Winterhawks move on

By JOHN BLANCHETTE

Call it the home away from home ice advantage. Portland's friendly vibe in the Spokane Arena continued with the Winterhawks clinching a WHL playoff series for the second straight year with a dominant 6-3 victory over Spokane.

Third period goals by Troy Rutkowski and Ty Rattie broke open a tied Game 6 and made the Winterhawks champions of the Western Conference and sent them to the WHL finals, where they'll meet the Kootenay Ice for the right to win the Memorial Cup.

"It's the best feeling in the world right now," Rattie said. The Winterhawks swept all four games in Spokane in a first-round series a year ago, and won twice in three tries this time to run make it nine wins in their last 12 visits here.

"I don't know what it is," said center Craig Cunningham, acquired in a January trade. "I remember playing for Vancouver, we dreaded coming into this building. But we've only lost one game in the playoffs on the road. Our mindset and focus is key."

Not that they seemed particularly focused in the beginning. Spokane's trademark -- a quick start -- was evident again. Spokane had scored first in each of the first five games and doubled that pleasure this time when Czech rookie Marek Kalus and Mike Aviani scored a minute apart with the game just 3:32 old.

"We did get behind," said coach Mike Johnston, "but there was a sense on our bench through that first period that we were playing pretty well. We had a lot of jump -- probably more than they did tonight."

They also had a hot line, the trio of Cunningham, Rattie and Sven Bartschi teaming up on three goals -- starting with Portland's first one off a friendly bounce. Cunningham's hard shot from the right side was deflected into the air by Spokane defenseman Corbin Baldwin and onto Bartschi's stick shaft and under the crossbar past goaltender James Reid.

The next bounce wasn't so lucky -- Rattie losing the tying goal when it was ruled he kicked the puck into the net. Still, the momentum stayed with Portland, which dominated the second period and seemed to have taken control with back-to-back goals of their own a minute apart.

Reid looked to have turned back series MVP Ryan Johansen with a spectacular save but wound up on his rear and Johansen calmly flicked the rebound over his head. Then it was Cunningham's turn, with a sensational 360-degree pivot to backhand the go-ahead goal past Reid's right pad.

"The other night I had Johansen with Bartschi and Rattie," said Johnston, "and tonight they had to make a decision who to play (defenseman Jared) Cowen against. That's how I read it, and I thought Bartschi and Rattie had a lot of jump so I wanted to make sure Cowen wasn't against them."

After being a step slow all period, Spokane found some energy in the last couple of shifts, and evened the game 16 seconds before the horn on Levko Koper's rebound shot.

But that was really the team's last gasp. Rutkowski scored on a nice pass from Brendan Leipsic five minutes into the period, and Rattie slammed the door with six minutes left on a feed from Bartschi.

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