Game 5 could settle Rockets, Winterhawks contest
Reid Gardiner scores 4 goals as Kelowna beats Portland to win series in 5 games, advance to Western Conference final
Reid Gardiner is not Leon Draisaitl, but he’s making every bit as big of an impact for the Kelowna Rockets in these WHL playoffs.
Draisaitl led the Rockets to the 2015 league championship and was named playoff MVP with a league-leading 28 points, including 10 goals.
Gardiner already has 12 goals through the second round and is up to 22 points — leading the league in both categories — following a four-goal, six-point performance in Kelowna’s 6-2 win to eliminate the Portland Winterhawks on Friday night.
“Definitely (the best game) of my Dub career,” said Gardiner, who is averaging two points per game in the post-season and has scored hat-tricks in both of Kelowna’s series-clinching victories, also putting the finishing touch on the Kamloops Blazers in the first round.
He really put on a show Friday night in front of a near-sellout crowd of 5,846 fans at Prospera Place, having a hand in every Kelowna goal to set up a rematch with the Seattle Thunderbirds in the Western Conference final.
“He played a great game. He’s been solid every game since he’s been here,” Rockets head coach Jason Smith said of Gardiner, who was only held off the scoresheet three times in 28 regularseason games after joining the fold in January and has points in 9-of-11 playoff games.
“He’s obviously got experience and poise, and he’s done exactly what we want him to do here. He was a big part of our success here in this series.”
Cole Kehler and the rest of the Winterhawks simply couldn’t stop Kelowna’s top line of Gardiner, Calvin Thurkauf and Nick Merkley, who combined for an incredible 15 goals and 35 points in the five-game series as the Rockets won the best-of-seven 4-1.
Thurkauf and Merkley had failed to score and only combined for five assists in the six-game ousting of Kamloops, while Gardiner produced a team-high five goals and six points against the Blazers.
It was a total domination of Portland by that trio, led by Gardiner’s seven goals and 16 points in five games. Thurkauf netted five goals and 10 points, while Merkley chipped in three goals and nine points to tie for third in team scoring during the second round with Dillon Dube (two goals, seven assists).
“In the Kamloops series, our line could’ve been better, but this series we really stepped it up,” Gardiner said. “Our team as a whole stepped it up, and the message is we just need to continue it into the third round.
“We really didn’t want to go back to Portland for Game 6, so we shut it down pretty good in the third and I’m happy with how me and my team played throughout the game,” Gardiner added. “Everybody wanted to step up in different ways and we got the job done.”
Kelowna also got goals from captain Rodney Southam, with his second of the playoffs and second in as many games, and Dube, with his sixth, into an empty net to round out the scoring.
Rockets goaltender Michael Herringer was solid in making 27 saves, but all the talk was about Gardiner, who likely reached double-digits in shots as the Rockets peppered Kehler with 43 pucks and scored four power-play goals — three coming off Gardiner’s stick.
“He’s a great shooter,” Smith said of Gardiner. “He shoots the puck at an elite level, and given a little time and space, he can create havoc on the opposing goaltenders. And on the power play throughout the playoffs, he’s done a great job distributing the puck as well as shooting the puck.”
Seattle swept the Everett Silvertips in the U.S. Division final with a 4-1 home-ice victory on Friday. The Thunderbirds also swept a depleted and exhausted Kelowna club in last year’s Western Conference final.
Seattle have home-ice advantage this year and will host Games 1 and 2, likely next weekend.
ICE CHIPS: Kelowna scratched D Cal Foote (suspension, game two of three), LW Carsen Twarynski (suspension, one game), D Braydyn Chizen (leg, indefinite), LW Erik Gardiner (undisclosed injury, indefinite), C Jack Cowell and G James Porter (affiliate player) . . . . RW Liam Kindree, 17, made his WHL playoff debut for the Rockets, while fellow affiliate D Kaedan Korczak played his second game. D Konrad Belcourt and LW Conner Bruggen-Cate also remained in the lineup after debuting in Game 4 at Portland . . . . Portland scratched LW Skyler McKenzie (concussion), RW Evan Weinger (suspension), LW Lane Gilliss and D Matthew Quigley.