The Portland Winterhawks continued their season-long domination of their I-5 rivals, the Seattle Thunderbirds last night, winning 6-1 at the ShoWare Center in Kent. The Hawks are now 7-0-0-0 in the season series, having outscored Seattle 38-12 in the process.
Chris Francis finished the night with 1-3-4 (one assist being added after the game) and a career-best +5 on the night. Francis now sits at a team best 58 points with 22 games remaining. He has also taken over the team lead with a +22 rating.
With his four point night, Francis has now moved into the top 50 all-time Winterhawk scorers, passing Marcel Hossa, and he is now tied with defenseman David Babych with 165 points in 49th position.
A little further down the list is Seth Swenson who had his first WHL goal and multi-point night to accentuate the victory.
Goaltender Ian Curtis rebounded after a rough last start to stop 29 of 30 shots to once again put his season save percentage over 90% and he improves his record to 17-7-1-1.
The only downside to the game was Eric Doyle leaving with a lower body injury. I don’t have a status on him this morning, but will get something for the pregame show tonight. Stefan Schneider seamlessly slipped back to the defense position when Doyle left and showed why he is one of the most versatile players on the team.
It certainly doesn’t get any easier for the Hawks as they host the rested Vancouver Giants at the MC at 5:00. The Giants have lost two straight and they sat in Portland last night while the Hawks ran over Seattle. The Giants have won 13 straight against the Hawks, with the Hawks last win coming on Teddy Bear Toss night in November 2006 when they shut the Giants out 1-0 in overtime.
We’re due…
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After The Whistle 
Our time came!!
What a game… Probably the perfect time for Curtis to have the clutch performance to keep us in it until we could get some energy going…..
From the first period, it looked like the same old Vancouver team dominance we have seen for the last 3 years, but Curtis keep Vancouver off the score board long enough for the Hawks tired legs to get going. More shots on goal does not always translate into wins.
Go Hawks!
wheres ian at? and when he coming back, mac makes me nervous , makes u rethink the mucha trade