Down 0-3: Spokane pours on offense, beats Portland Winterhawks 8-5 in WHL West finals series
Published 9:53 pm Wednesday, April 30, 2025
- Ryder Thompson, Portland Winterhawks defenseman. (Courtesy Photo: Keith Dwiggins)
It doesn’t look good for the Portland Winterhawks.
Spokane scored another large number of goals — eight, all by different players — and went up 3-0 in the Western Hockey League Western Conference finals.
The Chiefs beat the Winterhawks 8-5 Wednesday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Game 4, the potential closeout game for the Chiefs, is 7 p.m. Thursday at VMC.
Spokane scored first on Chase Harrington’s goal, but Josh Zakreski tied it with the first of his two goals.
The goals kept coming. The Chiefs led 5-3, but Joel Plante (with 43 seconds left in the second period) and Zakreski (2:47 into the third period) tied it up 5-5 for Portland.
But Spokane ripped off three consecutive goals in the third period, by Coco Armstrong, Mathis Preston and Assanali Sarkenov.
Portland goalie Ondrej Stebetak faced the barrage of goals, and made 32 saves. Spokane outshot Portland 40-29.
Diego Buttazzoni also had two goals for Portland.
