Winterhawks Crumble vs. Tri-City, Then Close Out 2015 By Beating Seattle

Parker Wotherspoon

The Portland Winterhawks continued their up-and-down season with a crushing 5-1 loss to Tri-City on Tuesday and a big 4-1 win on New Year's Eve at the Moda Center.

Tri-City 5 Portland 1:

-The Tri-City Americans took advantage of a slew of Portland penalties in the third period to score four goals in the final frame, winning their third game in eight tries vs. Portland this year.

Tri-City started the scoring in the second period, on the power play, after a pass into the slot area found Beau McCue and the overage forward powered home the shot. The Winterhawks tied the game on Evan Weinger's third goal in three games. Weinger's goal was scored after a great Caleb Jones blocked shot, led to a break the other way for Weinger.

The atrocious third period for Portland, began when a terrible turnover by Rihards Bukarts at his own blue line, led to Beau McCue one-timing a slapshot past Hill for the lead. Bukarts was coming into the game on an 11-game scoring streak, but had one of his worst games as a Hawk and had his streak broken. Then, just seconds after a Jack Dougherty roughing minor ended, Vladislav Lukin corralled a bouncing puck and beat Hill for the two-goal advantage. Tri-City scored their last two goals on two different five-on-three advantages. Their first was on a Parker Wotherspoon slapshot and their second was on a Wotherspoon shot/pass was caught by Jordan Topping and backhanded past Hill.

The Winterhawks actually played well in the first two periods, before completely crumbling in the final frame. The Winterhawks took a total of 31 penalty minutes in the third period, including 21 alone by Blake Heinrich. The overage defenseman instigated a fight with Maxwell James with under five minutes to play, which meant he woudl receive a madatory one-game suspension.

Adin Hill made a bunch of great saves and played well, despite giving up five goals. He made a total of 21 saves on a total on 36 shots faced. Nicholas Sanders stopped 22 of 23 at the other end.

Portland's power play was 0/4 and their PK was 7/10 in the game.

Game Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	F/O	F/O %	Hits	BKS	PIM
Abols	0	0	0	3	1/1	100%	1	0	2
Turgeon	0	0	0	1	12/30	40%	1	1	2
Iverson	0	0	0	2	-	-	4	0	2
Bukarts	0	0	0	4	-	-	1	0	2
Glass	0	0	0	0	5/8	62.5%	0	0	0
Schoenborn	0	1	1	2	0/1	0%	3	0	0
McKenzie	0	0	0	0	1/3	33.3%	2	1	0
Overhardt	0	0	0	1	5/11	45.5%	2	1	0
Weinger	1	0	1	3	-	-	3	0	0
Clayton	0	0	0	0	-	-	1	0	0
Hughes	0	0	0	1	2/3	66.6%	2	1	2
Veloso	0	0	0	0	-	-	2	1	0
Heinrich	0	0	0	1	-	-	1	2	23
Dougherty	0	0	0	2	-	-	4	1	2
Jones	0	1	1	1	-	-	3	0	0
Texeira	0	0	0	2	-	-	4	1	2
Czaikowski	0	0	0	0	-	-	2	0	0
De Jong	0	0	0	0	-	-	5	3	0

Notes:
-Portland lost their first five faceoffs in the game and it led to a lot of possession for the Americans.
-Maxwell James continues to be the most hated opponent for Portland in the entire WHL. James irritated Keegan Iverson into taking a bunch of dumb penalties in T.C.'s first win over Portland this year and did it to Blake Heinrich in this game. James threw a couple of questionable hits earlier in the game and Heinrich had enough, jumping the big forward. Unfortuantely though, Heinrich's decision pretty much sealed the win for Tri-City.
-Evan Weinger's timing on his goal from the right faceoff dot area was impressive. He was skating in at an angle and timed his shot on net perfectly in order to pick the blocker-side corner on Sanders. Weinger's release appears to have some elite level potential, but he needs to work on a lot of other areas in his game, before getting drafted.

Portland 4 Seatle 1:

-The Portland Winterhawks took advantage of an under-manned Seattle thunderbirds squad in taking their first win in three tries over the Thunderbirds in their 12-game season series. Portland was led by Jack Dougherty's first multi-goal game as the Nashville Preadors' signed defenseman scored two huge second period goals.

Portland started the scoring in the second period, while on the penalty kill. Colton Veloso slammed home the rebound of a Caleb Jones shot, after Dominic Turgeon made a great play in his own zone. The shorthanded goal was Veloso's first of his career and is a great reward for someone who has become a stalwart on the PK for Portland this season. The Jack Dougherty show started with under five minutes to go in the second. First, Dougherty found room to get off his ridiculously hard slapshot and had it bank off of Turbner Ottenbreit's skate and past Seattle goalie Logan Flodell for the 2-0 lead. Then, on Portland's fifth scramble around Flodell in the game, Dougherty corralled the puck behind the goal line and banked it off of Flodell's blocker as it lay in the crease for the three-goal advantage entering the game's final frame.

Seattle got a power play goal in the third period, when Jerret Smith found a loose puck and put it past a down-and-out  Hill to cut the Hawks' lead to two. Seattle pulled Flodell with just under two minutes to play, but failed to control the possession on Portland and after a bunch of chances at the vacant net, Caleb Jones scored fromhis own blue line with five seconds left to seal the 4-1 win.

Adin Hill was stellar for Porland, stopping 28 of 29 in the game. Hill's best two stops on the night were both on Turner Ottenbreit slapshots. Logan Flodell stopped 37 of 40 and made several of those saves while scrambling in his own crease.

Portland's power play was 0/2 and their PK was 3/4. On the season now, Portland's PP is now 33/155 (21.3%), good for eight in the WHL. Despite the shorthanded goal, Portland's PK has been struggling recently, having given up four PP goals in their last two games. Their PK on the season is 129/159 (81.1%), good for ninth in the league.

Game Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	F/O	F/O %	Hits	BKS	PIM
Abols	0	0	0	3	2/2	100%	1	1	4
Turgeon	0	1	1	5	14/30	46.7%	2	1	0
Iverson	0	0	0	2	-	-	7	0	2
Bukarts	0	0	0	3	-	-	3	0	0
Glass	0	1	1	7	9/13	69.2%	3	0	0
Schoenborn	0	1	1	1	-	-	3	0	2
McKenzie	0	0	0	0	1/2	50%	4	0	2
Overhardt	0	1	1	3	8/13	61.5%	1	0	0
Weinger	0	0	0	5	-	-	4	0	0
Clayton	0	0	0	0	-	-	0	0	0
Hughes	0	0	0	0	5/7	71.4%	0	0	5
Veloso	1	0	1	1	-	-	1	0	0
Texeira	0	0	0	4	-	-	1	1	10
Dougherty	2	0	2	2	-	-	8	1	0
Jones	1	1	2	4	-	-	5	2	0
De Jong	0	0	0	1	-	-	4	1	2
MacEachern	0	0	0	0	-	-	2	2	0
Czaikowski	0	1	1	0	-	-	2	0	0

Notes:
-Jack Dougherty was all over the ice again for Portland. He made countless solid defensive plays and seems to have figured out defending in the WHL. He also now has eight goals on the year and now has a total of 26 points. He seems to have moved past his meltdown a few weeks ago in Spokane was the top reason why Portland won this game.
-Caleb Jones has also completely adjusted to the WHL. He has 29 points and leads rookie d-men in scoring. He does not play as physically defensively as Dougherty does, but instead relies upon great timing to take the puck right off of opponent's sticks before they even get into shooting lanes. Jones often got lost in his own zone earlier in the year, but now seems to know where he needs to be on each play.
-Keoni Texeira also had a good game, in increased time as he replaced Heinrich on the top pairing.
-Seattle was down to only 10 forwards as Scott Eansor (USA), Mathew Barzal (Canada) and Alexander True (Denmark) are all at the World Junior Championships and Jamal Watson was out with an injury.
-Portland, meanwhile was without two of their top-four d-men for 10 minutes in the third period, as Blake Heinrich was serving a one-game suspension and Keoni Texeira was given a 10-minute misconduct.
-Ryan Hughes had his first fight in the WHL and held his own against Donavon Neuls. Hughes has gotten a lot better about not shying away from contact, while playing deep in his own zone and has gotten involved in after-the-whistle shenanigans on quite a few occasions. Hughes is only 5'7", but he defintely plays a lot bigger.
-Portland lost their first four faceoffs, a game after losing their first five straight.
-Portland now hosts Spokane in back-to-back games this weekend. The Winterhawks now sit five points back of the Chiefs and has an opportunity to close the gap with a couple of big wins.

Winterhawks in the NHL:

Tuesday:
-Brandon Dubinsky had three assists and Ryan Johnasen had one as Columbus took down Dallas 6-3.
-Marian Hossa had an assist in a 7-5 Chicago victory over Arizona.

Thursday:
-Nino Niederreiter had one goal and one assist for Minnesota and now has 18 points on the season as Minnesota beat St. Louis 3-1.
-Cody McLeod scored his sixth goal of the year, but Colorado fell to Chicago 4-3 in OT.

Winterhawks in the AHL:

Thursday:
-Jason LaBarbera stopped 27 of 28 shots and led Lehigh Valley to a 3-1 victory over Hershey.
-Chase De Leo had a goal and Nic Petan had two assists in a 4-3 Manitoba Moose win over Iowa.

Winterhawks in the ECHL:

Tuesday:
-In a 4-0 Atlanta win over Florida, Thomas Frazee had an assist.
-Third straight win for Mac Carruth, as he stopped  22 of 23 in a 5-1 Indy win over Cincinnati.
Wednesday:
-Two more assists for Frazee as Atlanta beat Norfolk 4-3.
-Miles Koules scored his second professional goal for Quad City, but the Mallards still fell to Evansville 3-2.
Thursday:
-Anton Cederholm and Brett Ponich each had an assist for Kalamazoo in a 5-3 win over Elmira.
-Gasper Kopitar scored the over-time winner for Manchester as they beat Greenville 3-2.