The Portland Winterhawks bounce back from a dreadful Friday night, beating the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-1 in the Saturday rematch with a solid performance.
Portland outshot Seattle 25-10 in the 1st period en route to a 2-1 lead. The game was closer from there, but Portland held on and scored twice in the 3rd.
Marek Schlenker stopped 37 of 38 to lead the way.
|---|---|
|1st 10:27 SEA (PP) Nathan Pilling (Coster Dunn, Brayden Schuurman) 0-1|Pilling sneaks between Carter Sotheran and Cole Slobodian in the low slot to be the recipient of a quick from Schuurman to Dunn to Pilling.|
|1st 16:58 POR David Hoy (Carsyn Dyck) 1-1|Dyck and Hoy rush down the left side against 4 TBirds, Dyck’s shot is saved by Scott Ratzlaff, the rebound goes back to him and his follow up runs up Ratzlaff’s arm and then drops into the center of the crease. Before it hits the ice, Hoy reaches past Ratzlaff and gets a touch on it, which is enough to avoid a clearing attempt by Vanek Popil and propel it just over the line. Originally it was called no goal on the ice, thinking Hoy might have touched it with a high stick, but it was given on video review.|
|1st 19:31 POR (PP) Ryan Miller (Tyson Jugnauth, Kyle Chyzowski) 2-1|Portland scores 4 seconds into a power play. Chyzowski wins the faceoff back to Jugnauth at the point, Ratzlaff stops his long shot, but the rebound sits in the crease and Ratzlaff drifts away from the goal, and Miller has an open net.|
|3rd 8:47 POR Kyle Chyzowski (Jordan Duguay, Alex Weiermair) 3-1|With Portland struggling to get possession, and after a shift where they labored mightily to get it out of their own zone, Max Pšenička gets it to Weiermair and he bumps it to Chyzowski to give Portland a 2 on 2 rush. Chyzowski carries and gets it to Duguay at the Seattle blue line, then cuts down the middle ahead of Ashton Cumby, takes a return pass from Duguay and beats Ratzlaff 1 on 1.|
|3rd 18:30 POR (EN) Alex Weiermair 4-1|With the net empty, Hyde Davidson can’t hold a puck in at the point. Weiermair gets past Davidson at center ice and gets the puck at the Seattle blue line as Coster Dunn bobbles it, then bulls it into the net as Radim Mrtka tries to knock him down.|
|---|---|
|Portland leads by 2+|11:13|
|Portland leads by 1|29:16|
|Tied|13:00|
|Portland trails by 1|6:31|
|Portland trails by 2+|0:00|
Pregame: A real character test for the Winterhawks after getting blown out by Seattle 7-2 on Friday. They went into the game without an ill Diego Buttazzoni, one of their leading scorers, and went with backup goalie Marek Schlenker. They tried to stay ahead of the Tri-City Americans and Vancouver Giants. The Thunderbirds were looking to get closer to wrapping up the last playoff spot in the Western Conference.
1st period: A big bounceback for Portland as they outshot Seattle 25-10. Scott Ratzlaff in goal stymied them most of the way, however, and Seattle got the first on a power play goal. But a big play by Portland’s 4th line got them even, and a power play goal in the last 30 seconds sent the Winterhawks in with the lead.
2nd period: Portland was on the back foot most of the period. Shots were 11-4 Seattle in the last 12 minutes. The Winterhawks kept them for getting good enough chances, though, Schlenker stopped what he needed to stop, and the period was scoreless.
3rd period: More of the same with Seattle on top. The Winterhawks didn’t get a lot of possession. But they got the big goal from Kyle Chyzowski against the run of play, and it was pretty comfortable from there, with the empty net goal by Alex Weiermair clinching it.
How it was won: 1) A goaltending upset, with Portland backup Marek Schlenker winning the matchup with Scott Ratzlaff, one of the league’s best. It was a good game for both goalies.
A 25-shot 1st period to emphatically turn things around after great struggles on Friday.
Key stretch/moment: Hustle work by 4th liners David Hoy and Carsyn Dyck creating Portland’s first goal to tie it when it looked like Scott Ratzlaff was going to stop everything.
Surprising: Only 4 power plays total, 1 for Seattle, in a game between two teams who have a lot of power plays in their games.
Not surprising: Seattle, with the 4th-worst shooting percentage in the league, only getting 1 goal on 37 shots.
Controversies: The reversed goal to Hoy, but it looked like the right call.
Best team won?: Yes.
Injuries/suspensions: Not an injury but Diego Buttazzoni missed the game with illness.
|Top 10|Stat line|
|---|---|---|---|
|Marek Schlenker|POR|37 saves-38 shots|His best game in over a month, as his time had been cut while Portland tried to get Ondrej Štěbeták more of a look as the top goalie. Will he get a start on Sunday?|
|Ryan Miller|POR|1 goal|Ended up with the winning goal, but was one of the best even without the winner. Good at both ends and had a number of setups.|
|Scott Ratzlaff|SEA|40 saves-43 shots|A couple of bobbles cost him, but he kept the Thunderbirds in the game in the 1st.|
|Alex Weiermair|POR|1 goal, 1 assist|Set up the rush that led to Portland’s 3rd, and then good hustle for the empty-net goal.|
|David Hoy|POR|1 goal|A touch of the puck out of the air for a big Winterhawks 1st goal.|
|Kyle Chyzowski|POR|1 goal, 1 assist|A faceoff win for the game winner, and the insurance goal on the rush.|
|Carter Sotheran|POR||Beaten on Seattle’s power play goal, but good otherwise and led with 8 shots.|
|Nathan Pilling|SEA|1 goal||
|Braeden Cootes|SEA|||
|Ryder Thompson|POR|||
|Other notables|Stat line|
|---|---|---|---|
|Josh Zakreski|POR||3-game point streak snapped.|
|Reed Brown|POR||With Buttazzoni out, got off the 4th line for the first time in a long time, and played very well with increased playing time.|
|Winterhawks|Thunderbirds|
|---|---|---|
|Record|33-25-3-1 (.565)|25-32-4-1 (.444)|
|Goals/game|3.9|3.0|
|Goals allowed/game|4.0|3.8|
|Team shooting %|.109|.095|
|Team save %|.884|.893|
|Power play|25.5%|19.8%|
|Penalty kill|75.1%|75.4%|
|Power plays for/game|4.0|3.3|
|Power plays against/game|3.7|4.0|
|Outshooting opponents|29-31-2|18-40-4|
|After 1 period|18-27-17|14-30-18|
|After 2 periods|23-31-8|18-34-10|
|Score, last 10 games|32-42 (-10)|29-23 (+6)|
|Score, last 20 games|68-84 (-16)|64-57 (+7)|
Portland Winterhawks
Answered some of the worries with a good performance. In the race for 5th, they only gained one point on Tri-City as they had an overtime loss. Vancouver won, so Portland is 1 ahead of Tri-City and 2 ahead of Vancouver. They would sure like to find at least one point in the next 2 with top-ranked Everett.
Seattle Thunderbirds
Still in good shape for the last playoff spot. The Kamloops Blazers lost and the Wenatchee Wild won, so Seattle is 3 up on the Wild and 6 up on the Blazers. The Thunderbirds can live with that as Wenatchee has a tough schedule and the Blazers have an easier one.
Sunday 3/9 vs. Everett, 4pm PDT
Friday 3/14 at Everett, 7pm PDT
Saturday 3/15 vs. Seattle, 6pm PDT
next Sunday 3/16 vs. Vancouver, 4pm PDT
Looking ahead: Friday 3/21 vs. Tri-City, 7pm PDT