Hawks Edge Rockets 2-1 in Tight Game in Portland
Jan. 13, 2012 – Portland, OR
The Portland Winterhawks defeated the Kelowna Rockets 2-1 in Portland, winning the second straight close game over Kelowna this week as the Rockets continued a six game road trip.
The Rockets outshot Portland for the second straight game but fell short as only Zach Franko was able to beat Hawks netminder Mac Carruth, who was named first star.
Rockets goalie Jordon Cooke was named the third star in a 36 save performance.
Despite the loss, assistant coach Ryan Cuthbert said it was a good effort.
“Overall it was a real good effort,” he said. “We came out a little slow but in the second and third we played pretty well.”
Brad Ross opened the scoring for Portland in the first period, before Franko tied it early in the third with his seventh. A power play goal by the Hawks’ Joe Morrow with just over firve minutes to play in the third period was difference.
It was the second of two in Portland after Wednesday’s 4-2 loss and puts the Rockets at 2-2 on the trip, heading for games in Vancouver tomorrow and Everett on Sunday.
“Our goal is to just keep getting better and aside from the result i think we did that this weekend,” said Cuthbert. “We’re getting better, we’re working hard and we’re doing better things. For five out of six periods we were pretty good this week.”
Cuthbert added they have to quickly move on to another tough opponent in the Giants, who also played on Friday night.
“They’re going to come out at home and play us hard,” he said. “We have to treat it like a must win it’s time to get back into the win column.”
