The Kelowna Rockets fought back to push the Portland Winterhawks to overtime Saturday night but in the end settled for a single point in WHL action at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Skyler McKenzie scored at 24 seconds of the extra period to boost the ‘Hawks to a 5-4 win over the Rockets (4-2-1-1) in the first of back-to-back weekend games between the teams.
Portland (7-1-0-0) jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead only to see the Rockets battle back to tie the game on goals by Carsen Twarynski, Erik Gardiner and Kyle Topping.
After the Winterhawks regained the lead on a goal by Brad Ginnell at 7:44 of the third period, Twarynski’s second of the game with under five minutes to play forced overtime.
James Porter stopped 34 of 39 shots in the Rockets’ net, while Cole Kehler made 29 stops for Portland.
The teams meet again Sunday night in Portland.
