Portland Falls to 0 and 3 After Dropping Home Opener to Everett: 3-1 Saturday

Everything seemed to be going smoothly for Portland on Saturday night in their 2015/16 home opener against Everett. They had jumped out to a 1-0 1st period lead, behind 19 year old Latvian import: Rodrigo Abols' first WHL goal and their top line was controlling the puck in the opponent's zone on nearly every shift they had.

Then, Everett, who had seemed to be reeling, created a rush into Portland's zone about 2:30 after Abols' goal and rookie D-man Jake Christiansen's shot was blocked by Blake Heinrich. The puck came loose to Adin Hill's left and 18 year old rookie Devon Skoleski got a weak shot off that bounced off Portland's Dominic Turgeon, bounced again and got by Hill.

After that goal Everett did not seem phased and just played within the Kevin Constantine coached system and despite Portland peppering Carter Hart with 38 shots (my stats) and hitting two posts, they could not beat him again.

Meanwhile, Everett won a faceoff clean in Portland's zone late in the 2nd period and Montreal Canadien's 1st round pick wired a shot past a screened Adin Hill, giving the Tips a lead they would not give up. Everett added another goal by Skoleski on a power play in the 3rd period to win by a 3-1 score.

Portland's Adin Hill, in his first regular season game this year had his highs and lows in this one, stopping 24 of 27 shots. Hart stopped 37 of 38 and  had 3-4 fantastic saves when Portland had prime scoring chances.

Everett, who had been 0/4 on the power play in their first two games, went 1/6 in this one, to go 1/10 (10%) on the season. Portland was 0/5 on their power plays and has yet to score a power play goal for 0/15 (0%) on the season. The Winterhawk's PK is now 16/19 on the season for 84.2%.

Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	F/O	F/O %	Hits	B/S	PIM
Bittner	0	0	0	6	-	-	7	0	2
Turgeon	0	0	0	2	18/27	66.7%	1	4	4
Iverson	0	0	0	4	0/1	0%	4	0	2
McKenzie	0	0	0	1	1/3	33.3%	9	0	2
Abols	1	0	1	6	2/6	33.3%	4	0	0
Schoenborn	0	0	0	5	-	-	8	0	2
Overhardt	0	0	0	1	3/3	100%	2	0	2
Ericson	0	0	0	4	10/14	71.4%	3	1	2
Glass	0	0	0	1	-	-	0	0	2
Weinger	0	0	0	0	-	-	8	0	0
Hughes	0	0	0	0	3/5	60%	6	0	2
Veloso	0	0	0	1	-	-	1	0	0
Heinrich	0	0	0	0	-	-	9	2	0
Dougherty	0	0	0	0	-	-	7	3	2
Texeira	0	0	0	2	-	-	3	1	0
Jones	0	0	0	3	-	-	5	2	0
De Jong	0	0	0	2	-	-	3	0	0
Czaikwoski	0	0	0	0	-	-	3	0	0

 Game Notes:

-Portland D-man Jack Dougherty blocked a shot late in the 2nd period and did not return to play after. Dougherty had been playing his best game of his short, 3 game WHL season. He is easily Portland's best defensive D-man at this point and without his physical presence in the 3rd period, Everett found their path to the net a little easier. Hopefully, he does not miss much time due to this injury.

-His right handed shot could've proven very useful later in the game as Portland's left handed D-men crossed each other up a couple different times.

-Caleb Jones seemed to take the Dougherty injury as a sign to have his own coming out party. He was impressive in the 3rd period, wheeling and dealing; creating scoring chances for both him teammates and himself. His most impressive play was faking out Everett's Brandon Ralph, going right around him and getting all the way into the slot, before a wiring shot at Hart's glove hand.

Jones

-This game could easily have been a blow out, if not for Carter Hart. His most impressive saves were a diving left shoulder save on a wide open Alex Schoenborn, who was shooting from the slot and another shoulder save on Keegan Iverson. That shot may have caught him on the collar bone, but he was not phased and found the puck under pressure from Iverson's teammates.

-Rodrigo Abols got his first WHL goal to start the scoring off a ridiculous snipe on the rush. Technically, no assists were awarded on the play, but Dougherty did make a nice pass to get the puck near Abols, who kicked loose the puck from an Everett D-man to set up his own shot. He also hit the post on another great chance in front.

-Noah Juulsen, who was playing in his first game of the season, after battling a head injury and attending Montreal camp, was great for the Tips. They are currently missing Tristen Pfeifer and Alexander Scherbakov from their blue line and leaned heavily on Noah. He scored the eventual game winner and most of Everett's power play seemed to run through the 18 year old D-man.

-Paul Bittner tried to provide a more physical presence and the 7 hits (his season high) are one sign, while his 2nd period fight with Everett's Lucas Skrumeda was another. Bittner was one of the Hawks that hit a post and had a couple other slick plays to set up his won shots, that either missed the net or were stopped by Hart.

-Carter Czaikowski got into his first game this year and really struggled with fore-checking opponents that used their reach on the small D-man. He did not get many shifts in the 3rd period, even with Dougherty missing.

Skoleski

-Skoleski impressed me in the preseason with his play-making ability and with his first two goals in this one, seems to be the next Everett player to come out of nowhere to contribute for them.

 

-Portland continues their home stand this coming Friday, hosting the Spokane Chiefs, who will be playing their 3rd game in 4 nights.