Winterhawks Felled by Rockets and Their Three Power Play Goals 5-4

The Kelowna Rockets were given three power plays Friday night in Portland and they converted on all of them. They took the first of four meetings this year between the two teams that played in the last two Western Conference finals by a 5-4 score. Oddly enough, Portland got all four of their goals from defensemen and two of those d-men were scoring their first goals of the year. Kelowna was led by Nick Merkley, who had one goal and three assists for his first four point night of the season.

Portland opened the scoring in the first period, when Evan Weinger, who was recently moved to the fourth line laid a brilliant pass to an onrushing Conor MacEachern. The rookie d-man took the pass and wired a brilliant shot glove side on Kelowna goalie Jackson Whistle for his first career WHL goal. They do not get much prettier for first goals by a d-man at this level. The Rockets responded after Skyler McKenzie chopped down Kelowna forward Dillon Dube, giving the Rockets their first power play. On the man advantage Nick Merkley threw a nice cross ice pass to defenseman Gordie Ballhron who smartly fired a low to the ice point shot in on Hill. Swiss import player Calvin Thurkauf was the first person to the puck and he quickly punched the puck past a sprawled Hill for his fifth goal of the season. Kelowna was not done in the period as, after Alex Schoenborn gave them another power play, Tyson Baillie took a great back side pass from Cal Foote and wired a shot glove-hand side past Hill. The Rockets took a 2-1 advantage into the second period.

The Winterhawks' Blake Heinrich has been one of Portland's best d-men at activating into the play and creating chances, but somehow he had yet to score a goal this year. That slump would not last the night as he expertly waited for Alex Overhardt to screen Jackson Whistle and then fired a high slap shot past the out of position goalie to tie the score.

The game would then get more entertaining in the third period and see it's second of three lead changes when Keoni Texeira got into the scoring action. Texeira's goal was similar to MacEachern's as he jumped into the rush and was fed a great pass from Dominic Turgeon. The Fontana, California native beat Whistle and everyone in the Moda Center was momentarily excited. As they have done so often over the last couple of seasons, the Rockets stormed back though. First, they tied the score when Nick Merkley controlled the puck deep and found fresh off the bench Rodney Southam, who took the great pass and beat Hill. Then, after Paul Bittner's lazy looking zone exit pass was intercepted by Cole Linaker, Merkley found the rebound and the Rockets took the lead. They were no done yet though as on the four-on-three power play, they found wide open Baillie back door and had a shocking 5-3 lead.

Portland showed good moxie though, by not giving up and peppering shots in on Whistle over the last five minutes of the game. They even found the went on the power play, as Caleb Jones took his third straight point shot and got it through, beating Whistle and closing the gap with just over two minutes to play. The Hawks were given another man advantage late and put a ton of pressure on Whistle and the Rockets but could not tie the score.

Adin Hill gave up five goals for the first time this year, though I would not claim he had a poor game. He ended up stopping 28 of 33 shots. Jackson Whistle was not great until he was needed at the end, stopping 26 of 30.

Portland's power play was 1/5 on the night and is now 11/58 or 19 percent on the season (tied for 12th overall). The PK which had been a strength for Portland faltered tonight, giving up many quality chances and letting in goals on all three Rockets' chances. They are now 59/72 for 81.9 percent, falling to sixth in the league

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	F/O	F/O %	Hits	B/S	PIM
Iverson	0	1	1	2	-	-	8	2	0
Turgeon	0	2	2	1	13/20	65%	3	0	0
Schoenborn	0	0	0	4	-	-	4	0	6
Bukarts	0	0	0	0	-	-	2	1	2
Abols	0	0	0	4	9/21	42.9%	0	0	0
Bittner	0	0	0	4	-	-	3	0	0
McKenzie	0	1	1	2	-	-	5	0	2
Overhardt	0	0	0	1	8/16	50%	4	1	0
Veloso	0	1	1	0	-	-	6	1	0
Weinger	0	1	1	0	-	-	4	0	0
Hughes	0	1	1	1	3/8	37.5%	0	0	0
Gray	0	0	0	0	-	-	2	2	0
Jones	1	0	1	5	-	-	2	0	0
Texeira	1	0	1	4	-	-	5	2	0
De Jong	0	0	0	1	-	-	4	2	0
Heinrich	1	0	1	2	-	-	10	1	0
MacEachern	1	0	1	1	-	-	3	0	0
Czaikowski	0	0	0	0	-	-	1	1	0

Heinrich

Notes:
-Rihards Bukarts made his Portland debut this year, after clearing up his visa situation. He seemed to struggle finding his footing over the first two periods and did not appear to have much instant chemistry with his new linemates Paul Bittner and Rodrigo Abols. As the game went on though, he started to shine and made a nice play that helped set up the Keoni Texeira goal. He was moved onto the point on the top power play and it is fairly obvious those five need to get used ot one another. As soon as he started to look a little more comfortable on the point thogu, he helped crate a majority of the scoring chances late and seemed to make it a point to feed Caleb Joens the puck on the point. Eventually, Jones found twine. Bukarts was maligned often over his poor defensive zone play, but he made two strong backchecks in this game, taking away scoring chances. He does not appear as speedy as I thought he was but at the absolute least he gives Portland another forward who is good at zone entry on the power play (something any team would take). I cannot wait to see him get used to Paul Bittner and start setting him up.
-Oddly enough, the right handed shot Bukarts played on the left wing, while the left handed shot Bittner played on the right. This has to be preference on Bukarts' end, as Bittner had been playing on the left. I used to think that right handed shots nearly always wanted to play on the right and left handed shots always wanted to play on the left, but this is not the case. Often right handed players, like the options that  coming into the zone of the left side gives them. Former Winterhawk Todd Robinson was one such player (though he was a center). He would often enter the zone on the left and have a better angle to either pass the puck backdoor or find an onrushing defenseman. Moving Bittner over to the right may create another wrinkle that this lien will have to iron out though.
-Jack Dougherty was again out of the lineup with an upper body injury.
-In his place with Blake Heinrich skated Brendan De Jong. He played solid for the most part, but did cough up the puck in a bad spot, creating a Rockets' scoring chance.
-Austin Gray skated in his first game this year with Portland after returning form an illness. Gray skated on the fourth line with Ryan Hughes and Evan Weinger and played pretty well. Gray blocked two shots and threw a couple checks, despite looking a bit thinner after his illness.
-Skyler McKenzie and Alex Schoenborn have been the more careless penalty takers recently for Portland. The Hawks were able to win games recently despite taking way more penalties than their opponents, but it is definitely not a recipe for success.
-The Rockets and Winterhawks go again tomorrow night.

Notable WHL Scores:

-Swift Current got two goals from Jon Martin, who now has 18 and they beat Regina 3-1.

-In a matchup of division leaders Red Deer went into Prince Albert and shut down Reid Gardiner and the Raiders 4-0. Rylan Toth made 34 saves and the Rebels got goals from four different scorers in the win.

-Moose Jaw got four points from Noah Gregor and they ousted Saskatoon 7-3. Brayden Point, Brett Howden and Dryden Hunt each had two point nights for the Warriors.

-Victoria ruined Brandon's homecoming with a 4-1 win over the Wheat Kings. The Royals have now on five straight and sit atop the standings in the WHL with a 13-5-0-1 record (27 points). The Royals got 39 saves from Coleman Vollrath in the win. 

-Edmonton held Calgary without a goal on eight power play chances and they won 4-1. Branden Klatt and Lane Bauer each had two points for the Oil Kings.

-Kootenay won 4-2 in overtime over Medicine Hat. They got the inner from Luke Philp, who now has 12 goals on the year. The Ice tied the game with a goal from River Beaddie with under a minute to play in regulation.

-Seattle has had a nightmare swing through Alberta and it continued with a 5-2 loss to Lethbridge. Logan Flodell was pulled after giving up three goals on 13 shots, giving credence to the belief that goaltending is the Thunderbirds biggest weakness.

-Vancouver fell for the seventh straight time tonight, this time to Kamloops 2-1. The Giants have made a flurry of deals recently, but it has not had an impact in the win column yet. The Blazers were led by goals from Jake Kryski and Matt Needham.

-Kevin Davis scored his first of the year and it was the overtime winner as Everett beat Prince George

2-1. Another 2-1 game for the Silvertips as they won their second straight. New goalie Nick McBride did not dress for the Cougars.

Winterhawks in the NHL:

-Colton Sceviour had two assists as Dallas beat Carolina 4-1. He now has four on the season for the Stars.

-Brandon Dubinsky notched an assist, but Columbus fell to Anaheim 4-2.



Winterhawks in the AHL:

-Travis Ehrhardt blasted home his second of the year, but Utica fell to Brendan Leipsic and the Toronto Marlies 5-4.

-Jason Labarbera stopped 24 of 27 as Lehigh Valley lost to Hershey 4-2.

-Derrick Pouliot was not held out of the lineup, despite his actions last weekend and he had a great game scoring once and adding an assist in a 4-1 Baby Penguins win over St. John's.

-Craig Cunnigham scored twice and Springfield poured it on the Portland Pirates 6-1.

-Ty Rattie was sent down from the St. Louis Blues to the AHL's Chicago Wolves. Rattie had two assists over his latest stint with the big club.

Winterhawks in the ECHL:

-Two nights after he shut out Evansville and Troy Rutkowski, Mac Carruth gave up four goals on 27 shots and the Indy Fuel fell to the IceMen. Rutkowski scored his first of the season in the win.

-Tristan King had an assist as Allen beat Rapid City 4-1.

Glass and Canada Red Fall in a Shootout:

-Cody Glass and team Canada Red lost to Russia in a shootout Friday night 3-2. TCR had a 2-0 first period  lead, but the Russians stormed back and tied it with a goal apiece in the second and third periods. Then the Russians converted one out of six shootout chances, while Canada failed to score on any of theirs. Glass was not given a chance to shoot for TCR. They will now play for the Bronze Medal today against Sweden.

-Prospect Scott Reedy and the U.S. U-17 team fell to Finland in overtime. The Finnish squad scored the game deciding goal 6:32 into the extra session. Scott Reedy had two goals in the game and finished the tourney with nine points.