 |
| Alexander True scored a pivotal goal Sunday |
Portland opened the scoring in this game on the power play as Dominic Turgeon took advantage of Seattle D-man Jerret Smith leaning the wrong way to make a power move to the net and tuck the puck in under Flodell's right pad. Turgeon, who has struggled with his offensive game so far this season showed a lot of power and touch on the play. It was Turgeon's first goal of the season and hopefully, it is only the start of more from the team's Captain. Despite trading power play chances the rest of the way in the first, neither team scored again in the period.
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| Turgeon |
Seattle finally responded just over 8 minutes into the 2nd, when Nolan Volcan, who appears to be the net front presence on the T-bird's 2nd power play unit, put a nifty tip on a Smith shot that was going wide, to put in between Hill's pads. The goal was Volcan's 1st of the year. Portland, who had only scored two power play goals over their first 18 power plays on the season, got their second PP goal of the game three minutes after Volcan's goal. Portland failed to convert, despite numerous chances on a 5 on 3 power play, but Caleb Jones made a heads up play on the 5 on 4 PP, deciphering that Seattle was changing and leading a 4 on 2 rush Seattle's direction. Jones found Keegan Iverson in an open area and the N.Y. Ranger's prospect beat Logan Flodell for a 2-1 lead. Seattle responded again in the 2nd, with their 2nd PP goal of the game though. Mathew Barzal displayed the skill that has the N.Y. Islanders excited when he drew Portland's attention and found rookie D-man Jarret Tyszka across the ice. Tyszka made no mistake in tying the game for a 2nd time, beating Hill.
The 3rd period was Seattle's best as they controlled most of the play, but both teams had chances at taking the 3-2 lead. Seattle scored the game's 3rd goal right after negating a Portland rush, when import forward Gustav Olhaver chipped the puck into space and Danish Center-man Alexander True beat Portland's Keoni Texeira to it. True then let a wrister go that fooled Adin Hill and Seattle had their first lead of the game with 6:20 left. The Hawks had some good looks late, including an Alex Schoenborn shot that slid on the goal line before Flodell could glove it away, just in the nick of time.
The game was a penalty filled affair with Portland going 2/9 on the power play, while Seattle went 2/6. Portland's PP is now 4/27 or 14.8% and their PK is 25/30 for 83.3%.
Adin Hill stopped 31 of 34 (WHL stats), while Seattle's Flodell got the win, stopping 21 of 23 (my stats).
Stats:
Player
|
Goals
|
Assists
|
Points
|
Shots
|
F/O
|
F/O %
|
Hits
|
B/S
|
PIM
|
Bittner
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
0/5
|
0%
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
Abols
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
12/24
|
50%
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
Schoenborn
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
-
| - | 12 | 1 | 0 |
Weinger
| 0 |
0
|
0
| 2 | - | - | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Turgeon | 1 |
0
| 1 | 4 | 14/17 |
82.4%
| 5 | 2 |
2
|
| Iverson | 1 |
1
| 2 | 3 | 2/2 | 100/% | 6 |
0
|
0
|
Veloso
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 0 | 0/4 | 0% | 8 |
1
|
0
|
| Overhardt | 0 |
0
|
0
| 1 | 6/6 |
100%
| 1 | 0 |
0
|
| Glass | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
4/6
|
66.7%
| 2 | 0 |
2
|
| Clayton |
0
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
-
|
-
| 3 |
0
| 0 |
Hughes
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 1 |
-
|
-
| 0 |
0
|
0
|
Jones
|
0
|
1
|
1
| 0 |
-
|
-
| 5 |
0
|
2
|
| Texeira |
0
|
0
|
0
| 0 |
-
|
-
| 5 | 0 |
0
|
| Heinrich |
0
| 0 |
0
| 3 |
-
|
-
| 6 |
1
| 6 |
| Dougherty |
0
| 1 | 1 | 0 |
-
|
-
| 6 | 0 |
0
|
De Jong
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 0 |
-
|
-
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
Czaikowski
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 1 |
-
|
-
| 0 | 0 |
0
|
| MacEachern |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
-
|
-
| 0 |
1
|
0
|
 |
| Schoenborn |
Game Notes:
-Alex Schoenborn, who has been one of the Hawks best forwards, hit another post in this game and by my count that's 4 posts in 5 games for the over-age winger. He also nearly snuck in a game tying goal late in the game.
-It's kind of strange to see Seattle employ something that Portland has used against them for so many recent years. That being: using a turnover to create a rush going very quickly in the other direction. This is how Seattle would end up scoring the game winning goal. Seattle is one of the most offensively gifted teams in the WHL and will look to use their speed in this way, catching defenses off guard.
-Paul Bittner drew two penalties, by using his size and deceptive speed to force an out of step D-man to take a desperation infraction. His top line deep not seem to be as in sync as they were on Friday, but he is starting to realize the potential of a dominant power forward that we have known was there for the last couple years.
-Brendan De Jong just seems to improve with each game this season and this one was his best so far. De Jong is showing more and more confidence, by anticipating Seattle passes and getting the play to go in the other direction. The 17 year old D-man even led a zone entry and he seems to feel more and more at home moving the puck.
-Barzal was not too noticeable on the ice during his 2nd game back from Islander's camp. The one time he was noticeable though was his assist on Seattle's 2nd goal. Barzal has points in each of his first two games back and if he doesn't end the season in the top 10 in WHL scoring I'll be surprised.
- Skyler McKenzie was scratched for this game, leaving the Hawks with only 15 healthy forwards. They started 7 D-men, meaning that Conor MacEachern was able to get into his first WHL game with Nick Heid still out. Hopefully, the injury McKenzie was battling during training camp has not flared up again.
 |
| Weinger |
-Turgeon had arguably his best game as he scored his first goal and won a high percentage of his face offs.
-Blake Heinrich took three different minor penalties, something you really do not want an over-age, top 4 D-man to do. He needs to be better in this area.
-Ryan Hughes started to demonstrate some of the play-making skill that has led to him getting time on the 2nd power play unit. He made a nifty back door pass to Heinrich that nearly worked. Hughes, however, needs to learn to be more careful near the attacking blue line as he had two bad turnovers there that led to breakaway's the other direction. Ryan Gropp hit the post on one of those rushes.
-Portland continues their home stand on Tuesday, when they host the Prince Albert Raiders at the Moda Center.
Former Hawks in the AHL:
Saturday:
-Brendan Leipsic had an assist for Toronto and Chase De Leo had an assist for Manitoba (his first professional point) but they both failed ot convert in the shoot out for their teams. Toronto eventually scored in the 4th round for the 3-2 win.
-Craig Cunningham scored the only goal for Springfield as they lost ot Hershey 5-1.
-Taylor Leier had an assist and Jason Labarbera stopped 22 of 26 shots, but their Lehigh Valley team lost to Syracuse 4-3.
-Ty Rattie scored twice and added an assist as Chicago dropped Milwaukee by a 5-1 score. Rattie seems to have taken his being snubbed form the St. Louis Blue's roster as incentive to tear up the AHL.
-Mac Carruth came on in relief for Rockford as the starting goalie gave up 4 goals in the first 14:35 of the game. Carruth would go on to stop 14 of 17 shots as his team lost 7-0 to Stockton.
Former Hawks in the ECHL:
Saturday:
-Taylor Peters had an assist for a point in his 2nd straight game as his Idaho Steelheads beat the Utah Grizzlies 4-3.
Sunday:
-Thomas Frazee had a goal and an assist for 2 points as Atlanta fell to Greenville 5-4.
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