Portland Gets Only One Point Out of Three Games vs. Seattle and Kamloops

Bear opened the scoring for Seattle

Seattle 3 Portland 1:

Friday night in Kent, Portland was hoping that they could extend their three-game winning streak and help close the gap on Spokane's lead over them. Instead they ran into a Seattle Thunderbird team who finally had a full roster and had just upgraded in goal.

In the first period Seattle opened the scoring after Seattle's Alexander True controlled play down low vs. Alex Overhardt's line and cycled the puck out to an open Ethan Bear. Bear fired a point shot past a screened Adin Hill and notched his 12th goal of the year. Bear's 12 goals are the third most by a WHL d-man. Skyler McKenzie was late getting out to cover the point, after being sucked down low by the flow of the play. Covering the point was something he really struggled with at the start of the season, but has markedly improved at since then. His improvement has been so great, that he is now on the second forward pairing on the penalty kill.

Seattle extended the lead in the second on an incredible and at the same time odd, play. Recently acquired forward Cavin Leth flipped the puck with his backhand off of the side boards in his own zone and right to a rushing Nolan Volcan. Volcan then drove in alone on Adin Hill and beat him through the five-hole for the 2-0 lead. Leth further ingratiated himself with his new fans in Seattle, when he poked home the rebound of a Scott Eansor shot, while both teams had four skaters each. The breakout for Seattle was started, when Portland's Rihards Bukarts lost the puck at the Seattle blue line. Bukarts has been Portland's most potent offensive player, since he was acquired from Brandon, but is susceptible to bad turnovers like this one.

After only amassing 14 total shots through the first two periods, Portland woke up in the third period. They got their first goal of the game 3:25 into the third in a familiar way at the ShoWare Center. Just as Paul Bittner did the last time Portland played there, Colton Veloso was first to the puck after it was shot off of the end boards and put it past Landon Bow. The boards are active at the arena in Kent and oddly enough, Portland has been the team to recognize this and cash in on it. The Winterhawks kept the pressure up in the third, but were turned away by former Swift Current Bronco Landon Bow. The Hawks even had consecutive penalties to two of Seattle's top-four d-men, but could not capitalize.

The win for Seattle, means they run their record against Portland to 3-1 so far this year.

Adin Hill stopped 24 of 27 shots he faced, but was outshone by the newest U.S. Division netminder, who stopped 24 of 25 in his debut. Portland's power play was 0/4, while Seattle's was 0/3.

Game Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	F/O	F/O %	Hits	BKS	PIM
Abols	0	0	0	1	1/3	33.3%	4	1	0
Turgeon	0	0	0	4	8/26	30.1%	2	0	0
Iverson	0	0	0	3	-	-	8	0	0
Bukarts	0	0	0	5	-	-	0	2	2
Glass	0	0	0	1	6/14	42.9%	1	1	0
Schoenborn	0	0	0	1	-		3	1	0
McKenzie	0	0	0	2	-	-	3	1	2
Overhardt	0	0	0	2	8/15	53.3%	2		0
Weinger	0	0	0	1	-	-	1	2	2
Clayton	0	1	1	0	-	-	3		0
Hughes	0	0	0	0	3/7	42.9%	0	0	0
Veloso	1	0	1	1	-	-	0	0	0
Heinrich	0	0	0	0	-	-	1	3	2
Dougherty	0	0	0	2	-	-	2	1	0
Jones	0	1	1	3	-	-	3	2	0
Texeira	0	0	0	2	-	-	1	0	0
MacEachern	0	0	0	0	-	-	1	0	0
De Jong	0	0	0	0	-	-		1	0

Notes:

-Portland's Blake Heinrich and Jack Dougherty actually did a fine job on Seattle's potent top line of Mathew Barzal, Keegan Kolesar and Ryan Gropp. They held them off of the score sheet, which is a rare feat. Dougherty made one of the plays of the game, when Barzal and Gropp created a turnover and had a two-on-one on him in tight on the goal. Dougherty timed sliding down onto his belly on the ice, with when Barzal was trying to pass, turning the puck away. It is rare in Portland to see a d-man go down to take away the pass, as well as Dougherty did in this spot.
-Portland lost their first eight draws to start the game. This has become a bit of an issue as of late and cannot be helping their slow starts in possession and scoring recently.
-Portland's line of Dominic Turgeon, Rodrigo Abols and Keegan Iverson really struggled. They just were not in sync and had the worst "puck luck." Turgeon had the puck roll off of his stick on numerous occasions.
-Bpw's best save of the night was on a back door play to Bukarts on the power play, that he had a wide open net to shoot on. Bow slid across and robbed the Latvian sniper.
-Caleb Jones extended his point streak to six-games with an assist on the Veloso goal.
-I noticed a tendency that Matt Barzal has to fall right before getting hit along the boards. The first time, I assumed he lost an edge. The next two times, I realized it had to be a habit. This is an incredibly dangerous thing for him to do. Dropping down at the last minute could cause a skate to come up on him and could also cause an awkward fall into the boards for the person trying to lay the hit.
-As the game wore on, Portland seemed to really want the Alex Overhardt line out there against Barzal's line. In this writer's opinion they had much better success then Turgeon's line was having.

Ryan Rehill had over time winner

Kamloops 4 Portland 3 (OT):

In the first of two straight games between Kamloops and Portland, the Blazers utilized a couple terrible Portland turnovers in eking out a 4-3 over time win.

Kamloops was given a five-on-three power play late in the first period, after Alex Schoenborn was called for roughing and Jack Dougherty was ruled to have instigated a fight with Ryan Rehell after a hit Rehill had thrown on Dominic Turgeon. Both players seemed to drop their mitts at the same time, but Dougherty challenging Rehill after the hit, was ruled to have been enough. This call may be getting called more strictly as the second half of the seaosn goes, as it has not been called in Portland games until recently. Referees Tyler Adair and Nick Swaine calling this, knowing that it would put Portland two men down, defintely signals to me a league-wide effort to curb these fights. Kamloops converted on their two-man advantage, when a bouncing puck found it's way onto Matt Revel's stick with his back to the net in the slot. Revel spun around and slid it past Adin Hill to open the scoring.

On the ensuing five-on-four power play,  Kamloops had a goal go back the other way. Blake Heinrich made an excellent play defensively, chopping the puck away from Garrett Pilon and right onto the stick of Keegan Iverson. The puck was then passed over to Skyler McKenzie on the two-on-one rush. McKenzie picked the blocker-side corner on Kamloops goalie, tying the game and scoring his first career short-handed goal. McKenzie and Iverson as a second unit forward group on the PK, has been a recent development and getting a short-handed goal will mean coach Jamie Kompon will stick with his two pairings.

In the second period, Caleb Jones was surprised by the Blazers' forwards sagging back in the neutral zone and had his pocket picked at center ice by Matthew Campese. The Blazers' forward then had a breakaway the other way, in which he beat Hill and restored a one-goal Kamloops lead. The Winterhawks got that one right back as well when a bad pass by Brendan De Jong at center ice, was picked off by a Blazer. McKenzie made an incredible, behind the back play, in poke-checking the puck immediately off of the opponent's stick and right on an onrushing Evan Weinger. Weinger streaked in on Ferguson and beat him blocker-side to tie the game.

With 47 seconds left in the period, Kamloops got an odd goal. Quinn Benjafield fired a harmless looking shot on Adin Hill and had the puck sneak through Hill's five-hole. It did not appear that the shot deflected off of anything on it's way, but it very well could have. Hill's five-hole, really seems like an area that teams are targeting especially on breakaways.

Portland took over possession in the third period and amped up the pressure on the Kamloops net. They looked to be getting a power play late in teh game on two separate occasions, but it did not appear that the referees wanted to make a call. Cody Glass took a stick to the mouth and went down on one occasion and Kamloops pretty clearly fired the puck out of play for a delay-of-game on another.

Instead, Portland pulled Hill to get their man advantage and were able to tie the game on a beautiful goal from Rihards Bukarts. The Latvian overage forward, spun off a check from Matt Revel and sniped a shot up high on Ferguson. This was the third straight goal, Portland scored on this area on Ferguson, so they apparently have been doing some video review of goalies as well.

For only the second time this season, extra-time was not kind to the Winterhawks. On one end, Dominic Turgeon had two incredible chances in tight on Ferguson, but was not able to finish them off. Then, Rodrigo Abols backhand lobbed a pass from his own corner out towards the blue line and had it immediately intercepted and kept in the zone by Deven Sideroff. Eventually the puck got cycled around to Ryan Rehill and he slammed it home from the point for the win.

Portland's Adin Hill stopped 26 of 30 shots in the loss, while Ferguson stopped 30 of 33. Portland's power play was 0/2, while Kamloops' was 1/4.

Game Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	F/O	F/O %	Hits	BKS	PIM
Abols	0	0	0	2	0/2	%	4	0	0
Turgeon	0	1	1	8	23/30	%	2	1	0
Iverson	0	2	2	2	-	-	5	0	0
Bukarts	1	0	1	5	-	-	3	2	2
Glass	0	0	0	1	7/15	%	6	0	0
Schoenborn	0	0	0	1	-		2	0	4
McKenzie	1	1	2	3	0/2	-	4	1
Overhardt	0	0	0	1	8/12	%	2	2	0
Weinger	1	0	1	0	-	-	3	0	0
Clayton	0	0	0	0	-	-	3	0	0
Hughes	0	0	0	2	1/1	%	0	0	0
Veloso	0	0	0	2	-	-	0	0	0
Heinrich	0	1	1	1	-	-	6	1	2
Dougherty	0	0	0	3	-	-	2	3	17
Jones	0	0	0	0	-	-	1	2	0
Texeira	0	0	0	1	-	-	2	1	0
Czaikowski	0	0	0	0	-	-	0	2	0
De Jong	0	0	0	1	-	-	2	4	0

Notes:
-In contrast of the amazing play on an odd-man rush, Jack Dougherty made the previous night, Keoni Texeira completely misplayed a two-on-one situation in the first. Instead of going down like Dougherty, he tried to lean over and use his stick to take away the saucer pass. The pass got through quite easily and not only did Hill have to make a huge save, but Texeira committed a hooking penalty. He could learn a lot from Dougherty in how to pay an odd-man rush.
-Dominic Turgeon made a play similar to what Cavin Leth did for Seattle the previous night. In his own zone, he backhand flipped the puck into the air, out of the zone and right to Colton Veloso for a breakaway. The 18-year-old forward could not convert, but the play showcased Turgeon's ability to be dangerous from all areas on the ice.
-Rihards Bukarts was again on the bad end of an opponent's goalie making a great save in the third period. This time it was Dylan Ferguson who flung out his pad and stoned Bukarts in tight.

Connor Ingram recorded his fifth career shutout

Kamloops 3 Portland 0:

One night after stealing a win in Portland, Kamloops straight up dominated in Veteran's Memorial Coliseum and helped their cause to move up the wild card standings. They got an outstanding effort from goalie Connor Ingram, who recorded his fifth career shutout in the Blazers' win.

Kamloops opened the scoring in the game 12:05 in on a great effort from Garrett Pilon. He blocked a point shot from Brendan De Jong, springing himself for a breakaway. He stretched out Adin Hill and sneaked the puck through Hill's five-hole for his 10th goal of the year.

Kamllops doubled their lead on a shot that Hill would definitely like another look at. Matthew Campese won a board battle with Brendan De Jong and just threw the puck, along the ice, towards Portland's net. Hill was not expecting the shot and it found it's way, once again, through his wickets. De Jong was on the bad end of both of the Blazers first two goals and they both showed different areas in his game, he still needs to develop. He needs to anticipate the blocked shot and avoid committing himself to shooting, when the lane is blocked. Also, his work in the corners, needs improvement as the 6'5" d-man lacks the low center of gravity to win against smaller stouter forwards.


The last Kamloops goal of the game was the biggest gut punch of the game for Portland. After the Winterhawks had their best continued pressure of the game, Blake Heinrich's shot was blocked, leading to a break the other way for Jake Kryski. He made no mistake in beating Hill and giving Kamloops the 3-0 win and the sweep on the weekend.

Ingram stopped all 23 shots he faced and was just stellar in all areas that a goalie can be at this level. Adin Hill on the other end, had a mediocre outing, stopping 31 of 34 shots.

Portland's power play was 0/4, while Kamloop's was 0/5.
Game Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	F/O	F/O %	Hits	BKS	PIM
Abols	0	0	0	4	0/1	0%	5	0	0
Turgeon	0	0	0	4	10/20	50%	4	1	0
Iverson	0	0	0	1	-	-	6	0	2
Bukarts	0	0	0	0	-	-	3	0	0
Glass	0	0	0	2	6/10	60%	5	0	0
Schoenborn	0	0	0	4	-	-	7	0	0
McKenzie	0	0	0	0	0/2	0%	4	1	0
Overhardt	0	0	0	1	3/9	33.3%	1	1	0
Weinger	0	0	0	1	-	-	5	1	0
Nagel	0	0	0	0	0/1	0%	3	0	0
Hughes	0	0	0	1	3/6	50%	1	0	2
Veloso	0	0	0	0	-	-	3	1	2
Heinrich	0	0	0	0	-	-	4	2	4
De Jong	0	0	0	1	-	-	1	3	0
Jones	0	0	0	3	-	-	2	2	0
Texeira	0	0	0	1	-	-	6	2	0
MacEachern	0	0	0	0	-	-	2	1	0
Czaikowski	0	0	0	0	-	-	0	0	0

Notes:

-Jack Dougherty was held out of the lineup with an apparent injury.
-Dominic Turgeon may be the best player on the team, while playing in the backhand. It's an area of his game, that I've noticed immense improvement this season.
-Portland has adjusted their PK forwards into a unit that is basically: Turgeon and McKenzie as the top-two, Skyler McKenzie (who usually takes the draws) with Keegan Iverson in the second grouping, with Alex Schoenborn filling in wherever needed.
-Evan Weinger's speed creates a lot of possession and scoring chances for Portland, but sometimes he is way too easily taken out of the play, by a good d-man. Getting stronger int he corners is an area I'd like to see improvement on for him.

Winterhawks in the NHL:

Friday:
-Seth Jones had his debut with the Columbus Blue Jackets

Wonder if Seth Jones is experiencing his first Torts' team lashing after that sub-par display of intensity from the Jackets?

— The CBJ Artillery (@TheCBJArtillery) January 9, 2016

It did not go as planned in a 4-1 loss to Carolina. Jones was a minus two with one shot on goal in 22:31 in total ice time. Brandon Dubinsky had his seventh goal of the year in the loss.
-Ryan Johansen had a much better debut with his new team. He scored his seventh goal of the year, just 2:35 into his first game with Nashville in a 5-3 loss to Colorado. Johansen also added an assist for a two-point night. Cody McLeod scored his seventh goal of the year for Colorado in the win.
https://twitter.com/NHL/status/685649705712287744
Saturday:
-Brandon Dubinsky had an assist for Columbus in a 4-3 OT loss to Carolina. Seth Jones, in his second game as a Blue Jacket, logged 22:47 of ice time and fire don shot on the Carolina net.
-Sven Baertschi scored his seventh goal of the year for Vancouver in a losing effort (3-2 to Tampa Bay). Since December 18th, Sven has seven points over his last seven games.
Sunday:
-Marian Hossa had goals number 492 and 493 in a 6-3 Chicago win over Colorado.
Monday:
-Sven Baertschi set up the game tying goal for Vancouver with under three minutes to play.
Tuesday:
-Ty Rattie, in his first game during this call up to the NHL, potted his first career NHL goal. This was in his 19th career NHL game. Rattie had been snakebit on numerous occasions, just missing scoring his first goal until Tuesday. St. Louis beat New Jersey 5-2 in the game.

ICYMI: Ty Rattie's first career goal was a memorable one, even if it almost didn't happen. https://t.co/wA6xgtdwfb pic.twitter.com/DNRW2Bv3yZ

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) January 14, 2016

-Ryan Johansen notched an assist in 22:43 of ice time as Nashville fell to Chicago 3-2. Marian Hossa had two assists in the Blackhawks' win.
Wednesday:
-Seth Jones had his first point with the Blue Jackets (an assist)in their 3-1 victory over Toronto.

Winterhawks in the AHL:

Friday:
-Craig Cunningham scored the game winning goal for Springfield with under a minute to play as they edged Hartford 3-2.
-Cam Reid made his debut for the Hershey Bears and had two shots on goal in their 5-4 loss to Rochester.
-Crazy first period in the Lehigh Valley, Wilkes Barre/Scranton match up. WBS scored four goals in the first 15:54 of the game and chased the Lehigh Valley starter. Jason LaBarbera came on to stop all 12 shots he faced the rest of the way, but the Phantoms still lost 4-3. Lehigh Valley also scored three goals in the first, one of which was the ninth of the year for Taylor Leier.
-Travis Ehrhardt scored his fifth goal of the year for Utica, but they fell to Binghamton 6-3.
-Ty Rattie had an assist on a goal for Chicago in the third but it was not enough for the Wolves, who fell to Texas 3-1.
Saturday:
-Jason LaBarbera stopped 27 of 31 shots in a 4-2 Lehigh Valley loss to Albany.
-Oliver Bjorkstrand notched an assist for Lake Erie, but they fell to Grand Rapids 4-3 in the shoot out. Bjorkstrand was also one of the three Monsters' shooters, but failed to convert on his first professional s.o. chance.
-Derrick Pouliot helped set up the eventual game winner in a 4-2 Wilkes Barre/Scranton win over Utica.
-Nic Petan helped set up former Kamloops Blazer J.C. Lipon for Manitoba's lone goal in a 4-1 loss to Brendan Leipsic and Toronto.
Monday:
-Oliver Bjorkstrand had two assists for Lake Erie as they stomped Manitoba 7-3.
Tuesday:
-Derrick Pouliot scored on the power play for Wilkes Barre/Scranton as they edged St. John's 2-1.
Wednesday:
-Pouliot added three more assists, one day late for Wilkes Barre/Scranton, in their 6-4 win over St. John's.
-Brendan Leispic assisted on one of Tonronto's goals and they went on to edge Utica in the shootout 3-2.
-In the rematch of their Tuesday set, Manitoba got revenge on Lake Erie, winning 4-0. In the win, Chase De Leo had two goals and Nic Petan had an assist.

Chase De Leo with a bullet! What a shot. Moose now lead 3-0 on De Leo's second goal of the game #GoMooseGo

— Manitoba Moose (@ManitobaMoose) January 14, 2016

Winterhawks in the ECHL:

Friday:
-Mac Carruth stopped 28 of 30 shots in a 3-2 Indy win over Evansville. Carruth is now 10-6-2 on the season with an impressive 2.41 GAA and 0.920 Save %. Despite his solid numbers, he is battling for time in the crease with former Erie Otters goalie Shane Owen. Owen has a 2.36 GAA and 0.920 Save % this year, though his record is 7-12.
Saturday:
-Brett Ponich notched an assist for Kalamazoo as they edged Brampton 3-2.
-Taylor Peters tried to lead a late rally for Idaho, by assisting on a late goal to cut Utah's lead to 3-1. but ti was all for naught, as they fell by that score.
Sunday:
-Two more assists for Ponich, but Kalamazoo fell to Brampton 7-3 in the rematch.
-William Wrenn had a power play assist to give Alaska a 2-0 lead, early in the third period of their 2-1 win over Atlanta. Thomas Frazee assisted on the lone Atlanta goal.
-For the third time this year, Cam Reid was returned from the AHL, to the Reading Royals. Reid, in his return, had a power play goal and Reading beat South Carolina 3-1.
Tuesday:
-Brett Ponich had an assist for Kalamazoo in their 6-2 loss to Orlando.
-William Wrenn had an assist for Alaska as they fell to Atlanta in the rematch 4-3.

Winterhawks Prospect News:

-Ryan Collins apparently made two different mistakes on the game-winning goal in Minnesota's loss to Penn State the other night. He paid for it the next night, by being healthy scratched by Gopher's coach Don Lucia. Hopefully this is the first act of a drama that will bring the former eighth round bantam pick to Portland.