Winterhawks trade Gray and Morison, plus stats and notes from Saturday's shut out loss to Vancouver

TRADE: Hawks acquire a draft pick from @WHLKootenayICE in exchange for Austin Gray & Reed Morison: https://t.co/Tezkqyo77N

— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) November 29, 2015

The Portland Winterhawks announced Sunday that they had traded the rights to 1997 born forward Austin Gray and 1998 born forward Reed Morison to the Kootenay Ice for a seventh-round bantam draft pick in 2016.

Gray played in two games this year and left the team for personal reasons last week. His career with Portland was likely derailed to an illness that kept him out of most of the preseason and allowed other forwards like Brett Clayton, Ryan Hughes and Cody Glass to cement their spot ahead of him. Trading him to Kootenay likely allows him to get more ice time and not have to go back and play in the BCHL, which is probably what Portland was going to do with him.

Morison played two games as a 15-year-old back in 2013/14 with Portland and showed a lot of promise. In the early going of the 2014/15 season with most of Portland's centers at NHL camps. Morison was given a lot of playing time as a second or third line center for Portland. In the five games, though he apparently did not prove himself ready for the WHL yet and was sent back to major-midget hockey. As a 17-year-old this season, he was likely hoping for a great preseason to get him a spot in the top 12 forward group for Portland. His preseason started great with a goal in the first game against Spokane, but he did not notch another point after that. Meanwhile, forwards like Cody Glass and Alex Overhardt were providing scoring punch and pushing him out of the top 12. Ultimately, Portland decided to send him to the BCHL to start the season. He went to the Calgary Canucks and in 15 games, he has one goal and three assists for four points in 15 games.

Gray and Morison were not in Portland's plans this season and Morison was the only one likely to come back and fight for playing time next year. This trade will likely give them more of a chance to prove themselves at this level and even get NHL scouts' attention. Kootenay was pretty desperate for forward help as they are without injured forwards Jaedon Descheneau (for the season), Luke Philp (for quite some time) and River Beaddie and Zak Zborosky (for at least a couple weeks). Gray and Morison give them a couple forwards who have at least played some WHL games. All the best of luck to the two of them. It appears that Kootenay will keep Morison in the AJHL for now, but could call upon his services were they to suffer anymore injuries.

Vancouver 2 Portland 0:



Portland had their traditional daylight game on Saturday afternoon, but unfortunately the 7,150 in attendance were sent home unhappy with Vancouver goalie Ryan Kubic shutting out their Winterhawks 2-0. Coming into the game, Vancouver had won only two of their last 20 games and had played the previous night up in Seattle. The Giants though, looked like the livelier team, committing to a team-defense game by blocking shots and not allowing Portland to get any good looks in close on Kubic.

The win for Vancouver is their first against Portland this year in the four-game series. Portland won both matchups in Vancouver earlier this year. There will be one more matchup in Portland later in the year.

The opening period was one played mostly with the sun shining down on the ice, making play a little sloppy. Vancouver had one of the best looks of the period when, while on the power play, defenseman Brennen Menell made a nifty pass backdoor to Dakota Odgers, who missed the gaping net.

The Giants opened the scoring early in the second period when a point shot from Tyler Benson bounded off of Adin Hill's right pas, directly to Chase Lang, who corralled the puck and put it past Hill for his fifth goal of the season. Portland did get a puck past Kubic in the period, but it was called back as Colton Veloso had pretty clearly kicked it in with his skate.

This would be a running theme for Portland as they had another goal dis-allowed in the third period. Paul Bittner drove the net on Kubic and got the puck to trickle past him, but not before referee Jason Nissen had blown his whistle. The Giants would get an insurance goal from Tyler Benson off a bad rebound given up by Hill on an Alec Baer slap shot. The Hawks best look late in the game, came on a backdoor play to Rodrigo Abols, who had a wide open net to shoot at. Abols fanned on the shot though and allowed Kubic plenty of time to get over and make the save.

The shutout was Kubic's first of the year and first of his WHL career. It was also his very first WHL victory. He had played well in relief of the injured Daniel Wapple, since he went down last week, but was finally rewarded with a win. He stopped all 39 Portland shots he faced. Meanwhile, Hill played well, except for the two rebounds he gave up and stopped 36 of 38.

Portland's power play was 0/3 and their penalty kill was 3/3. Their PP on the year is 21/99 or 21.2 percent (eight in the league). Their PK is now 84/103 or 81.6 percent (ninth in the WHL).

Portland was missing Keegan Iverson, Alex Schoenborn and Carter Czaikowski, who were all out with injuries. Their absence was easily noticed as Portland lost a lot of board battles. This is something Schoenborn and Iverson excel at. Schoenborn sat several rows behind me at the game and appeared to be holding his shoulder a little gingerly, but overall did not look too out of sorts. I would expect him to return fairly soon (though the shoulder is something he's injured before, so they might be cautious). Iverson's injury is a strange one to me. He did something to his lower body on his first shift on Wednesday vs. Moose Jaw and appeared to try and stretch it out on the bench. He still ended up leaving at the next break in action and did not return. He does not have the injury history that Schoenborn has, so one hopes that he will be back soon.

Their absence meant that the lines were juggled around. Coach Jamie Kompon broke up the top six and put Turgeon and Bittner together. They were great together Wednesday, but were not as in sync on Saturday. The top-six throughout the game was juggled around, but obviously did not result in too much success. Evan Weinger and Colton Veloso were given the most chances in the top-six, but did not do that much with the opportunity given. Weinger appeared to be trying to do the same things Schoenborn does but dos not have the same scoring touch he has to go along with the physical stuff.
Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	Faceoffs	F.O. %	Hits	Blocked Shots	PIMs
Bittner	0	0	0	8	1/1	100%	3	0	0
Turgeon	0	0	0	0	13/21	61.9%	1	0	0
Veloso	0	0	0	0	-	-	5	1	0
Bukarts	0	0	0	3	-	-	3	0	0
Abols	0	0	0	5	3/11	27.3%	1	1	0
Weinger	0	0	0	2	0/1	0%	5	0	0
Overhardt	0	0	0	0	4/8	50%	3	0	0
Glass	0	0	0	1	2/4	50%	0	0	0
McKenzie	0	0	0	2	-	-	7	0	0
Clayton	0	0	0	1	-	-	5	1	2
Hughes	0	0	0	0	8/13	61.5%	0	0	0
Nagel	0	0	0	0	-	-	4	0	0
Heinrich	0	0	0	3	-	-	4	1	4
Dougherty	0	0	0	6	-	-	6	2	2
Jones	0	0	0	5	-	-	3	1	0
Texeira	0	0	0	2	-	-	4	1	0
MacEachern	0	0	0	0	-	-	3	0	0
De Jong	0	0	0	1	-	-	1	1	0

Notes:
-Jack Dougherty had perhaps his most impressive game of the year in the loss. In my opinion he was Portland's best skater. He really seems to be coming into his own as a shutdown defenseman in this league. At one point he had Trevor Cox skating in on him one-on-one. He not only stick-checked the puck away from Cox but also buried him with a check.
-Keoni Texeira, meanwhile, has been struggling recently. He's looked good in flashes this season, but has been the most mistake prone d-man of the top-four. His outlet passes under pressure, have been picked off pretty consistently. He had one really poor one in the second period that led to an immediate scoring look against Hill.
-Paul Bittner's three-game goal streak was snapped, but not for lack of effort. He led the team, by my count, with eight shots on goal and drove the net off of power moves twice. Both times, it looked like he was hauled down from behind, but neither time did he get a call.
-Tanner Nagel was great in his WHL, regular season debut. He threw four checks and was the driving force behind a fourth line that was playing so well that they were getting ice time with less than four minutes to play in a tight game.

Winterhawks in the NHL:

Wednesday:
-Brandon Dubinsky made his return to the lineup after having surgery on his infected elbow. He skated 17:48 of ice time in Columbus' 2-1 win over New Jersey.
-Jannik Hansen scored his seventh goal of the year and it was the game winner in a 3-2 Vancouver win over Minnesota.

Friday:
-Marian Hossa scored his 490th career NHL goal in a 3-2 OT win for Chicago over Anaheim.
-In a 2-1 OT win over Pittsburgh, Brandon Dubinsky cross-checked Sidney Crosby in the back of the head and then broke his stick over Crosby' back as he laid on the ice. Dubinsky would end up receiving a one-game suspension for his actions. Dubinsky had an assist and Ryan Johansen had a goal in the win.
-Jannik Hansen had an assist in a 3-2 shootout loss to Dallas.

Saturday:
-Ryan Johansen scored his sixth goal of the year for Columbus, despite the trade rumors swirling around him. CBJ lost to St. Louis 3-1 in the game.

Winterhawks in the AHL:

Tuesday:
-Taylor Aronson had two more assists as the Milwaukee Admirals beat former Seattle Thunderbird goalie Calvin Pickard and San Antonio 6-3.
Wednesday:
-Chase De Leo had a goal and an assist and Nic Petan had an assist and somehow Manitoba still lost to Lake Erie 4-2.
-Derrick Pouliot had the overtime winner for Wilkes Barre/Scranton in a 4-3 win over Binghamton. Three-on-three hockey seems built for someone like Pouliot.
Friday:
-No Winterhawks in this one, but Binghamton had only six shots on net in a 4-0 loss to Albany.
Winterhawks in the ECHL:
-First AHL goal for Nic Petan in a 4-1 Manitoba loss to Lake Erie.
-Taylor Leier had two points in his return to the AHL, after being sent down by Philadelphia. His Lehigh Valley Phantoms beat Hershey 6-5 in the game.
-Derrick Pouliot had an assist in a 3-0 WB/S Penguins win over Providence.
Saturday:
-Brendan Leipsic scored a goal for Toronto in a 6-2 losing effort to St. John's.
-Travis Ehrhardt, who was scratched the previous game for Utica, had two goals and two assists for four points in a career-best night. He now has seven points this season, which matches his entire effort for Utica last year. Utica beat the Portland Prates 6-3 in the game.
-Cam Reid was called up from Reading to Lehigh Valley for a one-game stint in the AHL. He got one shot on net in a 3-0 loss to Providence.
-Tyler Wotherspoon assisted on Stockton's second goal of the game in a 3-2 win over Bakersfield.
Sunday:
-Brendan Leipsic assisted on the lone Toronto goal in a 5-1 loss to St. John's.

Winterhawks in the ECHL:

Wednesday:

-Mac Carruth finally got another start for the Indy Fuel and it wasn't a good one. He gave up five goals on 38 shots in a 5-1 loss to Wichita.

Friday:

-Thomas Frazee scored a goal as Atlanta edged Orlando 4-3.

-A day before he would be called up to the AHL, Cam Reid had an assist for Reading in a 6-3 loss to Greenville.

-William Wrenn had an assist for Alaska in their 4-2 loss to Evansville.
Saturday:

-Kevin Young had an assist in Reading's 4-3 loss to Greenville.

-William Wrenn had another assist and Garrett Haar had two points as the last-place Alaska Aces took down Evansville 4-1. Troy Rutkowski had an assist in the loss for the IceMen.
Sunday:
-Yet another assist for Kevin Young in a 3-2 Reading win over Wheeling. Cam Reid returned to the ECHL and played in the game, after a short-lived AHL stint.
-Mac Carruth stopped 30 of 33 shots and Indy lost in overtime 3-2 to Quad City. Miles Koules was not in the lineup for the Mallards in the loss.
-Patrick Wellar and Willieam Wrenn each had an assist in a 5-3 loss to Evansville. Wrenn currently has a five-game point streak going, during which he has seven points.
 

Winterhawks take down Tri-City 5-2, then fall by same score in Seattle

Tri-City Herald

Portland 5 Tri-City 2

The Portland Winterhawks extended their win streak to four games on Friday night, taking down the Tri-City Americans at Veteran's Memorial Coliseum 5-2. The Winterhawks have now won four out of five against Tri-City in the season series this year. In the process, Portland chased Americans' starting goalie Evan Sarthou from the net and help continue his poor start to the year.

Sarthou, who is from Black Diamond, Washington, was considered a potential World Juniors' goalie for Team USA and was invited to the Lake Placid camp over the summer with this in mind. Instead of building on this opportunity and putting up great numbers, he has faltered. Sarthou is 8-12-1 overall with a 3.72 GAA and 0.878 save percentage. Hardly the numbers one would expect from someone expected to be one of the best at their position-in their age group-in the country.

Portland jumped out to an early lead Friday night, behind another power play goal from defenseman Jack Dougherty. The Nashville Predators' prospect made a beautiful toe-drag move around a sprawling Nolan Yaremko-who had no stick-and wired it past Sarthou. The power play had been drawn by 16-year-old Ryan Hughes who kept moving his feet in drawing a tripping call on Boston Bruins' signed prospect Brandon Carlo. Portland then added to their lead in the first period, when, after a couple solid puck-cycling shifts, Colton Veloso took the puck off of the side boards and beat Sarthou on a rather weak looking wrist shot.

The Americans would get a goal back in the period, when Dominic Turgeon, just barely missed intercepting an outlet pass, which allowed Tri-City to break the other way. Vladislav Lukin made a nice pass to Brian Williams in the slot, who beat Adin Hill for his fourth goal of the year. The Winterhawks, though, would get the two-goal lead right back when Cody Glass made a nifty outlet pass to Alex Overhardt, who then used his size to set up a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff dot. Overhardt picked a corner on Sarthou, ending his night and giving the Hawks a two-goal first period lead. Sarthou left after giving up three goals on only 10 shots. Nicholas Sanders cam in to relieve the 18-year-old netminder.

In the second period, the Winterhawks would extend their lead to three goals. Dominic Turgeon made a power move to the front of the net from the right corner and was able to slip the puck under Sanders's left pad for his 11th marker on the season and a 4-1 Portland lead. The Americans were not done yet though as they closed the gap back to two on a screened blue line shot from Beau McCue that foiled Hill. Jack Dougherty, who has done a great job this year at clearing out traffic in front this year, did not do enough to clear out Jordan Topping on the play. Dougherty has found a way to toe the line of legality in moving opponent's out of Hill's sight-line. This is particularly impressive for someone who is new to the league and it's officials.

The Winterhawks would close out the scoring in the third period with a pretty goal from Paul Bittner. While on the man advantage, Bittner drove the left wing and picked a corner over Sanders's left shoulder. The goal was reminiscent of some beauties that Oliver Bjorkstrand scored last season for the Hawks and has you drooling for more from the 19-year-old NHL drafted winger. The goal for Bittner was his first in seven games, which was all the way back on October 30th.

Portland received a solid outing from Adin Hill, who stopped 26 of 28 shots he faced. Meanwhile, in relief, Sanders stopped  34 of 36.

The Hawks' power play was two-for-five, while their penalty kill was a perfect two-for-two.

Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	Faceoffs	F.O. %	Hits	Blocked Shots	PIMs
Iverson	0	0	0	7	1/1	100%	5	0	2
Turgeon	1	1	2	8	13/21	61.9%	2	1	0
Schoenborn	0	0	0	1	-	-	3	0	0
Bukarts	0	1	1	2	-	-	0	1	0
Abols	0	0	0	1	3/11	27.3%	3	0	0
Bittner	1	0	1	5	0/1	0%	7	1	0
Overhardt	1	1	2	3	4/8	50%	1	1	0
Glass	0	1	1	3	2/4	50%	2	0	0
Weinger	0	0	0	0	-	-	6	0	2
McKenzie	0	1	1	1	-	-	5	2	0
Hughes	0	0	0	0	8/13	61.5%	3	1	0
Veloso	1	1	2	1	-	-	4	1	0
Heinrich	0	0	0	2	-	-	2	0	4
Dougherty	1	1	2	3	-	-	7	3	0
Jones	0	1	1	5	-	-	1	0	0
Texeira	0	0	0	0	-	-	8	1	0
MacEachern	0	0	0	1	-	-	1	0	0
De Jong	0	0	0	1	-	-	6	2	0

Notes:

-Alex Overhardt's goal extended his career-high goal scoring streak to four games. The Colorado native has played fantastic, as of late, putting a poor offensive start to his year behind him. After he had a solid preseason, there was much expected of the 18-year-old forward and he was just not getting his name on the score sheet in the first month of the season. He was doing a lot of other things right in his game, but was not capitalizing on the chances he was getting. That has changed over the last four games. The goal he scored in this one, demonstrated how much confidence he has gained recently. He drove right at the Americans' defense and pushed them back on their heals in order to give himself the room necessary to get his shot on net. Overhardt has played a mixture of center and left-wing recently, depending on the situation. I would look for him to continue playing this role.
-The guy he has been alternating with has also found a new gear in his game. One of Cody Glass's best assets is his ice-vision and he has utilized this to send out a series of beautiful outlet passes recently. After this game, Glass now has a four-game assist streak going. After Alex Schoenborn was injured in the first period, Glass was rewarded, with ice time on the second power play unit. He played well in that role.
-Schoenborn's injury was a strange one. He took a run at Jordan Topping in the Tri-City zone and caught the forward unaware, sending him flying. After the hit though, Schoenborn immediately favored his left shoulder. After the game, he was seen with his arm in a sling. Hopefully, he can find his way back into the lineup soon as he is an integral part of this team.
-Schoenborn's spot on the right wing of the Dominic Turgeon centered line, was split between Colton Veloso and Evan Weinger. Weinger is likely to fill in here long-term as his style is much more similar to Schoenborn's.
-Keegan Iverson was jumped from behind by Maxwell James in an odd series of events. First, Iverson checked James cleanly in the corner to Adin Hill's right. Then, as he was coming away from the hit, Iverson briefly got himself tangled up with Nolan Yaremko's equipment. James saw this and threw his gloves off, grabbing Iverson from behind and throwing him, dangerously to the ice. He then got Iverson in the back of the head with a punch, before Caleb Jones was able to remove him. James and Iverson have not been strangers over the first four games of the season series, so this was something that was always just beneath the surface. During the single Americans' win in the seasons series so far, James getting under Iverson's skin played a  meaningful role. Due to the similar styles that the two play, James likely though Iverson was trying to pick on Yaremko, but that did not appear to actually be happening. Regardless, the dangerous play ended up getting James a one-game suspension.
-Parker Wotherspoon was a surprising scratch for Tri-City before the game. His absence made Brandon Carlo have to carry a large share of the ice time, in  much the same way Wotherspoon did while Carlo was out with an injury.

CBS Local

Seattle 5 vs. Portland 2:

-Two U.S. Division foes entered Saturday night's tilt with winning streaks going, but only Seattle was able to carry theirs through the night. After dispatching Portland by a 5-2 score, the Thunderbirds ran their win streak all the way to six games. Despite the score, the game was a spirited and tight affair.

Seattle, who actually had the worst of the travel, after playing in Kamloops the previous night, was ready from the jump during the first period. They jumped out to a 1-0 lead when, after Portland controlled play on an extended cycle, Rihards Bukarts made an ill-advised pass towards the high slot of the attacking zone. The pass ended up right on Mathew Barzal's stick and the 2015 NHL draft first-round pick was off to the races. He played give and go with Keegan Kolesar and beat Adin HIll with a nifty backhand shot to start the scoring. The goal had to be a painful one, for Portland, who withstood an early first period Seattle attack to out-possess Seattle for an extended period of time just prior to this goal.

Portland would tie the score in the first when a Caleb Jones shot caught part of Logan Flodell's catching glove and part of the post, before Paul Bittner tipped it home. Bittner showed great awareness and hand-eye coordination on the goal. Even though, Portland escaped the period with a 1-1 tie, a lot of strange things happened for them. Hill ended up falling to the ice on three separate occasions. On one, Barzal's right skate caught his left one, sending him tumbling. On one of the others. Gustav Olhaver did not do enough to avoid the big goalie behind Portland's net and Hill was send face first to the ice drawing an interference call.

Despite these odd events, Hill showed composure to start the second period, making several key saves, while Portland was down two men for 1:44. Even though, they were able to fend off this two-man advantage, Portland was ultimately felled by their lack of discipline. After Brett Clayton tripped Jarret Tyszka, Seattle would make Portland pay. Jerret Smith took the puck off a smooth cross-ice pass from  Scott Eansor and fired it towards the net. Donavon Neuls tipped it at the backdoor, as Jack Dougherty tried to contend with Jamal Watson in front of the net. Even more gut-wrenching for the Hawks was the fact that Portland nearly scored the go-ahead goal moments earlier when Rihards Bukarts banged one off of Logan Flodell and then the post.

Scott Eansor, who had recently returned from injury, showed why he's one of the best defensive-forwards in the game, moments after Neuls's marker. He anticipated a lazy, backhand outlet pass at the Portland blue line by Evan Weinger and streamed in one a two-on-one rush. He then found Watson on the right wing and the overage forward made Hill commit to a forehand shot, before slipping a backhand past the goalie for a 3-1 lead. Weinger had to have learned his lesson the hard way, that when you face an aggressive and quick team like Seattle, you cannot make any blind passes, especially in your own zone.

Portland narrowed the gap to one, early in the third period as Jack Dougherty fired a shot hard off of the end boards. The puck came bouncing to the slot where only Paul Bittner was waiting. He collected the puck and beat Flodell for his second of the game. The goal was Bittner's third in the last two games. He showed magnificent anticipation on the goal, timing his rush into the zone, with when the puck would be coming off of the boards. His goal also appeared to steal some of the momentum back for Portland.

This was undone moments later, though as Seattle scored a controversial goal for the 4-2 lead. In a scrum around the Portland net, the puck bounced out to Nick Holowko, who beat a down and out Hill. Why Hill was down and out is what made the goal controversial. If you watch the replay, you will see that Jamal Watson hit Hill in the face mask part of his helmet, dislodging it from his head, while the puck was still loose around him. Hill's helmet would eventually fall off, but not before Holowko's shot had found the net. In today's NHL, with many goals now being called back to interference with the goalie, there  is little doubt that this egregious interference would not result in an overturned goal. However, the WHL is unable to utilize the video replays as well as the NHL, because the camera quality and quantity pales in comparison to the professional game. With the camera angles they had to work with, I do not fault the officiating crew with this call.

Seattle closed out the scoring on the night when Matthew Wedman tipped a shot form the point past Hill, for his third of the season.

In the loss, Adin Hill stopped 31 of 36 shots he faced. Meanwhile, Flodell was good for 24 saves on 26 shots.

Portland's power play was 1/6 on the night while their penalty kill was 3/4. Their PP on the year is now 16/90 (20%, ninth in the WHL), while their PK is now 78/96 (81.2%, 10th in the WHL).

Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	Faceoffs	F.O. %	Hits	Blocked Shots	PIMs
Iverson	0	0	0	2	0/1	0%	3	0	0
Turgeon	0	0	0	2	13/24	54.2%	2	1	0
Weinger	0	0	0	1	-	-	3	0	0
Bukarts	0	1	1	2	-	-	1	0	0
Abols	0	0	0	1	9/15	60%	2	0	0
Bittner	2	0	2	4	0/1	0%	2	0	0
Overhardt	0	0	0	4	4/6	66.7%	0	0	2
Glass	0	0	0	0	2/5	40%	0	0	0
McKenzie	0	0	0	3	-	-	7	2	0
Clayton	0	0	0	0	-	-	1	0	2
Hughes	0	0	0	0	3/7	42.9%	1	1	0
Veloso	0	0	0	0	-	-	3	0	0
Heinrich	0	0	0	1	-	-	3	0	0
Dougherty	0	1	1	1	-	-	5	0	2
Jones	0	1	1	3	-	-	3	0	2
Texeira	0	0	0	2	-	-	6	1	0
MacEachern	0	0	0	0	-	-	4	1	0
De Jong	0	0	0	0	-	-	3	0	0

Notes:

-Portland was without Alex Schoenborn. His spot was taken by Evan Weinger, who struggled defensively. Besides the poor pass that led to Seattle's third goal, he seemed to really struggle with Seattle's speed.

-The basic tenants of the way Seattle scores goal appears to be much the same as last season. They utilize their electrifying speed to set up on odd man rushes and are quite adept at tipping point shot past unaware goalies.

-A day after Keegan Iverson's eight-game point streak ended, Alex Overhardt's four-game goal streak and Cody Glass's four game assist streaks both ended. Overhardt took the first of the two penalties that left Portland down two men, when he got caught flat-footed and tripped Owen Seidel.

-Rodrigo Abols briefly left the game after taking a high-stick to the mouth from Scott Eansor. He returned and did not appear to miss his regular rotation.

-Seattle has now won the first two games vs. Portland this season. They set up a thriller on Wednesday night with Kelowna. The two teams appear to be the class of the Western Conference so far and are both playing at the top of their games right now.

-The line with Turgeon, Iverson and now Weinger, did not look nearly the same as they did with Schoenborn in that spot. he has quietly been one of Portland's most consistent forwards this year and they badly need him back in the lineup.

-Two guys who are starting to show a little chemistry together are Ryan Hughes and Skyler McKenzie. They both are small and quick and seem to like playing an up-tempo, quick-passing style. I would like to see the two of them get to play together a little more.

-Keoni Texeira has lost his spot on the point of the second power play unit. Blake Heinirch is now playing there opposite Caleb Jones. Texeira has looked great at times this year, but this was not one of his finer games. He appeared to really struggle with Seattle's speedy forwards and was caught out of position on several occasions. He has the potential to be a great two-way d-man but needs to be more consistent in both areas.

-That second power play unit now features two 16-year-olds up front. The more Ryan Hughes and Cody Glass get to experience playing together on the man advantage the better they will be in this role over the next couple of seasons.

-Portland next plays Wednesday night vs. the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors.



WHL Scores, News and Links:

Friday Scores:
-Brandon fired 53 shots on net and only won when 16-year-old forward Stelio Mattheos found the net in the second for the eventual game winner.
-Kootenay d-man Cale Fleury played the hero for the Kootenay Ice, scoring the overtime winner in a 2-1 win over Moose Jaw. It was only Fleury's second goal of his WHL career and helped the Ice stop a four-game losing streak that plummeted them to near the bottom of the WHL standings.
-Chase Witala scored his seventh of the year in the third period and it was the eventual game winner for Prince George as they took down Lethbridge 4-2. Kody McDonald logged an impressive 20 penalty minutes in the win for P.G.
-Ivan Nikolishin scored a natural hat-trick for Red Deer and they prevailed over Saskatoon 6-3.
-Cole Sanford scored a power play goal with only 53 seconds left and Medicine Hat eked out a 2-1 win over visiting Everett. Silvertips' rookie Riley Sutter scored his first career WHL goal in front of his family in the first period.
-Seattle soared out to a 3-1 second period lead, before allowing Kamloops to crawl back and tie it in the third. Then Keegan Kolesar scored the OT winner on a  nifty backhand shot in front of the net. Seattle had to be thinking about all of the leads they had blown recently, when the Blazers stormed back.
-Payton Lee did not have the first start as an Edmonton  Oil King, he had been hoping for. Kelowna chased him from the net in the second period, after scoring eight goals on just 12 shots. The Rockets ended up beating the Oil Kings 6-1.
-Swift Current's five-game U.S. Division swing ended with a dull thud, as they fell to Spokane 4-1. The Chiefs got four goals from four different players in the win. The Broncos lost all five games vs. the U.S. Division and next traveled to Kootenay.
-The Vancouver Giants could write a book about how to lose tough games this year. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Victoria, but gave up four straight goals to go down 4-3. Then they got a clutch third period goal from Chase Lang, before giving up a gut-punch of a game winner with 6:29 left from Ryan Gagnon.
Saturday Scores:
-Reid Gardiner is running away with the title of Prince Albert Raider's MVP this year. He was in on all three regulation goals for P.A. and scored the OT winner in a 4-3 victory over Regina.
-The Ice made it two straight wins by beating Swift Current 2-1, behind a clutch goal from 19-year-old forward Matt Alfaro. The Broncos losing streak is now at six games. They did get leading scorer Jon Martin back in the lineup though. On the flip side, the Ice lost Luke Philp to a leg injury that had him in a boot by the end of the night. They are already without Jaedon Descheneau for the season.
-Cory Millete had a four point night for Lethbridge as they beat Saskatoon 5-2. The big night comes just a couple games after he had two goals for the Hurricanes.
-Calgary won their fourth straight and handed Everett their second straight loss, 4-3 in a shootout. Radel Fazleev had the only goal of the circus in the win.
-Prince George got two more goals from Case Witala and they took down Medicine Hat 5-2.
-Edmonton was up 3-1 entering the game's final frame in Kamloops and looked to be in control. Instead, the Blazers scored four straight, en route to a 5-3 victory. Collin Shirley had three points in the victory.
-Spokane won their third straight behind overage forward Adam Helewka's two goals. The beat Moose Jaw 5-2. The Warriors were again without Brayden Point, who is with the team on the trip.
-Vancouver lost again, this time 5-2 to the red hot Kelowna Rockets. The Giants have now won only two of their last 17 contests.
-In what was likely the craziest game of the week, Tri-City scored three times and Victoria five times, in the games opening period. The Americans found a way to come back and tie the game, before Vladislav Lukin netted the OT winner. Tri-City has given up eight total goals over their last two, first periods.
Sunday Scores:
-The Hitmen are rolling as they beat Saskatoon 5-2, for their fifth straight victory. Jake Bean and Radel Fazleev each had three points in Calgary's win.
Links:
-Another solid Pucklandia podcast is out. This one is with the Moose Jaw Warriors' beat writer Lucas Punkari. Lucas mentioned on the podcast that forward Noah Gregor was injured last season against Portland. As he mentioned while on the pipeline show this summer he was in fact injured, when receiving a check from Portland's Keegan Iverson. If there is some noticeable animosity towards Iverson from the Warriors, this could be why Wednesday.
-On the Pipeline show on Saturday, they played a clip of Scott Mydan fighting with Stu Barnes (likely from 1991). The fight was one-sided in Mydan's favor, which should not come as much of a surprise to Winterhawks' fans who remember the crazy strength that little (5'8") Mydan had. The interview with the former T.C. Americans' star forward is a can't miss.
-The latest NHL Central Scouting list is out and Brendan De Jong, Evan Weinger, Keoni Texeira and Rodrigo Abols are all listed as "C" skaters. This, essentially, means that they believe these four should all be late-round draft picks in next June's draft.

Winterhawks in the NHL:

Friday:
-Ryan Johansen had two points for Columbus (one goal and one assist) in a 4-0 win over Seth Jones and Nashville. It has been reported that Paul Gaustad is out with a lower body injury for the Predators, though he has not been in the lineup since November 21st anyways.
Saturday:
-Colorado was blown out by Washington, but got yet another goal from Cody McLeod. McLeod already has four goals on the year so far.
-Vancouver got a huge 6-3 win over Chicago and two former Winterhawks factored in the scoring. Marian Hossa had an assist on a Jonathan Toews goal and Jannik Hansen had a goal and an assist in the game. The Hockey writers put up a great piece on Hossa, calling him a "Hockey God."
Sunday:
-Ryan Johansen had his fourth goal of the year (hey, same as McLeod), but Columbus fell to San Jose 5-3. Despite the goal, he had a season-low in ice time and seems to still be in coach John Tortorella's dog house. Also, of note for CBJ, is the fact that Brandon Dubinsky will be missing some time to have surgery on his elbow, after a cut he suffered on October, 22nd became infected.
Monday:
-Cody McLeod notched his fifth goal of the season, helping Colorado to a 4-1 win over Winnipeg. McLeod's ice time has increased during his hot streak and is now up to over 15 minutes a game.

Winterhawks in the AHL:

Friday:
-Nic Petan had his first AHL assist but the Manitoba Moose fell to Bakersfield 2-1. Interestingly enough, the assist was on a goal scored by longtime Spokane Chiefs' defenseman Brenden Kichton.
Saturday:
-Derrick Pouliot had two assists for Wilkes Barre/Scranton and they beat Albany 5-3. He now has 12 points in 14 games so far this year.
-Brendan Leipsic had two assists for Toronto and the Marlies took down Rochester 5-1. He was named first star of the game and apparently was rather unlucky not to score, with how well he played (led team with five shots on goal).
-Taylor Aronson notched his seventh assist of the year for Milwaukee in a 3-1 win over San Diego. He is currently fourth on the team in scoring and tops among Admirals' d-men.
Sunday:
-Chase De Leo had an assist and Manitoba got Bakersfield back 3-1. Of course, De Leo's assist was on a goal from another former WHL player J.C. Lipon (Kamloops).
-Brendan Leipsic had the eventual game winner with under four minutes left in the game for Toronto in a 6-4 win over Binghamton.

Winterhawks in the ECHL:

Friday:
-Cam Reid and Kevin Young each had an assist for Reading in a 5-4 loss to Elmira.
-Taylor Peters had a three point night (one goal and two assists) for Idaho in a 5-4 loss to Colorado. Peters now had 10 points this year.
Saturday:
-Reid had an assist and Kevin Young had a goal and an assist as Reading loss to Elmira again by a 5-4 score. Reid now has a four-game point streak going, while Young has a three-game streak.
Monday:
-Thomas Frazee had an assist in Atlanta's 4-3 victory over Greenville.