Winterhawks Weekly: Halfway There

The Portland Winterhawks took the next step in their quest for the WHL championship, thanks to a 4-1 series win against the Victoria Royals.  Behind scores of 8-2 and 6-3, the Winterhawks jumped out to a 2-0 series lead.  However, the Royals weren't going away quietly, as they managed to rein in the Winterhawks' offensive attack in a 2-1 win in game three.  The Winterhawks escaped Victoria with a 4-3 win in game four before they closed out the series in convincing fashion 5-1 on Thursday.

The Winterhawks will meet the Kelowna Rockets in the Conference finals, and the series promises to be one of the best, as they were the top two teams in the league.  Kelowna swept the regular season series, but the Winterhawks were short-handed in some form for all of those games, as Brendan Leipsic was suspended for each of those games and the World Juniors took out Taylor Leier, Derrick Pouliot, and Nic Petan for half of those games.  Matthew Dumba will be making his first appearance against the Rockets, as well.