manager.
Klassen’s game-winner came at the 2:36 mark of the second period when he took a prime feed from James Stefan to beat Brennan.
The ol’ Gabe n’ Go 🔄@gabe_klassen#PORvsPG | #WHLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/MfttARM0UG
— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) April 27, 2022
Game 3 of the WHL’s Western Conference quarter-final had its fair share of physical play.
The most significant incident came at the 7:46 mark of the middle frame as Cats rookie star Riley Heidt caught Portland blueliner Lucas Cagnoni with a knee-on-knee hit at centre ice, which drew the ire of fellow teammate Ryan McCleary.
McCleary instigated the fight against Heidt and was also awarded the five-minute major and a ten-minute misconduct.
Heidt on the other hand, saw his night end early, after being assessed a match penalty for kneeing along with a fighting major and a game misconduct.
His status for tonight’s (Wednesday) Game 4 is up in the air pending a review from the league office.
Cats forward Craig Armstrong is expected to return to the lineup after a two-game ban.
Six minutes later, Klassen’s scoring prowess proved clutch once again as the initial shot from Luke Shelter dinged off the cross-bar past Brennan, resulting in the goal judge putting the red light on prematurely – freezing virtually every player on the ice.
That’s a @gabe_klassen double! ✌️#PORvsPG | #WHLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/S0Ra4aEmno
— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) April 27, 2022
However, Klassen was not fooled and tapped home an easy rebound into the yawning cage.
“I think we have to keep doing what we are doing. Obviously, they are going to be fighting for their season so it’s going to be a good night for us and we have to come out as hard as we can and finish the job,” said Klassen.
Frustration began to boil over for the Cougars late in the third period as Koehn Ziemmer checked Portland blueliner, Josh Mori, from behind, leading to a spirited scrap with Czech import Marek Alscher.
The Winterhawks outshot Prince George 36-28.
“I think we did a lot of good things today,” said Brennan. “Obviously, we didn’t get any goals but had a lot of good chances. It sucks not to get the win but we have been in all three of these games. It could still go either way.”
Klassen has scored seven goals in his last three games inside CN Centre. During a weekend set on February 25th and 26th, he lit the lamp five times in a pair of Portland wins.
Gauthier made 28 saves for the shutout and has a goals-against-average of just 1.00 to go along with a .965 save percentage this series.
“He has been awesome since we got him,” added Klassen. “He gives us a lot of confidence in front of him because we know he will shut the door and he did that once again.”
After 166 games with the @PGCougars, @tgoats_35 always has love for the fans in PG – even in the playoffs 🖤🤍❤️ pic.twitter.com/zgGi051v7w
— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) April 27, 2022
Portland leads the best-of-seven series 3-0.
Elsewhere, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Moose Jaw, and Seattle are also one win away from the second round after victories in their series on Tuesday.
The Red Deer Rebels skated past the Brandon Wheat Kings 3-1 on Tuesday to take a 2-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.