Cody Glass is known far more for his set up abilities than for his goal-scoring prowess. Coming into the Portland Winterhawks game Friday night at the Moda Center, he had 61 assists, to go with 34 goals, keeping him five points short of 100 points.
Glass would use the expectation that he was going to pass – causing defenders to back away and give him room, to wire home three different goals, netting a hat trick and leading his Winterhawks to a big 8-3 win over the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds.
Glass added two assists for five points on the night and hit the 100-point plateau, making him the first Winterhawk to do so since Oliver Bjorkstrand in 2014-15.
Skyler McKenzie, who looked eager to crawl closer to 50 goals all night, netted his 46th – his 100th career WHL goal and added an assist. Keeping the milestone night theme going, Kieffer Bellows netted his 40th, Ryan Hughes added two assists to hit 40 points and Henri Jokiharju had a goal and an assist to make it to 70 points.
The win, along with Everett’s victory over Victoria means that the only route for the Winterhawks to take the U.S. Division and the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs is for them to win their final two games and have Everett lose in regulation in Victoria Saturday.
This is because they own the second tie-breaker (after wins) over Everett since they won all five of their games over Everett in regulation and the Silvertips beat the Winterhawks four times in regulation and once in the shootout.
On a night that the Winterhawks piled up eight goals on the Thunderbirds, Seattle was the only team to find the net in the first period. Nolan Volcan tracked down the rebound of a point shot from Reece Harsch, beating Portland goalie Cole Kehler for his 32nd of the year.
Kehler stopped 24 of 27 overall, earning his 30th win this year. He is two short of his career high of 32, which he set a season ago in four more games than he has now played this year.
Jokiharju tied the game with the first of four goals in the second period for Portland. Glass dropped a pass off to Jokiharju and the Chicago Blackhawks first round pick drilled a shot by Seattle goalie Liam Hughes for his 11th this year.
Glass then gave Portland its first lead midway through the frame on the power play. He took a feed from Dennis Cholowski and drove into the slot. The defense appeared to expect a pass, giving Glass the room he needed to beat Hughes.
Hughes appeared to be upset over the fact that Kieffer Bellows had incidentally bumped into him shortly before Glass’ shot.
Bellows then put Portland up 3-1 off a great feed from Clay Hanus. The 16-year-old Hanus drove hard to the right of Hughes, before firing a brilliant back door pass to the waiting Bellows.
Hanus, who had his lone goal this year called back, now has five assists.
Glass added his second of the game after he took a pass from Lane Gilliss and drove to the slot. He then wired another wrist shot by Hughes, putting Portland up 4-1.
In the third, things would get no better for Seattle.
Skyler McKenzie took a pass from Glass and beat Hughes on the blocker side 3:47 into the final frame.
Sami Moilanen helped Seattle get closer with his 22nd of the year. This is a new career high for the native of Sipoo, Finland.
Reece Newkirk got Portland up 6-2 with his eighth of the year, 10:21 into the third.
Brendan De Jong would then end Hughes’ night with his sixth of the year.
Dorrin Luding came in for Seattle and fared to better. Glass netted his hat trick off a pass from Bellows with 5:58 left.
Luding stopped one of only two shots.
The last time Glass hit five points in a game, was also at the Moda Center – back on November 12th, 2016. He also had three goals and two assists that time.
Samuel Huo closed out the scoring, cutting the Portland lead down to 8-3 with 5:24 left.
Jokiharju was a plus-five in the game – a feat he has only accomplished one other time in his WHL career – back on November 7th, 2017. That was also against Seattle, up in Kent.
Portland is now 12-2-0-1 at the Moda Center this year. At Veterans Memorial Coliseum – where their first two playoff games take place – they are 7-11-0-2.
