The Portland Winterhawks win their 4th straight game, with a couple of feel-good stories. Most notably, Tyson Yaremko returns to live hockey for the first time since New Year’s Eve, and scores a goal which turns out to be a winner. And Jake Gustafson gets his first career hat trick, his 4th straight game with a goal.
Portland scored on their first shot, took a 3-0 lead, and led 6-2 after 2 periods, controlling the first 40 minutes.
Four Winterhawks had 3-point games.
|---|---|
|1st :26 POR Carter Sotheran (Sam Spehar) 1-0|As has been common recently, the first shot produces a goal. Sotheran just goes back and forth along the blue line, then floats one high toward net and it finds the top corner. Spehar won the faceoff back to him.|
|1st 9:38 POR Jake Gustafson (Nathan Brown) 2-0|Joaquin Geras fans on a pass at the Blazer blue line, and Brown jumps on it, giving Portland a 2 on 1 from the top of the faceoff circles. Brown makes a nice spinning pass over to Gustafson.|
|1st 14:06 POR (PP) Ryan Miller (Alex Weiermair, Carter Sotheran) 3-0|Winterhawks get a power play rush off a very long outlet pass from Sotheran to Weiermair, who at the blue line gets position on Isa Guram driving to the net, lets Kayd Ruedig fly by him trying to knock the puck away, and then sends it to an open Miller for an open net and a 16-game point streak.|
|1st 19:30 KAM Josh Evaschesen (Cooper Moore, Jordan Keller) 3-1|Will McLaughlin loses his stick in a battle on the right boards with Evaschesen, and a quick pass by Keller gives Moore a 2 on 1 down low with Evaschesen, who gets into the play while McLaughlin picks up his stick. Moore goes to Evachesen, who waits long enough for Stebetak to commit, then puts it past him.|
|2nd 4:38 POR (PP) Nathan Free (Carter Sotheran) 4-1|Isa Guram fumbles the puck on a shorthanded 2 on 1, leaving him caught back as Sotheran turns it around with a long pass to Free, who takes it down the right wing on the rush and beats Logan Edmonstone.|
|2nd 6:15 POR Tyson Yaremko (Sam Spehar, Alessandro Domenichelli) 5-1|It’s Domenichelli’s turn to make a long outlet pass, to Spehar down the right wing. Yaremko goes to the net with position on Ravndahl and plants a perfect backdoor pass from Spehar. A goal in his first game back after 11-and-a-half months away.|
|2nd 14:10 KAM Josh Evaschesen (Cooper Moore, Rhett Ravndahl) 5-2|A long pass from Ravndahl is knocked down by Moore at center ice, getting the puck past Aaron Zulinick onto Evaschesen with Max Pšenička the only man back. Evaschesen makes a move on Pšenička into the slot and wrists one home.|
|2nd 15:48 POR Jake Gustafson (Nathan Brown, Kyle McDonough) 6-2|McDonough knocks down Ruedig’s outlet pass at center ice, brings it in, and sets up Brown for a shot. Edmonstone stops it but can’t hold it, and the rebound goes right to Gustafson, who puts it in.|
|3rd 3:06 KAM Tommy Lafreniere (JP Hurlbert) 6-3|The Blazers’ top line gets into the game on a bad goal by Ondrej Štěbeták. Lafreniere takes a spinning shot toward goal, almost as an afterthought, from the right dot on the rush, and Štěbeták just misses it.|
|3rd 9:01 POR (PP) Jake Gustafson (Nathan Brown, Sam Spehar) 7-3|Reed Brown and Spehar win a battle along the left boards. Reed Brown gets it to Spehar, who passes it down low to Nathan Brown, who again goes backdoor to Gustafson to convert the hat trick.|
|3rd 15:27 KAM Nathan Behm (Tommy Lafreniere, JP Hurlbert) 7-4|Tic-tac-toe passing by Kamloops’s top line on the rush in garbage time. Hurlbert left of the slot goes over to Lafreniere right of the slot, and he goes back to Behm left of the slot for a one-timer that beats Štěbeták.|
|---|---|
|Portland leads by 2+|50:22|
|Portland leads by 1|9:12|
|Tied|0:26|
|Portland trails by 1|0:00|
|Portland trails by 2+|0:00|
Pregame: Tyson Yaremko returns for the first time since New Year’s Eve. Kamloops, significantly, was hit with injuries and illness, and actually had to resort to dressing anyone healthy on the roster which turned out to be 9 forwards and 9 defensemen.
1st period: Portland had the great start, with a goal on the first shot and a 3-0 lead. The Blazers struck back in the last minute to give themselves some hope.
2nd period: The Winterhawks solidified their position, going up 5-1 and then matching a Kamloops goal with one of their own to go up four goals. They outshot Kamloops 17-10.
3rd period: Mostly garbage time, in which Kamloops led in shots 20-9. They did get the early goal, but Jake Gustafson’s hat trick clinched the game.
How it was won: 1) The Gustafson-Nathan Brown combo, resulting in 3 goals. 2) A 3 for 7 power play. 3) They held Kamloops’s dangerous top line led by JP Hurlbert--they did combine for 5 points but didn’t do damage until late in the game.
Key stretch/moment: Carter Sotheran on the first shot of the game gives Portland the lead and sets the tone.
Surprising: Kamloops’s special teams has been a strength, but they lost 3-0. Much of that was their very good power play getting only 3 chances.
Not surprising: Ryan Miller getting at least a point. 16 games in a row.
Controversies: Kamloops’s fans, at least, weren’t happy with the, power play difference, which was 6-1 Portland at one point. To be fair, three of those were high sticking penalties, which is not usually something subject to interpretation.
Best team won?: Yes.
Injuries/suspensions: Jordan Keller, a big part of Kamloops’s attack, left in the 3rd and didn’t return.
|Top 10|Stat line|
|---|---|---|---|
|Jake Gustafson|POR|3 goals|His first career hat trick, and he has goals in 4 straight games. His goals have all been a pretty close range.|
|Carter Sotheran|POR|1 goal, 2 assists|The opening goal and two long outlet passes that turned into assists.|
|Nathan Brown|POR|3 assists|Has started getting chemistry with Gustafson. 4-game point streak.|
|Josh Evaschesen|KAM|2 goals|Two nice goals, one staying with the play, one on a nice move into the slot. 3-game point streak.|
|Sam Spehar|POR|3 assists|5-game point streak. 5 goals, 4 assists in his last 5 games.|
|Ondrej Štěbeták|POR|39 saves-43 shots|One bad goal, but a decent game, and had one of his best saves of the season so far.|
|Cooper Moore|KAM|2 assists|3-game point streak.|
|Tyson Yaremko|POR|1 goal|A great first game. Played on the 4th line, which you wouldn’t expect to continue, but he helped make the 4th line look dangerous.|
|Nathan Free|POR|1 goal|3-game point streak.|
|Kyle McDonough|POR|1 assist|4-game point streak.|
|Other notables|Stat line|
|---|---|---|---|
|Ryan Miller|POR|1 goal|16-game point streak, the league high for the season so far.|
|Logan Edmonstone|KAM|33 saves-40 shots|Struggled.|
|Alex Weiermair|POR|1 assist|Lost his 5-game goal streak, but still has a 6-game point streak.|
|Nathan Behm|KAM|1 goal|3-game point streak.|
|Jordan Duguay|POR||3-game point streak snapped.|
|JP Hurlbert|KAM|2 assists|Increased his league scoring lead to 4 points. And has a 5-game point streak. But Portland did pretty well on him.|
|Kayd Ruedig|KAM||3-game point streak snapped. After a very good game in Portland against his old team, he didn’t have a good game.|
|Tommy Lafreniere|KAM|1 goal, 1 assist|9-game point streak.|
|Isa Guram|KAM||3-game point streak snapped, struggled along with Ruedig.|
|Winterhawks|Blazers|
|---|---|---|
|Record|13-10 (.565)|10-10-2-2 (.500)|
|Goals/game|4.0|4.0|
|Goals allowed/game|4.0|4.1|
|Team shooting %|.118|.120|
|Team save %|.884|.881|
|Power play|25.7%|27.0%|
|Penalty kill|71.3%|73.5%|
|Power plays for/game|4.6|3.7|
|Power plays against/game|4.1|3.5|
|Outshooting opponents|10-13|9-13-2|
|After 1 period|9-8-6|10-9-5|
|After 2 periods|9-11-3|9-11-4|
|Score, last 10 games|45-41 (+4)|43-40 (+3)|
|Score, last 20 games|85-77 (+8)|77-85 (-8)|
Portland Winterhawks
Followed a 4-game losing streak with a 4-game winning streak. Not that it means a lot, but as of now they have a better record than their next 7 opponents. So things are looking good for a decent run up to the Christmas break.
Kamloops Blazers
They were missing players, so it’s hard to tell where they’re at. But they are allowing too many goals.
Saturday 11/22 at Kelowna, 6pm PST
Friday 11/28 vs. Regina, 3pm PST
next Saturday 11/29 vs. Swift Current, 6pm PST
Looking ahead: Saturday 12/6 vs. Seattle, 6pm PST
Next game versus Kamloops: not in the 2025-26 regular season.
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