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A Ty Rattie natty hatty paces Portland Winterhawks in Game 1: Friday’s 3 Stars

Neate Sager

No. 1 star: Ty Rattie, Portland Winterhawks (WHL)

That was a scary 34 minutes and change for Portland fans while the Winterhawks were even with the Spokane Chiefs in the opening act of their Western Conference semifinal. Then Portland's high-end offensive talent came to life, with Pittsburgh Penguins first-rounder Derrick Pouliot (1G-3A, +1) factoring into three consecutive goals, including the first among a third-period natural hat trick by Rattie (3G), whose big night made him Portland's all-time leading playoff scorer with 72 points. (The previous mark was held by Randy Heath, who was part of Portland's 1983 Memorial Cup championship team.)

The St. Louis Blues prospect helped blow open what had been a close game and, judging from some late-game shenanigans, helped Spokane blow its collective stack. Rattie scored his first in the opening minute of the third period to finish off a tic-tac-toe passing play. Later in the third, he was sent in alone by Nashville Predators prospect Brendan Leipsic to put Portland up 6-2, before finishing off the night by competing another pretty passing play with Pouliot and NHL draft prospect Nic Petan (2A).

That goal gave Rattie four playoff hat tricks in the past two seasons, which is Jari Kurri-esque.

No. 2 star: Maxime St-Cyr, Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL)

Hail to coach André Tourigny's Huskies, who beat the Quebec Remparts 6-1 to become the only road team to win among the 11 playoff games on the night. The 19-year-old St-Cyr (2G, +3), a 5-foot-7 centre who scored 29 goals in the regular season after getting only six in his rookie year, helped calmer la foule of 11,444 at Colisée Pepsi by scored both of his goals in the game's first 30 minutes.

St-Cyr scored the Huskies' 2-0 goal in the first period off a setup from Tampa Bay Lightning choice and ex-Rempart Nikita Kucherov (1G-1A, +2). St-Cyr restored the two-goal lead midway through the second and 17-year-old rookie Gabriel Slight scored two insurance goals in the final frame.

No. 3 star: Mitchell Theoret, Barrie Colts (OHL)

The unsigned New York Islanders pick had a strong post-season last spring when he helped the Niagara IceDogs win the Eastern Conference and he's fixing to go farther in his possible final season. Theoret (3G, +2) had a hat trick, including a game-turning short-hander, to help Barrie beat the Oshawa Generals 4-1 and go up 2-0 in second-round series.

Theoret's first goal tied the game 44 seconds after Barrie fell behind, as he wired in a spinnerama pass from Michael Webster after speedster Andreas Athanasiou put the Generals back on their heels with an aggressive rush. Theoret then got the game-winner off a setup from Athanasiou (1G-2A, +3), then scored the empty-netter.

Honourable mention: Sebastian Uvira, Plymouth Whalers (QMJHL)

There's more to Uvira than the fact the name of his hometown, Freiburg, Germany, puts one in mind of an old SNL Weekend Update joke about the two types of Lynyrd Skynyrd songs (Freebird and "Not Freebird"). The 6-foot-2, 206-pound right wing has given the Whalers some grit since coming over in a January trade with the Oshawa Generals. Friday, Uvira (2G, +2) turned sniper. He drove to the net to score the game-winning goal and seized on a bad Attack line change to score the clincher.

Potent notables — Carolina Hurricanes prospect Victor Rask has nine points (4G-5A) in seven playoff games after getting the game-winner for Calgary in its 2-1 win over Red Deer. Rebels overage Jordan DePape, who missed much of the season due to shoulder injured, scored the Rebels goal ... Edgars Kulda (1G-2A, +3) took first-star honours in Edmonton's 4-1 Game 1 win over Medicine Hat ... In the QMJHL, Nathan MacKinnon had four assists in Halifax's 7-0 skunking of the Gatineau Olympiques. No word if he kicked the convert or how many tackles he had on defence ... Seventeen-year-old Jérémy Grégoire helped second-seeded Baie-Comeau win beat Victoriaville 5-3 in its Game 1 ... On top of a 10-1 loss to Blainville-Boisbriand, the Val-d'Or Foreurs will likely lose 50-goal scorer Anthony Mantha for Game 2 since he got a game misconduct for ripping off an opponent's helmet during a fight. That's an automatic one-game suspension in the Q.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.