The Portland Winterhawks wrapped up their regular season with a 5-1 win over the conference-leading Everett Silvertips at the Coliseum Friday night. It was their 6th win in a row and 9th out of their last 10. They finish with a record of 47-21, a remarkable turnaround from a 5-10 record to start the season.
Now the Winterhawks have to wait for Saturday’s games to conclude before they find out who they will meet in the 1st round of the playoffs, which begin Friday night at Memorial Coliseum. Three games affect that, and any of three teams could end up as their opponent. They also have a chance of ending up 2nd place in the conference, which wouldn’t mean anything in the 1st round, but might give them home ice advantage in the 2nd round against the Kamloops Blazers.
| 23:45 EVT Michal Gut (Ty Gibson, Ronan Seeley) 0-1 |
| 30:12 POR (pp) Jack O’Brien (Aidan Litke, Luca Cagnoni) 1-1 |
| 37:04 POR (pp) Aidan Litke (Jack O’Brien) 2-1 |
| 38:59 POR Jaydon Dureau (Kurtis Smythe) 3-1 |
| 46:32 POR (pp) Jaydon Dureau (Clay Hanus, James Stefan) 4-1 |
| 55:16 POR Kurtis Smythe (Luke Schelter, Kyle Chyzowski) 5-1 |
Deciding moment: Two goals for the Winterhawks in two minutes late in the 2nd period by Aidan Litke and Jaydon Dureau to go up 3-1 in a game they had controlled everywhere except the scoreboard.
Other key moments: 1) A kneeing penalty to Jonny Lambos on Cross Hanas, which got him a 5-minute major, a game misconduct, and possible a suspension, 2) Dureau’s goal on that subsequent power play, which made it 4-1 and put the game away, 3) a standalone fight to Portland defenseman Marek Alscher with 2 minutes left in the game, which might get him a suspension for Game 1 of the playoffs.
Offense vs. Defense: Offense, but the goaltending kept the scores down. Portland had 5 in the last half of the game, but goalie Koen MacInnes kept it from getting out of hand earlier.
Decided early vs. decided late: More in the middle.
Turning points: The Winterhawks finally break through on Jack O’Brien’s power play goal to make it 1-1.
Special teams: Portland’s power play was 3 for 5, and may have been even better on the 2 they missed.
Stars vs. unsung heroes: Third-liners Litke and O’Brien teamed up for Portland’s first two goals. Smythe connected on a long pass, his primary way of getting primary assists, on Dureau’s first goal, then scored his first goal with 5 minutes left in the regualr season.
Old vs. young: For the Winterhawks, a very good mix.
Best team won?: Yes.
Injuries and suspensions: Lambos and Alscher are in some jeopardy of suspensions. Lambos’s would be the last game of the regular season; Alscher’s would be in the playoffs. Maybe a flaw in the system, slightly, but it’s not like that was a mystery.
| Top 10 | Stat line | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Jaydon Dureau | POR | 2 goals | Finishes his junior career with a 6-game point streak. |
| Kurtis Smythe | POR | 1 goal, 1 assist | Left it really late to finally get a goal. |
| Jack O’Brien | POR | 1 goal, 1 assist | 4-game point streak and has scored in 6 of 8. Would be a welcome source of points in the playoffs. |
| Aidan Litke | POR | 1 goal, 1 assist | A big part in both of the decisive goals. |
| Taylor Gauthier | POR | 21 saves-22 shots | He will finish as the league leader in save percentage; Dylan Garand needs a 70-save shutout to catch him. |
| Koen MacInnes | EVT | 44 saves-49 shots | Better game than his numbers showed. He kept the Tips in it when they were being outplayed. Goaltending is still going to be an issue for them. |
| Clay Hanus | POR | 1 assist | Finishes his regular season career on an 8-game point streak. |
| Michal Gut | EVT | 1 goal | Involved in some of the stuff at the end, especially with Alscher (was he the recipient of his fight?), and went to the locker room, although it seemed to just be precautionary. |
| Luca Cagnoni | POR | 1 assist | |
| Ryan McCleary | POR |
| Stat line | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Marek Alscher | POR | Might get suspended for a standalone fight late in the game. It falls in the category of “sticking up for teammates” but at a price. | |
| Jonny Lambos | EVT | The game had been getting heated, and his kneeing penalty caused everything to boil over. Cross Hanas seemed fine, so we’ll see what the league ultimately thinks about it. I got the impression Everett didn’t agree with the game misconduct. | |
| Niko Huuhtanen | EVT | And he really made things boilover by ending up in a fight with Kyle Chyzowski, which was a huge mismatch as Huuhtanen is much bigger. The Winterhawks spent a lot of the rest of the game looking for Huuhtanen, and he chirped the Portland bench near the end. He’s going to be a handful next season. | |
| Jackson Berezowski | EVT | Rare game where he was a nonfactor. | |
| Ronan Seeley | EVT | 1 assist | Being asked to do a lot with Olen Zellweger out. Didn’t really have a good game. |
| Cross Hanas | POR | Dodged a bullet to avoid injury. 5-game streak snapped. He’s 9th in the league in scoring, and has a decent chance of holding that despite 2 more days of other teams’ games. | |
| Kyle Chyzowski | POR | 1 assist | 4-game point streak. |
- Will end up with more wins than Everett, although they won 6 games in shootouts to Everett’s zero--two of them were against Everett, which ended up being two of the season’s more important games.
- Will finish second in the conference if Kamloops can’t beat Vancouver, which will guarantee Portland home ice in the 2nd round if they make it there.
- It looks like Prince George has the advantage in a 3- or 4-way tie for 6th, subject to exactly what the league’s tiebreaker procedure is (there is some room for interpretation in there.) My interpretation of a 2-way tie is that it’s rock-paper-scissors, with Vancouver as rock, Victoria as paper, and PG as scissors. Unofficial.
- It’s not ideal but Portland should be able to survive losing Alscher for one playoff game.
- Despite the loss they clinched 1st in the conference. So they finish with a meaningless game at Tri-City.
- Despite finishing 1st they’re not going into the playoffs in great shape. They’re not healthy, their goaltending isn’t sorted, and they’ve lost to Portland, Seattle, and Spokane in their last four games.
Friday vs. ???, 7pm (Game 1)
next Saturday vs. ???, 6pm I’m assuming (Game 2)
Next road game: possibly Tuesday 4/26 at ??? (Game 3)
Looking ahead: possibly Wednesday 4/27 at ??? (Game 4)
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