Through 40 minutes Wednesday night in Portland, it seemed clear that Tavin Grant saves his best hockey for when he is playing in Portland against the Winterhawks (10-4) He earned his first career shutout exactly one month previous, stopping all 47 shots he saw.
Grant was again perfect through the first two periods at the Moda Center in the Prince George Cougars (5-7-2-2) only other trip to to Rose City. He had stopped all 30 shots he saw and thus had turned away Portland’s last 65 shots that were sent his way.
It would take a 17-year-old rookie in Mason Mannek to finally get a shot past the Buranby, BC native. Cody Glass, who set up Mannek’s big goal, added one of his own with just 39 seconds left in regulation and the Winterhawks got two big monkeys off their back. One was breaking their three-game losing streak and the other was proving the Mannek goal wasn’t a fluke and that they could solve another hot goalie.
Grant stopped a total of 40 of 42 shots in the game.
The lines were put in a blender by Portland coach Mike Johnston as his team has struggled to produce offensively, outside of the first line as of late. Perhaps the best line not containing one of the big three was the new one of Joachim Blichfeld, Alex Overhardt and Ilijah Colina. The trio consistently controlled play in the Prince George zone, though they did not create a goal of their own.
Prince George would finally break the deadlock in this one as neither team had scored until well into the second period. Kieffer Bellows mishandled the puck, leading to a break the other way, led by Kody McDonald. He raced in on a two-one-one with Jared Bethune and picked a corner on Portland starter Cole Kehler. The goal was McDonald’s second against Portland this year and ninth overall.
Outside of the McDonald goal, Kehler was incredible. He turned away 30 of 31, with many of those being of high quality. Kehler seemed to have responded from two straight poor outings and looked confident in net.
Then in the third, Herriman, Utah native Mannek tied the game. He was given increased ice time in the line adjustments and played a lot on the power play and regularly with Jake Gricius and Lane Gilliss. He was playing with Vegas Golden Knights prospect Cody Glass when he netted his third goal of the year though. Mannek hit Glass with a pass at the Prince George blue line and Glass lobbed a spectacular pass right onto Mannek’s tape as he skated in on Grant. Mannek beat the P.G. backstop with a top corner shot past his blocker.
Glass, whose assist was a thing of beauty, stepped up and produced on the other side of the stat sheet when his team needed it most. At the end of a long shift and in his own zone, Skyler McKenzie partnered with defenseman Brendan De Jong to get out and lead a four-on-two rush. McKenzie found Bellows and with all the Cougars looking for him to shoot, Bellows slipped a backhand pass to Glass in the slot. Glass buried a shot past Grant-the eventual game winner.
The whole sequence was a pretty one and was case one in why the three are a threat to score every time they are on the ice.
Portland takes a little trip around the state of Washington next as they head to Spokane Friday before playing in Everett on Saturday. Prince George will play in Everett the night before Portland does.
Both teams could not convert on the power play. Portland had four chances and P.G. had three.
Game Notes:
-Bellows, who had an assist on Glass’ goal extends his point streak to nine games.
-The win helped Portland stay just barely ahead of Tri-City for the division lead. The Winterhawks and Americans both have 20 points, but Portland has more wins with 10, in one less game played.
-After rolling up 57 goals in their first 10 games, Portland has just eight in their last four.
-Kehler now leads the entire WHL in GAA with a 2.30 average. His save percentage of 0.922 is third among goalies with three or more appearances.
-Glass, with one more point than Bellows, leads the team with 23 points to Bellows’ 22. The latter is tops among all listed rookie scorers.
-Overhardt was 19/27 at the draw and has a stellar 58.9 percentage there so far this year. Gricius was 9/16, while Glass was 7/16.
-Henri Jokiharju and Blichfeld led the team in shots with five apiece. Jokiharju, who now has 47 shots on goal this year, is fourth in the WHL among blue liners, trailing just Dylan Coghlan (Tri-City), David Quenneville (Medicine Hat) and Josh Mahura (Regina).
-Bellows is fourth in the WHL in shots with 73 in 14 games (a 5.21 shots-a-game average).
-Blichfeld, who was expected to have a big year, has now failed to score in five straight. His found chemistry with his new linemates should put an end to that real soon.
