Royals Take Down Winterhawks in Season Opener: 4-1

Jack Walker-pivotal goal for Victoria

Portland is a team this season with many forwards in their top 6 and D-men in their top 4 that have size that makes them appear like a team that would strive in a chippy, hard hitting game. Well, they played in one on Friday night in Victoria to open both team's seasons and did not appear ready for it quite yet.

In a game where both teams had 6 or more power plays and there were numerous dust ups after the whistle, Portland's newer players lost their composure and their play suffered. Emotions were high after Alex Schoenborn rang the post on one end very late in the first period and Victoria's Jack walker scored on the ensuing rush the other way with only 1.3 seconds left in the first. After a tightly checked first period, giving up the late goal, seemed to rattle Portland.

Victoria, to their credit took advantage and came out with three 2nd period goals, two of which were off really strange bounces and battles in front. They held on behind 10 3rd period saves by Coleman Vollrath to beat Portland 4-1.

Portland's Michael Bullion, who started the game after Adin Hill was originally announced, made 25 saves on 29 shots (WHL stats) and 20 year Royal's Goalie Coleman Vollrath made 22 saves on 23 shots (my stats).  Portland's power play went 0/6, while Victoria's was 1/7.

Game Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	F/O	F/O %	Hits	B/S	PIM
Bittner	0	0	0	4	0	0	6	1	2
Turgeon	0	0	0	2	8/19	42.1%	1	1	0
Iverson	0	0	0	2	0	0	5	0	0
McKenzie	0	0	0	2	2/4	50%	3	1	0
Abols	0	0	0	1	5/10	50%	1	0	0
Schoenborn	0	0	0	0	0/3	0%	2	1	2
Overhardt	0	0	0	1	0/2	0%	2	1	2
Ericson	1	0	1	2	8/14	57.1%	2	1	0
Glass	0	1	1	3	0	0	1	0	0
Clayton	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0
Hughes	0	0	0	0	0/2	0%	0	0	2
Veloso	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
Jones	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	5
Dougherty	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	2	2
Heinrich	0	0	0	1	0	0	5	1	4
Texeira	0	0	0	2	0	0	4	1	4
De Jong	0	0	0	2	0	0	5	0	0
Heid	0	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	0

Notes:
-19 year old Swedish import, Carl Ericson scored his first career WHL goal in the 3rd period, after Nick Heid started a nice break and 16 year old Cody Glass set him up on a 2 on 1 rush. Ericson picked the near side corner as Victoria's Joe Hicketts slid across to stop the pass. A shooting percentage of 50% on the night is not too bad for the rookie.

Dougherty

-Portland's D-men were very frustrated by the Royals whose more slick forwards, crossed them up on multiple occasions. Blake Heinrich and Jack Dougherty were two that were exposed on multiple occasions, by simple outside-inside moves. These often led to prime scoring chances for Victoria.
-I had a problem with both the 3rd and 4th goals by the Royals. On the 3rd one Jack Dougherty was slew footed in front of the net by Victoria's Alex Forsberg, helping Dante Hannoun find the freedom to get behind the net and bank the puck in off a desperate Caleb Jones as his D-partner lay on the ice. On the Royal's 4th goal, 16 year old Royal's forward Ryan Peckford put his stick under the blade edge of Portland's Blake Heinrich sending him falling to the ice. The puck then came back to Peckford, who made a nifty move in backhand deflecting the puck past a down and out Bullion. Both instances were rather blatant non calls, directly leading to Victoria goals.
-However, Portland's D-men really just need to be stronger on their skates around their own net and be the ones doing the clearing out and not the other way around.
-It's going to be a learning situation, early on for Dougherty and Jones as they figure out how to play with each other and what they can get away with in this league, but it's fairly obvious even in poor games like this one, that there is a ton of talent there.
-Paul Bittner got into a little dust up, where he was called for giving Victoria's Ryan Gagnon an extra cross-check. What the referee missed though, was the spear to the nether regions that Gagnon delivered to Bittner from the ice. This is one of my least favorite plays in hockey and answers the question about what type of team Victoria will continue to be this year, even without agitators like Brandon Magee and Austin Carroll.
-I actually like that Portland is facing a team like Victoria that will push all your buttons early on. This is the type of experience that can really help bring a team with a lot of new players, together as a unit.
-Carl Ericson and Cody Glass both notched a point and were some of Portland's most consistent forwards. Their line mate: Alex Overhardt had a rather tough night though. He could not seem to get the puck to go his way, even when receiving a simple outlet pass. I look for much more from Overhardt this year.
-The hope is certainly that the late pulling of Adin Hill from starting the game, was not due to an injury he suffered during warm ups. There is really no evidence right now that this was the case, but this late change does not happen very often at all in the WHL.
-The 11 shots in the 3rd period for Portland is a positive sign, as they finally seemed to string together a couple good cycles in a row. For this team to be successful, they are going to need to create a lot of their scoring off  cycles in their opponent's zone.
-Both teams go again Saturday night at 7:05 pm.