Sandhu certainly looked good in this one as he scored two goals, including the game winner on Saturday night as Tri City, beating his former team: 4-2. The Americans snapped a 3 game losing streak. Sandhu now has 4 goals and 3 assists for 7 points in 9 game this year.
He opened the scoring in the game, early in the first period, on a rather strange goal. Finnish import D-man Juuso Vailmaki fired a slap shot from the point wide off of the boards and the puck bounced off of Blake Heinrich's skate right on Adin Hill's left post. Hill could not corral the puck and Sandhu was able to poke it home to start the scoring. Portland responded less then 3 minutes later after team Captain: Dominic Turgeon won a couple boards battles behind the American's net and found Skyler McKenzie in the slot. McKenzie was turned away point blank by Tri City's Evan Sarthou, but Alex Schoenborn was able to get the rebound and push it past Sarthou. Despite the Americans having a lengthy 5 on 3 power play late in the period, Portland was able to get out of the first with a 1-1 tie.
After 16 year old Michael Rasmussen was whistled for slashing, Portland was able to score their 6th power play goal of the year. 16 year Ryan Hughes, who has been getting time with one of Portland's PP units got the puck to Turgeon and then drove the net to screen Sarthou. Turgeon used the screen, expertly and beat the Tri City Goalie high glove side for a Portland 2-1 lead. The Americans would quickly answer on the man advantage after Keegan Iverson was called for retaliating against American agitator Maxwell James. Rasmussen made up for his costly earlier penalty by making a nifty deflection on a Parker Wotherspoon point shot that Hill had little chance at. Rasmussen now has 2 goals in his rookie season and 6 points overall. Late in the period, the Americans drove the net with Beau McCue getting a shot on and Tyler Sandhu deflecting the puck out of mid-air past Hill. The goal was looked at, but ultimately it was ruled to be valid. From the view on the WHL Live, feed Sandhu's stick looked to be very close to being above the cross bar. That goal would stand as the eventual game winner.
 |
| Rasmussen |
In the 3rd period, T.C. got a 2 goal lead on the power play, after Iverson again was again penalized for going after James. Parker Bowles, was able to walk in and expertly picked the far, blocker side on Hill to close out the scoring. Portland had a lot of great chances late, but were unable to beat Sarthou.
Portland only lost once to the Americans in 10 tries last season, but has lost the first game of the 10 game series this year.
Adin Hill got the loss, stopping 23 of 27 shots. Sarthou , meanwhile, was stellar; stopping 33 of 34 shots (my stats).
Portland's power play was 1/7 on the night and is now 6/30 on the year (15%, 3rd worst in the Dub). T.C.'s PP was 2/4, making Portland's PK now 32/41 or 78% (12th in WHL).
Stats:
Player
|
Goals
|
Assists
|
Points
|
Shots
|
F/O
|
F/O %
|
Hits
|
B/S
|
PIM
|
McKenzie
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
-
|
-
|
10
|
0
|
2
|
Turgeon
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
17/26
|
65.4%
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
Schoenborn
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
0/1
| 0% | 5 | 2 | 2 |
Bittner
| 0 |
0
|
0
| 3 | 0/3 | 0% | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Abols | 0 |
0
| 0 | 4 | 8/24 |
33.3%
| 6 | 0 |
0
|
| Weinger | 0 |
0
| 0 | 1 | - | - | 4 |
1
|
2
|
Iverson
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 1 | - | - | 2 |
0
|
6
|
| Overhardt | 0 |
0
|
0
| 3 | 10/13 |
76.9%
| 3 | 0 |
0
|
| Veloso | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
-
|
-
| 7 | 1 |
0
|
| Clayton |
0
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
-
|
-
| 2 |
0
| 0 |
Hughes
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 0 |
2/2
|
100%
| 0 |
0
|
0
|
Heinrich
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 2 |
-
|
-
| 5 |
1
|
2
|
| Dougherty |
0
|
1
|
1
| 4 |
-
|
-
| 6 | 1 |
2
|
| Jones |
0
| 0 |
0
| 2 |
-
|
-
| 1 |
1
| 2 |
| Texeira |
0
| 0 | 0 | 2 |
-
|
-
| 8 | 2 |
2
|
De Jong
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 1 |
-
|
-
| 2 | 0 | 0 |
MacEachern
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 0 |
-
|
-
| 1 | 0 |
0
|
| Czaikowski |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
-
|
-
| 0 |
0
|
0
|
-A real rough night for Keegan Iverson. He took two costly penalties in the game and could not really get much going offensively either. Both of his penalties were retaliations against T.C. agitator Maxwell James. This is the role James plays for the Americans and this night, he played it perfectly. Iverson is relied upon to be a leader this season and this is not the kind of thing a team leader should be doing.
-Cody Glass was again out for the Hawks (likely injured), as they decided to go with 7 D-men and 11 Forwards once again. Carter Czaikowski played the role of a 7th D-man, but he did not see a single shift on the ice, that I saw. Alex Schoenborn Paul Bittner and Dominic Turgeon, again took turns double shifting with the 4th line of Ryan Hughes and Brett Clayton.
-Tri City did an excellent job of blocking shots, especially in the 3rd period, when the Hawks were pressing.
-Paul Bittner only got 3 shots on net that I saw and that is way too low for the signed Blue Jacket's prospect. He had several looks in great areas on the ice to shoot from but consistently wired the puck high and wide. He also hit the post once, after making a nifty move to open himself up a shooting lane. Bittner has 3 goals on the year so far.
-Colton Veloso has done such a great job as a penalty killing forward that he took several short handed shifts as part of the top PK unit, along with Turgeon. He mostly plays on the 2nd unit with Paul Bittner, but could see a lot more time with Turgeon, if he continues to kill penalties the way he has so far this year.
-Blake Heinrich, has physically had a tough last couple of games. After getting checked face first into the boards on Friday night by Everett's Dawson Leedahl, Heinrich took a elbow to the face from Maxwell James. Heinrich has been paired with defensive D-man Jack Dougherty over the last few games. He is the more comfortable of the two, with activating up into the play and so needs to do it more consistently. He jumped into the play on a power play in the first period and just missed a slam dunk style back door pass from Ryan Hughes.
-Portland will try and get their first road victory again, this time on Friday up in Everett.
 |
| Heid |
Nick Heid Dealt to Medicine Hat:
-Portland traded 18 year old D-man Nick Heid to the Medicine Hat Tigers for a 4th round pick in the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft. Heid played 17 games last season, after tearing a muscle in his shoulder that was severe enough, that it required surgery. This preseason, Heid started to show the potential that made NHL Central scouting give him a "C" rating early for the 2015 draft last year. After playing only 2 games this year (and notching his first WHL point), Heid was injured again and with Brendan De Jong cementing his spot as the #5 D-man and Carter Czaikowski and Conor MacEachern not looking out of place as the #s 6 and 7, the writing was on the wall that Heid had played his last game as a Hawk. I was at first surprised that someone like Heid received a 4th round pick in return, but I then realized that Heid is a right handed D-man and those have about as much market value in the WHL and NHL as a left handed reliever has in the MLB.
Med Hat desperately needs defensive help after losing Tyler Lewington (aged out, now in the ECHL), Tommy Vannelli (now in the AHL), Kyle Burroughs (in the ECHL) and Kyle Becker (aged out, now in the CIS) off of last year's team. Now they have Heid, whom if healthy, should be a solid top 4 D-man from them and get the kind of notice from scouts that he deserves. I would not be surprised in the least if Heid blossoms with the Tigers.
Notable WHL Scores:
-Kelowna responded to Friday's 3-0 shoot out loss in Prince George by getting 5 points from Tyson Baillie and 4 from Dillon Dube in a 6-2 win over the Cougars.
-Spokane gave up 5 un-answered goals for the 2nd straight game in a 5-1 loss to Kamloops.
-Seattle went 2-0 on the weekend with a 4-2 win over Victoria. Mathew Barzal and Keegan Kolesar each had 3 points in the win.
Former Hawks in the NHL:
Saturday:
-Marian Hossa is making his case to be considered for the Selke award as the NHL's best forward and his play last night is definitely a start. He stole the puck off of Matt Calvert's stick in the neutral zone then raced the other way, netting a slick goal off a wrist shot. Chicago went on to beat Columbus 4-1.
Sunday:
-Nino Niederreiter scored his second goal of the year, but it was the only goal for Minnesota as they lost to Anaheim 4-1.
-Sven Baertschi had an assist, but will probably be thinking about the breakaway he failed to convert on in Vancouver's 2-1 OT loss to Edmonton.
Former Hawks in the AHL:
Saturday:
-Jason Labarbera got a rude welcome back to the AHL, as he gave up 6 goals on 31 shots in a 6-4 Lehigh Valley loss to Wilkes Barre/Scranton.
-Oliver Bjorkstrand converted his shoot out attempt (something he was not too successful with in Portland), but Lake Erie fell to Iowa 1-0 in the 5th round of the circus.
-Ty Rattie had a goal and 2 assists in a 9-5 Chicago win over Charlotte. Rattie now has 7 points in only 3 games and is tied for 2nd in the AHL in points.
Sunday:
-Derrick Pouliot had an assist in a 5-1 WB/S win over Bridgeport.
Former Hawks in the ECHL:
Saturday:
-Miles Koules had another assist but his Quad City squad lost 5-4 to Wichita in a shoot out.
-Troy Rutkowski had an assist for Evansville, but Mac Carruth stopped 33 of 34 shots as the Indy Fuel won the game over Rutkowski's team.
-Taylor Peters scored the first goal of the game for Idaho but Rapid City beat the Steelheads 5-4.
Sunday:
-Cam Reid notched 2 goals as the Reading Royals won over South Carolina 6-0.
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