The Winnipeg Ice drew first blood – barely – in the best of seven Western Hockey League Championship series.
The Ice picked a hard fought 3-2 win over the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds in Game 1 of the final in front of an announced crowd of 5,531 at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg Friday night.
The Ice showed no signs of any rust despite having nine days between games as they jumped out to a three-goal lead. But there were a few hairy moments for the Ice in the dying moments.
The Thunderbirds – trailing 3-0 after 40 minutes – found another gear in the third period, scoring two unanswered goals, while hitting a pair of goal posts, and a cross bar in an effort to get back on even terms.
“I like the way we started,” said Ice head coach James Patrick. “Coming off nine days off, you’re always wondering about it, but I liked a lot of the things we did. There’s still some areas we got to clean up.
“Probably the last three and half minutes there, that was a bit of concern. But outside of that, there was a lot of good in the game.”
Winnipeg is now riding an eight-game playoff win streak. It was just the Thunderbirds third loss of the entire playoffs after winning 12 of their last 14 games.
Connor McClennon, Evan Friesen, and Carson Latimer notched the markers for Winnipeg. Owen Pederson recorded a pair of assists in the Game 1 win, while Daniel Hauser stopped 27 of 29 shots in goal.
“Anytime you can get the first goal – it’s huge,” said McClennon. “I think we kinda fed on that. The crowd kinda fed on it.”
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Reid Schaefer and Kevin Korchinski replied for Seattle in the loss.
“It wasn’t our best game,” said Thunderbirds head coach Matt O’Dette. “Slow out of the gates. I thought we got better as the game went on. I thought they executed well and cashed in on their chances the first part of the game, and that was the difference. We got going as the game went on and it wasn’t enough in the end.”
The Ice were only credited with one power play goal but they really scored another only moments after a penalty expired. And they kept the T-Birds potent power play in check as Seattle went 0-for-2 on the man advantage.
“It’s huge,” said Patrick. “Their power play has been one of the best, if not the best in the playoffs this year.
“You spend so much time, we’ve watched hours of their special teams. And we’ve watched everything they do on the power play, which teams do now. And you try to come up with the best way to stop it.”
Matthew Savoie was kept off the scoresheet to end his seven-game point streak.
READ MORE: Winnipeg Ice moving into Canada Life Centre for championship series
The Ice opened the scoring on McClennon’s league co-leading 14th goal of the playoffs on the first power play of the game. The forward took a perfect pass from Ben Zloty and beat Thunderbirds goalie Thomas Milic with a wicked wrist shot from the right circle at 9:13 of the first period.
Just a little over six minutes later, Friesen delighted his hometown crowd when the Winnipegger jammed home a Pederson rebound to make it 2-0 going into the middle frame.
Ottawa Senators 2021 fourth-round draft pick Carson Latimer, with his second goal of the postseason, upped Winnipeg’s lead to 3-0 when he one-timed a wrist shot past Milic on the stick side. That goal came just four seconds after Nico Myatovic of the T-Birds had stepped out of the box for a check to the head of Ice defenseman Jonas Woo.
Hauser’s most timely stop among his 27 saves on the night may well have been with about 30 seconds remaining in the second period when he got a left skate on a Dylan Guenther shot. That save loomed especially large considering how the third period played out.
Game 2 is set for Saturday at 6 p.m at the Canada Life Centre before the series resumes in Seattle for the next two, and possibly three games starting Tuesday night. Game 4 is set for Wednesday and if a fifth game is needed it would be played Friday. The start times for all three games in Seattle are 9:05 p.m.
If the series extends to a sixth game, it would be played Sunday, May 21 back in Winnipeg at 7 p.m. A seventh and deciding game would be played Monday, May 22 at 5 p.m.
READ MORE: Winnipeg Ice advance to WHL Championship Series after four-game sweep of Saskatoon
The eventual winner will represent the WHL in the 2023 Memorial Cup Tournament which is set to start Friday, May 26 in Kamloops, B.C.
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