Hawks drop Tips 6-4

The Portland Winterhawks improved their pre-season record to 3-0-0-1 with a 6-4 victory over the Everett Silvertips Friday morning in Kennewick. Ty Rattie again put forth a strong performance for the Hawks, notching a goal and two assists. The Hawks got off to slow starts in each of the first two periods, but were ultimately able to pressure the Everett defense with strong forechecking and take control of the game. The line of Ty Rattie, Teal Burns, and Sven Bartschi were particularly dangerous all afternoon. For a bit of time during the second period, 16 year old rookie Brendan Leipsic filled in at center on the line, and turned in perhaps the prettiest goal of the pre-season. Rattie fed Bartschi in the slot for a one timer which was kicked out by the Everett netminder. Leipsic picked up the rebound at the bottom of the right circle, and seeing the goaltender already down and committed, deked to his backhand around behind the netminder and then stuffed it home on the forehand. A great sign of patience from last year's 5th leading scorer in the Manitoba Midget league. The Hawks dominated the third period in particular, not allowing Everett a single shot on goal for the first 19 minutes of the period. Up next for the Hawks is another 11 a.m. game on Saturday, this time against the Kootenay Ice. The Ice lost today 6-2 to the Seattle Thunderbirds. As has been the case all pre-season, head to Andy Kemper's blog during the game for live updates from the arena.