CALGARY — Chris Driedger stopped 29 shots as the Calgary Hitmen edged the visiting Red Deer Rebels 2-1 on Friday in Western Hockey League playoff action.
Victor Rask scored the winning goal at 16:43 of the second period for the Hitmen, who lead the Eastern Conference second-round series 2-0, while Elliot Peterson opened the scoring 47 seconds into the game.
Jordan DePape scored at 17:30 of the first period for the Rebels as Patrik Bartosak turned away 40-of-42 shots in defeat.
Calgary went 0 for 5 on the power play while Red Deer failed to score on six chances with the man advantage.
Game 3 is scheduled for Monday when the Rebels host the Hitmen at Enmax Centrium.
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Oil Kings open second-round series with a victory
THE CANADIAN PRESS
EDMONTON — Edgars Kulda had a goal and two assists to help pace the Edmonton Oil Kings to a 4-1 victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers in Western Hockey League playoff action Friday night.
Stephane Legault, Mitch Moroz and Travis Ewanyk had the other goals for the Oil Kings, who have a 1-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference second-round matchup.
"They’re a very tough team," said Kulda. "Today they showed us that it’s not just good luck (that they’re here), it’s hard to play against them. It will not be an easy series for us."
Kyle Becker scored the lone goal for the Tigers, who had trouble at times producing scoring chances.
"There were stretches that were fine, obviously we weren’t able to generate a lot of offense," said Tigers’ bench boss Shaun Clouston. "Last series against Saskatoon, we were able to generate on the transition and tonight that didn’t show up as much. Our success against Saskatoon, we really played as a group. Tonight we didn’t work back to the puck enough, we got spread out a little bit and Edmonton was able to pick passes off."
Kulda opened up the scoring at 15:53 of the first period after taking the puck off the end boards at the edge of the crease and jamming it between the legs of Medicine Hat netminder Cam Lanigan.
Early in the second period, Edmonton goaltender Laurent Brossoit robbed Boston Leier from the high slot by flashing the leather on a shot labeled for the top corner to keep the Oil Kings ahead.
Moments later, Legault doubled the Oil Kings’ lead off a feed from Michael St. Croix with what turned out to be the eventual winner.
Moroz’s goal, which was a wrap-around at 5:54 of the third period, pushed Edmonton ahead 3-0.
Becker put an end to Brossoit’s bid at his third shutout of the post-season as he put the Tigers on the scoreboard at 7:30 with a shot just under the crossbar.
Ewanyk iced the game with a high-slot wrister to the glove side at 17:33.
Brossoit stopped 21 shots in net for Edmonton as Lanigan made 29 saves for Medicine Hat.
"We’ll make some adjustments but I thought we did a really good job up-ice," said Edmonton head coach Derek Laxdal. "They didn’t get a lot of penetration when we were on the penalty kill, and when (Brossoit) had to be strong, he was strong. We’re trying to play a more uptempo game on the forecheck and I thought our guys did a really good job on that."
The Oil Kings went 0 for 4 on the power play while the Tigers went 0 for 5.
Game 2 is scheduled for Sunday in Edmonton at Rexall Place.
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Winterhawks take 1-0 series lead
THE CANADIAN PRESS
PORTLAND, Ore. — Ty Rattie scored three goals in the third period as the Portland Winterhawks beat the Spokane Chiefs 7-2 in Western Hockey League playoff action.
Rattie took over the league lead in playoff goals with nine, and became Portland’s all-time leader in playoff scoring. The 20-year-old now has 72 career post-season points in 62 games, besting the old record of 71 held by Randy Heath.
Portland’s Oliver Bjorkstrand continued his success against the Chiefs, scoring twice and adding an assist. The Danish rookie has scored 10 times in nine games against Spokane, including the regular season.
Defenceman Derrick Pouliot had a goal and three assists for the Winterhawks, who also got a goal from Taylor Leier.
Mike Aviani and Todd Fiddler scored for the Chiefs, who gave up five straight goals after tying the game 2-2 in the second period.
Leier and Aviani traded goals in the first period to make it 1-1 after 20 minutes of play.
Bjorkstrand put Portland up 2-1 early in the second period, but the Chiefs answered when Fiddler beat the Winterhawks to a long clearance and scored on a wraparound to even the score.
Portland reclaimed the lead with just over five minutes left in the second on Bjorkstrand’s second goal. Then Pouliot scored on an end-to-end rush less than three minutes later to put the Winterhawks up 4-2 through 40 minutes.
Rattie connected on the power play 47 seconds into the third period to push Portland’s lead to three, then added goals at 5:28 and 16:23 to round out the scoring.
Mac Carruth stopped 38 shots to earn the win in net for Portland as Eric Williams made 32 saves for Spokane.
Portland scored twice on eight power-play chances, while the Chiefs went 0 for 3.
The Winterhawks lead the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal 1-0, with Game 2 on Saturday in Portland.
