4 Hawks Go To Subway Super Series in Alberta

Rattie From Last Year's Series

The Portland Winterhawks will be sending a WHL high 4 players to the Subway Super Series in Alberta this week. These 4 players are going to be playing for an All Star WHL squad in 2 games (Wednesday and Thursday) vs. a team made up of selected Russian born players. Teams from the QMJHL and OHL have already played against, mostly, the same Russian team.

This is the 11th annual Subway Super Series exhibition tournament and teams from the WHL are 15-5 going into this year against Team Russia.

The 4 Winterhawks representing Team WHL are: Brendan Leipsic, Nic Petan, Taylor Leier and Derrick Pouliot. Petan was also named Assistant Captain for both games.

The November 27th game will be played in Red Deer, while the Thanksgiving day game will be hosted by the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

The team from Russia lost both games earlier this month to Team QMJHL, but has beaten Team OHL in both games they played this past week. The WHL takes this event very seriously as it is a chance to showcase it's top talent on a global level. They schedule this week off (through Friday) so that players will be well rested for the event.

In recent history, Former Winterhawk Ty Rattie played in the 2011 and 2012 Super Series' and notched 1 Goal and 1 Assist in both games played for a total of 4 points(he only played one of the two games both years). In more dated history, fromer Hawk D-man Braydon Coburn had 2 assists in 2 games vs. Russia in 2004.

A side note is that former Hawk Kirill Vorobyev was added to the Russian roster vs.the WHL, meaning he will take on 4 of his former teammates in Alberta. Vorobyev was released after one season with the Hawks.

Depending on how much they play in the 2 games, the 4 Hawks could see limited ice time and possibly even get scratched for Friday's tilt at Spokane, in order to rest up.