The Portland Winterhawks lose a 3-0 lead and are badly outplayed in the second half of the game, but Ondrej Štěbeták keeps the game tied despite a 19-5 Kamloops Blazers shot advantage in the 3rd period, and then the Winterhawks prevail in the 11th round of the shootout on Kyle McDonough’s winner for a 4-3 win.
Štěbeták stopped 43 of 46 shots, with 33 saves in the last two periods of regulation, where the Blazers outshot Portland 35-12. He then stopped 10 of 11 in the shootout.
Portland wins both games this weekend, and next faces the Prince George Cougars in a rematch of Friday’s game.
|---|---|
|1st 4:23 POR (PP) Reed Brown (Jake Gustafson) 1-0|Gustafson wins the faceoff back to Brown, and he fires one in from high between the circles for a 6-game goal streak.|
|1st 14:38 POR Will McLaughlin (Jordan Duguay, Sam Spehar) 2-0|McLaughlin scores from almost the same location as Brown, from the high slot after Duguay and Spehar won the puck.|
|1st 14:53 POR Alex Weiermair (Carter Sotheran, Ryan Miller) 3-0|Off the next faceoff, Sotheran weaves through center ice, gets it to Miller on the left boards, gets it back, takes it toward the goal line, then centers backhand to an open Weiermair. He finishes nicely with a backhand. And it felt like a replay of Friday’s game.|
|1st 18:51 KAM (SH) Josh Evaschesen (Tommy Lafreniere) 3-1|A great play by Lafreniere. Off a defensive zone faceoff on the penalty kill, he beats Nathan Free to the puck and pushes it down the ice, then he chases down the puck and, with Sotheran all over him, he backhands to an open slot with Evaschesen running onto it, and Evaschesen shovels in the backhand for a shorthanded goal. A big one.|
|2nd 7:47 KAM Ty Bonkowski (Jordan Keller) 3-2|Sotheran can’t hold a puck in at the Kamloops blue line, and it creates a 2 on 1 for Kamloops. Keller gets it over to Bonkowski and he buries it.|
|2nd 18:41 KAM Tommy Lafreniere (Kayd Ruedig) 3-3|With the Blazers completely controlling play, Jacob Dumansky and Carter Moore (who may get an assist) win a puck from Sotheran back to Ruedig. The ex-Winterhawk takes it into the slot, draws men to him, and then dishes to Lafreniere in the left circle for a quick shot and score. Surprisingly, that was the last goal of the game.|
|---|---|
|Portland leads by 2+|13:09|
|Portland leads by 1|21:09|
|Tied|30:42|
|Portland trails by 1|0:00|
|Portland trails by 2+|0:00|
Pregame: Portland looking the sweep the weekend against a Kamloops team trying to stop a 3-game losing streak, but was rested and actually watched Portland live on Friday. They also brought ex-Winterhawks Kayd Ruedig, traded to Kamloops 11 days ago, and Rhett Ravndahl, healthy and in the lineup for the first time since game 2 of the season.
1st period: A low-shot period for most of it, with the Winterhawks taking advantage of opportunities to score 3 goals on their first 7 shots. The game then opened up a little after that, and in a big moment, Kamloops got a shorthanded goal back near the end of the period.
2nd period: The game languished for a while until the Blazers finally broke through to make it 3-2 with about 12 minutes left. They then took over the rest of regulation. But the most they could do was tie it on Tommy Lafreniere’s goal.
3rd period: A 19-5 Kamloops shot advantage, but Ondrej Štěbeták kept the period scoreless and the game tied.
Overtime: An exciting overtime with many chances both ways. Portland picked up their game for the 5 minutes and outshot them 6-2. Ravndahl hit a post.
Shootout: One of the longest shootouts we’ve seen. It was scoreless for 8 rounds before Sam Spehar scored, but he was matched by Isa Guram. Then in the 11th, deep into the stretch where players unfamiliar with the shootout were playing, Kyle McDonough scored and Dryden Deobald missed for the win.
How it was won: 1) Ondrej Štěbeták, hanging on in the last 35-40 minutes. 2) They held Western Hockey League leading scorer J.P. Hurlbert, who admittedly is in a slump, scoreless. 3) A fast start for the 2nd game in a row.
Key stretch/moment: That 3rd period, dominated by the Blazers with the score tied, but ending up 0-0.
Surprising: Portland’s fade in the last half of the game. Kamloops had the rest advantage, but Portland usually handles those situations well. Not this time.
Not surprising: Nothing stands out.
Controversies: Portland had a goal disallowed on replay review, when Sam Spehar knocked a puck in out of midair. The goal was originally given, but it was deemed on replay that he knocked it in with a high stick. That would have made it 4-2 Portland and might have affected momentum.
Best team won?: No. The Blazers deserved more than a point.
Injuries/suspensions: None.
|Top 10|Stat line|
|---|---|---|---|
|Ondrej Štěbeták|POR|43 saves-46 shots|Save percentage jumped up to .895, over the league average.|
|Tommy Lafreniere|KAM|1 goal, 1 assist|2 points and set up a lot of chances, including a great play on Kamloops’s shorthanded goal that turned the game around.|
|Logan Edmonstone|KAM|27 saves-30 shots|Especially good in the overtime.|
|Kayd Ruedig|KAM|1 assist|Very good in his return to Portland.|
|Alex Weiermair|POR|1 goal|5-game point streak.|
|Josh Evaschesen|KAM|1 goal|Big shorthanded goal.|
|Will McLaughlin|POR|1 goal|He’s on a good run in the last few games.|
|Ryan Miller|POR|1 assist|8-game point streak.|
|Jordan Keller|KAM|1 assist|Set up the Blazers’ second goal.|
|Nathan Behm|KAM||Unlucky not to hit the scoresheet.|
|Other notables|Stat line|
|---|---|---|---|
|Isa Guram|KAM||Shootout goal to keep the game alive.|
|Nathan Free|POR||4-game point streak snapped.|
|Sam Spehar|POR|1 assist|Shootout goal.|
|Reed Brown|POR|1 goal|Now has a goal in 6 straight games.|
|Kyle McDonough|POR||Shootout winner, so he essentially scored the winning goal despite having no shots.|
Portland Winterhawks
A win they probably didn’t deserve, but it’s gotten them into a tie for the 2nd-best record in the conference.
Kamloops Blazers
Now have lost 4 in a row, but they will be happy with how they played, although they now have the long overnight trip to Wenatchee.
Wednesday 11/5 vs. Prince George, 7pm PST
Friday 11/7 at Wenatchee, 7pm PST
Saturday 11/8 vs. Spokane, 6pm PST
Next game with Kamloops: Friday 11/21 at Kamloops, 7pm PST
Looking ahead: Saturday 12/6 vs. Seattle, 6pm PST
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