Portland opened the scoring when Evan Weinger drove the left wing and flipped a nifty backhand pass right to Ryan Hughes at the back door. Hughes punched it in for his first career WHL goal. There is assuredly many more to come from the talented 16-year-old in his career in Portland. Then after a scuffle led to four-on-four action, Keegan Iverson led a rush into the Rockets' zone, finding the long stick of Brendan De Jong for the 2-0 lead. Portland's last goal of the period came when Caleb Jones pinched down and took a great feed from Skyler McKenzie in the high slot. The Edmonton Oilers prospect beat Kelowna goalie Michael Herringer on his glove side, effectively chasing him form the game.
Kelowna came out in the second period with Jackson Whistle between the pipes, meaning Herringer finished with eight saves on 11 shots. The Rockets were still reeling until about the eight minute mark of the period, as Portland continued to play a great team game and control a lot of the possession. The game changed abruptly though when Paul Bittner could not get the puck deep into Kelowna's zone and Cole Linaker found Nick Merkley behind Portland's defense for a shorthanded breakaway. Merkley made a nifty move and beat Hill glove side to put Kelowna on the board. The Rockets fed off of Merkley's goal and seized the momentum. They closed the gap to one when Rodney Southam's shot was blocked in front by Caleb Jones. The loose puck was corralled at the side of the net by Kole Lind. Lind then got the puck in front and Tyson Baillie poked it home. Kelowna then tied the game when Cal Foote's fantastic outlet pass found Calvin Thurkauf on the wing, driving into Portland's zone. Cole Linaker made a smart play by finding a gap in the defense and driving the net. Thurkauf found Linaker, who beat Hill to tie the game. The nightmare period for Portland would conclude with Lucas Johnansen's point shot being deflected past Adin Hill by Rodney Southam for the 4-3 Kelowna lead.
 |
| Dube injured his eye |
Portland's defense continued to reel when a Joe Gatenby outlet pass found Kole Lind, who drove into the zone. Lind danced around Brendan De Jong and beat Hill on the short side. Lind gave the Rockets a 5-3, early third period lead. Portland finally responded after five straight Kelowna goals, when Dominic Turgeon made a nifty pass from behind the net to Alex Schoenborn. Schoenborn put it home past an unaware Whistle for his sixth of the season. The Rockets retook the two goal lead, off another weird play. Rodney Southam's shot it the post and bounced out to the high slot. Kole Lind deflected the puck with his body toward the net and Justin Kirkland found the rebound for the goal. It looked like Lind was not even aware he was making a great play on the puck. The rockets got their seventh goal past Hill, later in the third when, on the power play, Tyson Baillie made a brilliant pass back door to Kirkland. Conor MacEachern nearly fell over trying to block the pass, but was unable to deflect it. Rihards Bukart got the Hawks closer when he smartly found an end board deflection off a Rodrigo Abols shot and beat Whistle for his first as a Hawk. Devante Stephens closed out the scoring with an empty net goal.
Adin Hill gave up seven goals, despite not playing terribly. He was not at his best, mind you, but definitely wasn't terrible. He stopped 22 of 29. Herringer gave up three goals on 11 shots and Whistle stopped 19 of 21.
Portland's power play was 1/3 and is now 12 of 61 for 19.7% (12th in the WHL). They gave up their first shorthanded goal of the season to Merkley. Portland's PK was 3/6 in the game and gave up five power play goals to Kelowna in the two game over the weekend. Portland's PK is now 63/78 or 80.8% (10th in the WHL).
Stats:
Player
|
Goals
|
Assists
|
Points
|
Shots
|
F/O
|
F/O %
|
Hits
|
B/S
|
PIM
|
Iverson
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
0/3
|
0%
|
4
|
3
|
0
|
Turgeon
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
18/28
|
64.3%
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
Schoenborn
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
0/1
| 0% | 6 | 0 | 0 |
Bukarts
| 1 |
0
|
1
| 4 | 0/1 | 0% | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Abols | 0 |
1
| 1 | 2 | 11/17 |
64.7%
| 8 | 2 |
0
|
| Bittner | 0 |
1
| 1 | 4 | 1/2 | 50% | 2 |
0
|
0
|
McKenzie
|
0
|
1
|
1
| 1 | 1/1 | 100% | 2 |
2
|
0
|
| Overhardt | 0 |
1
|
1
| 1 | 6/8 |
75%
| 3 | 0 |
2
|
| Veloso | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
-
|
-
| 4 | 0 |
0
|
| Weinger |
0
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
-
|
-
| 3 |
0
| 2 |
Hughes
|
1
|
0
|
1
| 2 |
7/10
|
70%
| 2 | 0 |
0
|
Gray
|
0
|
0
|
0
| 2 |
-
|
-
| 1 | 0 |
0
|
| Jones |
1
|
2
|
3
| 2 |
-
|
-
| 8 | 3 |
2
|
| Texeira |
0
| 0 |
0
| 2 |
-
|
-
| 6 |
2
| 2 |
| De Jong |
1
| 0 | 1 | 1 |
-
|
-
| 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Heinrich |
0
|
0
|
0
| 3 |
-
|
-
| 8 | 1 | 4 |
| MacEachern | 0 |
0
|
0
| 0 |
-
|
-
| 1 | 1 |
2
|
| Czaikowski | 0 |
0
|
0
|
0
|
-
|
-
| 3 | 0 |
0
|
Notes:
-Dillon Dube took teammate Joe Gatenby's stick to the eye and was rushed to the hospital, according to Rockets' play by play guy Regan Bartel. There were some concerns his vision might be permanently affected,, but that is apparently not the case. He is expected to return in about three weeks.
-Portland's defense did a fantastic job of taking away the back door pass in the first period, as well as, boxing out the Rockets from loose pucks around Adin Hill. This was not the case in the last two periods. Kelowna had a lot more room in making passes to open players, leaving Hill hung out top dry. Pretty much every Portland d-man was caught out of position on one of the seven goals on Hill.
-Caleb Jones had his first three point night as a Winterhawk, but likely will be thinking about the many goals against he was out there for. His positioning has been suspect over the past few games and it was atrocious tonight. He has to do a better job of winning battles around Hill and positioning is key in that. He is obviously still adjusting to playing in the WHL. Without Jack Dougherty in the lineup, Portland needs Jones to be better in his own zone.
-Rihards already started to look comfortable in only his second game in Portland. The line of him, Rodrigo Abols and Paul Bittner appears primed to start adding some offense. Bukarts made a much better effort at getting the puck towards the net. Kelowna did a great job at blocking his shots, but this is a good habit for Bukarts to have. Bittner has not gotten as many shots this year as expected and Abols is more of a set up guy, so Bukarts may need to be the shooter on that line.
-I am a big fan of the Hawks' fourth line combination of Ryan Hughes centering Austin Gray and Evan Weinger. Weinger has the skill to play in the top six, but due to numbers and the fact that Coach Jamie Kompon loves the current third line together, he's on the last forward unit. His speed and strength should cause matchup problems for other team's fourth lines and this should create more scoring chances for Hughes and Gray.
-There is some concern that Portland does not know what there identity is. They played a really strong defensive style against Everett, but got caught up playing a high tempo style against Kelowna. Jack Dougherty is pretty key to the first style and he should be back soon. Blocking shots was key to the five game win streak and Portland did not block enough vs. Kelowna. It will be interesting to see what style Portland will exhibit as the season continues next Wednesday in Kennewick.
Notable WHL Scores:
Saturday:
 |
| Point |
-It appears that the Victoria Royals' East Division swing has brought the team together. They finished a perfect six game road trip with a 6-1 win over the Regina Pats. They now have the best record in the WHL at 14-5-0-1 (29 points).
-Brock Hamm stopped 3 of 35 shots against and the Saskatoon Blades beat the visiting Red Deer Rebels 4-2.
-Jon Martin scored once and added two assists as Swift Current handed Brandon their second straight loss 4-1. Martin is now nearing the 20 goal mark already with 19 through 18 games.
-Lethbridge stormed back with two third period goals from Andrew Nielsen and Ryley Lindgren, edging Kootenay 3-2.
-The upswing of the Edmonton Oil Kings' season continued with a 3-2 win over Calgary. They have now won three in a row. Edmonton got the winner from Brett Pollock with under three minutes left.
-Seattle stopped their four game skid with a 5-2 win in Medicine Hat. They went 2-4 on their road trip through Alberta. The members of the T-birds' top line of Keegan Kolesar, Ryan Gropp and Mathew Barzal each had two points.
-Patrick Bajkov scored a power play goal in the second period that would stand as the game winner as Everett beat Vancouver 3-2. Bajkov has three goals this year and two of them were on the power play. Vancouver's losing streak hit eight games with the loss.
-Collin Shirley had two goals and Deven Sideroff had two assists and Kamloops beat Vancouver 5-2. Both Shirley and Sideroff were named as replacements for team WHL today following strong play recently from the duo.
-Spokane rolled Tri-City 8-1 in Kennewick behind three points each from Evan Fiala, Curtis Miske and Nik Anderson. a lot of the Chiefs' goals were scored off of deflection or rebounds in the garbage areas around the Americans' net. Tri-City is currently without a bevy of their defensemen and it showed in the lopsided loss.
Winterhawks in the NHL:
Sunday:
-Sven Baertschi scored his first of the year to tie the game with under six minutes to play and send it to overtime. The Vancouver Canucks ended up losing in OT but can thank Sven for getting one point out of the night. Baertchi was healthy scratched the previous game so this was a great response from the Swiss forward.
-Marian Hossa was back in the lineup in a 4-2 Chicago win over Edmonton. He had missed the previous three games with an injury.
Winterhawks in the AHL:
Saturday:
-Chase De Leo had an assist and the Manitoba Moose shut out Charlotte 3-0.
-Taylor Aronson had the primary assist on the overtime game winning goal and Milwaukee beat Rockford 3-2.
Sunday:
-De Leo has a two game point streak going now as he assisted on former Kamloops Blazer J,.C. Lipon's shorthanded goal. The Manitoba Moose fell to Charlotte 3-2 in the game though.
-Ty Rattie is back in the AHL scoring goals. He scored the game tying goal and the Chicago Wolves won in OT 4-3 over San Antonio.
-Jason Labarbera allowed four goals on 27 shots and Lehigh Valley lost to Binghamton 4-1. Lababrera is 1-5 this season with a 4.15 GAA.
Winterhawks in the ECHL:
Saturday:
-Cam Reid had an assist and Kevin Young had a three point night for Reading in a 5-1 win over Greenville.
-Gasper Kopitar scored for Manchester and they beat Brampton 5-1.
-Anton Cederholm had his fourth assist of the season as Kalamazoo beat Fort Wayne 6-4.
Sunday:
-Reid and Young kept their strong weekends going with a point apiece as Reading swept the weekend series with Greenville with a 5-0 win.
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