Sunday . . .

Oh my, how I wish I had been in Portland on Saturday night!
In case you missed it, the Winterhawks scored with less than a second left in the third period — after some time had been put back on the clock — to forge a 3-3 tie, and then they beat the Seattle Thunderbirds in a shootout.
It all began with a faceoff in the Seattle zone. . . . .
“First, we asked for more time on the clock because there was clearly 2.2 seconds when the ref blew the whistle,” Mike Johnston, the Winterhawks’ GM and head coach, told me in an email Sunday. “They checked the time and reset the clock to 2.0 seconds from 1.7.”
The Winterhawks called a timeout somewhere in all of this.
“We set up a direct play to the net where the centre would shoot it or leave it for (Chris) Francis,” Johnston continued.
Spencer Bennett took the draw for Portland, the puck ended up free and Francis scored his third goal of the game. He then would score the game-winner in the shootout.
“I have coached for a long time and rarely do those plays work as planned, especially with so little time left . . . but this one did,” Johnston wrote. “The crowd and atmosphere were incredible.”
There were 8,753 fans in the Rose Garden.
It will be interesting to look back when this season is over and see if this game and the buzz it created will have had any impact at the gate.
If you haven’t done it already, go to Dylan Bumbarger’s blog right here and listen to both team’s radio broadcasts of the last seconds of the third period. Both are highly entertaining.
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THE MacBETH REPORT: D Burke Henry (Brandon, 1995-99) signed a contract for the rest of this season with Olimpija Ljubljana (Slovenia, plays in Austria Erste Bank Liga). Henry started the season with Flint (IHL), getting one goal and three assists in seven games for the Generals. Last season, Henry had five goals and 18 assists in 44 games with Aalborg (Denmark AL-Bank Ligaen).
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The Tri-City Americans are getting some publicity these days. And well they should after their fine start. Ted Wyman, the Winnipeg Sun’s sports editor, has a piece right here on F Brendan Shinnimin.
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SATURDAY LEFTOVERS: Moose Jaw freshman forward Antonin Honejsek, a Czech, took a puck in the face during the Warriors‚ 5-4 OT victory over the Prince George Cougars and didn‚t finish. . . . The Brandon Wheat Kings had D Alexander Urbom back for their 5-1 victory over the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers. He missed Friday‚s 4-0 loss to the visiting Prince Albert Raiders. Urbom had been in Montreal with the Swedish national junior team, which was playing exhibition games against Canadian university teams. It all was part of an evaluation camp used by the Swedes to get used to the small ice surfaces over here. . . . While F Chris Francis of the Portland Winterhawks was torching the Seattle Thunderbirds, another young gun was doing pretty much the same thing in the OHL. The Belleville Bulls were losing 2-0 to the visiting Brampton Battalion late in the third period when C Andy Bathgate, the grandson of NHL Hall of Famer Andy Bathgate, decided enough was enough. Bathgate scored three goals in 2:23, the last one with 81 seconds left to play, and the Bulls won, 3-2.
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SUNDAY:
In Vancouver, the Giants, who had lost twice earlier in the weekend, got a late goal from F James Henry and beat the Edmonton Oil Kings, 4-2. . . . Henry broke a 2-2 tie at 16:48of the third period. . . . Vancouver F Lance Bouma put it away with an empty-netter at 19:59. . . . The Giants (13-6-1-2) had been beaten 8-2 by the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Wash., on Friday and 2-1 by the Chiefs in Spokane on Saturday. . . . Vancouver didn’t experience a three-game losing streak all of last season. . . . G Torrie Jung, who sat out four games with the flu, was back in goal for Edmonton (7-11-2-3). He made 27 saves. . . . The Oil Kings are 0-3-2-1 in their last six games. . . . F Michael St. Croix scored one Edmonton goal. He has a five-game point streak going and has a goal in four of those games. . . . Vancouver G Jamie Tucker stopped F Rhett Rachinski on a first-period penalty shot. . . . The Giants went into the game having shut out the Oil Kings in three straight games, two of those last season. . . . Attendance was 7,023. . . . Edmonton now returns home, does its laundry and then opens a three-game trip in Saskatchewan when it meets the Raiders in Prince Albert on Saturday.
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In Chilliwack, the Seattle Thunderbirds got two goals from F Prab Rai as they beat the Bruins, 4-1. . . . Rai also had an assist for the Thunderbirds (5-12-1-3), who got a goal and two assists from D Jeremy Schappert and two assists from F Brendan Rouse. . . . The Bruins, who were playing their eighth game in 12 days, are 8-10-1-3. . . . Attendance was 3,069.
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In Regina, F Jordan Eberle’s two goals helped the Pats to a 6-2 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . The Pats (9-9-2-0) have won three in a row to get to .500 for the first time since Oct. 3. . . . The Raiders (10-9-0-2) lost for the second time in two nights. . . . Eberle has 30 points, including 15 goals, in 15 games. . . . F Fredrik Cedergren, a Swede, got his first WHL goal for the Raiders. . . . F Garrett Mitchell drew a career-high three assists for Regina. . . . Attendance was 3,510. . . . The Raiders were playing their third road game in as many nights. They beat the Wheat Kings 4-0 in Brandon on Friday and then lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Blades in Saskatoon on Saturday.
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In Calgary, the Hitmen got second-period goals 16 seconds apart to erase a 2-1 deficit and went on to a 4-2 victory over the Swift Current Broncos. . . . F Kris Foucault scored a PP goal at 13:32 of the second and F Tyler Fiddler added an even-strength score at 13:48. . . . The Hitmen (16-5-0-0) went 3-0 on a homestand. They have won six in a row at home. . . . Calgary F Brandon Kozun had two assists. He leads the WHL with 38 points and is riding a 14-game point streak. He has 27 points in those 14 games. . . . Kozun also went over the 200-point career mark. He has 201 points in 173 games. . . . The Broncos (10-10-0-2) are 0-8-0-2 on the road. . . . Attendance was 8,881.