PORTLAND, Ore. - Ty Rattie's tip in at 55 seconds of overtime lifted the Portland Winterhawks to a 4-3 victory over the Kootenay Ice in Game 1 of the Western Hockey League finals.
Portland started the overtime period on the power play after Kootenay's James Martin tripped the Winterhawks' Ryan Johansen in the final minute of regulation.
Portland had been 0-for-6 with the man advantage in the game and had rarely produced a quality scoring opportunity. But Rattie's deflection squeezed Craig Cunningham's wrist shot between the pads of Ice goaltender Nathan Lieuwen for the second playoff overtime winner of his career.
"I didn't know it went in, I saw Bartschi celebrating so I put my hands up," said Rattie, who scored in overtime of Game 7 in the first round of the 2010 playoffs to beat Spokane.
"It's just a rush of excitement. I can't tell you how great it feels to look up and see all your teammates coming at you."
Lieuwen stopped 30 shots in defeat for Kootenay, while Portland counterpart Mac Carruth made 39 saves.
The loss for Kootenay broke an 11-game winning streak that stretched back to the first round of the playoffs. The Ice finished up a four-game sweep of Medicine Hat on April 27, and hadn't played since.
"We looked like a team that hadn't played in nine days," Kootenay coach Kris Knoblauch said. "As time went on, we played better. We have to play better than that to beat Portland."
Sven Bartschi scored twice as Portland opened a 3-2 lead after 20 minutes.
"I think at the start, everyone in the building was wondering if it would be a 10-9 game," said Portland coach Mike Johnston. "It was entertaining hockey, but I don't think either coach really liked the start."
Bartschi gave the Winterhawks 1-0 and 2-1 leads, but Hayden Rintoul and Joe Antilla each talled equalizers for Kootenay. Nino Niederreiter scored with 3.9 seconds left in the first period to give Portland the lead.
The game stayed 3-2 until the third period. The Ice evened the score after a delay in the third period lasted more than five minute to repair a pane of broken plexiglass. On the ensuing faceoff, Kevin King rushed end-to-end and beat Carruth to make it 3-3 with 8:49 remaining.
The teams have little time to dwell on the result, as Game 2 faces off Saturday night.
The Winterhawks got off to a fast start, scoring 2:06 into the game on a sharp angle wrist shot by Bartschi that beat Lieuwen high to the short side.
Rintoul threaded a slapshot through traffic from the top of the right circle to even the score for Kootenay at 6:31 of the period.
Bartschi scored his second of the game just over five minutes later at the end of a mad scramble in front of the Kootenay net. Ryan Johansen faked a shot and found Bartschi wide open to the right of Lieuwen, who buried the puck into an open net.
After Joe Antilla tied the game late in the period on a bang-bang pass play with Brayden McNabb and Cody Eakin, Portland took the lead back with three seconds left in the period on Nino Niederreiter tally in a goalmouth scramble.
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