The Portland Winterhawks defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 2-1 in a Western Hockey League game Friday night in front of 5,019 at the ShoWare Center.<\/p>\n
The T-Birds play the Winterhawks at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Moda Center in the annual New Year’s Eve matchup.<\/p>\n
Portland (21-17-1-0) took a 1-0 lead at 8:29 of the first period on a goal from Keegan Iverson. Keoni Texeira had the only assist.<\/p>\n
The T-Birds outshot the Winterhawks12-11 in the first period.<\/p>\n
Seattle (18-14-3-1) tied the game 1-1 at 6:01 of the second period on the power play. Keegan Kolesar carried the puck into the Portland zone on the left wing. Kolesar passed the puck to Aaron Hyman in the right circle. Hyman beat Portland goalie Cole Kehler from the bottom of the right circle for his first goal as a T-Bird. Nolan Volcan had the second assist.<\/p>\n
Seattle outshot Portland 16-12 in the second period and led 28-23 in total shots after two periods.<\/p>\n
Skyler McKenzie scored the winning goal for the Winterhawks at 15:42 of the third period unassisted.<\/p>\n
Both teams had 13 shots on goal in the third period. Seattle outshot Portland 41-36 in the game.<\/p>\n
Seattle goalie Rylan Toth had 34 saves on 36 shots and his record is now 14-14-1-0.<\/p>\n
Kehler had 40 saves on 41 shots and his record is now 16-12-0-0.<\/p>\n