Christ Mast/Dayna Fjord

2017-18 Playoff Previews: Portland Winterhawks vs Spokane Chiefs

Portland Winterhawks (2nd in the U.S. Division) vs Spokane Chiefs (3rd in the U.S. Division)

Season Series:

Portland: 5-3

Spokane: 3-5

Leading Scorers:

Portland: Cody Glass 37-65-102 points, Skyler McKenzie 47-40-87, Kieffer Bellows 41-33-74, Henri Jokiharju 12-59-71, Dennis Cholowski 14-52-66.

Spokane: Jaret Anderson-Dolan 40-51-91 points, Hudson Elynuik 31-55-86, Ty Smith 14-59-73, Kailer Yamamoto 21-43-64, Riley Woods 25-32-57.

Goaltending:

 

Portland: Cole Kehler 53 Games Played, 2.77 GAA and 0.909 Save Percentage, Shane Farkas 24 Games Played, 2.79 GAA and 0.913 Save Percentage.

Spokane: Dawson Weatherill 46 Games Played, 3.09 GAA and 0.893 Save Percentage, Donovan Buskey 22 Games Played, 3.56 GAA and 0.871 Save Percentage, Bailey Brkin 30 Games Played, 4.02 GAA and 0.883 Save Percentage.

Portland:

The second year under the second stint with the Winterhawks for Mike Johnston was supposed to be one where they built off the surprising success they had in the first year. With Cody Glass and Henri Jokiharju entering their 18-year-old seasons after being drafted in the first round of the NHL draft and Skyler McKenzie freshly coming a 42-goal campaign, the future was looking up.

Then came the news over the summer that New York Islanders first round pick Kieffer Bellows was leaving Boston University and joining the Winterhawks. All of a sudden, Portland found themselves in the favorite’s chair and were set up to be a buyer at the trade deadline.

That is when the Winterhawks brought in Detroit Red Wings first round pick Dennis Cholowski over to their blue line from the Prince George Cougars – giving them four, first round picks and five players with NHL Entry Level Contracts.

Portland made a late run at the U.S. Division, but fell short over the final weekend in the regular season, setting themselves up to take on the Spokane Chiefs in the first round.

Spokane:

The Chiefs brought in former Kelowna Rockets bench boss Dan Lambert this year and seemed to open up their system a little more to take advantage of talented play makers like Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Hudson Elynuik and Jake McGrew, among others. That group got a nice influx a couple months into the season when Kailer Yamamoto was sent down by the Edmonton Oilers, after a small stint with the big club. The Chiefs had already dealt for overage winger Zach Fischer and so when Yamamoto came back the seemed prime to pile up some goals and make a run within the division.

Instead Yamamoto struggled with scoring consistently and the Chiefs were mired in the second wild card spot. Finally Yamamoto turned a corner and scored like we all knew he could ending up with 64 points in just 40 games. Spokane got hot and made a run into the U.S. bracket, ending up playing the Winterhawks in the first round.

Series Outlook:

There is a lot of unknowns as you look at Spokane’s roster right now. Yamamoto was held out of the last few games of the season, under what could just be precautionary reasons and goalie Dawson Weatherill did not play during the last weekend. Add in Fischer being out for the last month and the Chiefs could very well be missing some of their most important players when the series begins.

Weatherill has struggled with consistency – looking like a world beater one game and getting yanked after a couple early goals – the next. Spokane needs the best Weatherill to get past a Portland squad that has some of the most talented creators and goal scoring in the league.

Spokane also needs a healthy Yamamoto to have a huge playoff performance and score big goals at big moments. Spokane could put him with Anderson-Dolan and Elynuik and rekindle one of the better lines in the league last year. They may want to spread out the scoring though, especially if Fischer cannot go. The Chiefs do have other play makers, especially future first round NHL pick – Ty Smith. The young blue liner piled up a seven-point night recently and is playing better seemingly every single game. He has had to carry the load on the back end for Spokane throughout his career with the Chiefs and is looking like he is growing much more accustomed with all that responsibility.

The Chiefs do have some big defensemen in Jeff Faith, Tyson Helgesen, Matt Leduc and Dalton Hamaliuk that could play hard on the Winterhawks and slow down their team speed and creativity, but I do not see them clogging up the neutral zone as it would take too much away from their own offensive game.

Portland, meanwhile seems primed to feast on what is a slower defensive group. They have found a way to create a lot of offense off the rush, especially with long outlet passes and these could be the death nail for the Chiefs. The top line of Glass, Bellows and McKenzie has the ability to take over a series, but unfortunately for the Chiefs, that line is not even Portland’s best possession forward unit. Once the line of Ryan Hughes, Alex Overhardt and Joachim Blichfeld played with each other long enough to create some chemistry (after injuries to both Blichfeld and Hughes) they have a pain in the side of all of their opponents. They seem to be in the attacking zone 90 percent of their shifts and if they start converting on more of their scoring chances, they could definitely turn a series.

In the Portland net, Cole Kehler has found a way to pile up some solid numbers and yet still fly under the radar in a division where Carter Hart dominates the headlines. Kehler won a playoff series last year by outplaying Prince George’s Ty Edmonds and while he likely won’t be as busy as Spokane’s goaltender, he will be needed to make key stops – many of which will be on odd-man rushes. He has the ability to do just that.

Playing in front of him is possibly the best top-to-bottom blue line Portland has had since their WHL title winning squad of 2013. Cholowski joins Jokiharju, overager Keoni Texeira, Carolina Hurricanes draft pick Brendan De Jong and Matthew Quigley to form a unit where every d-man can skate and attack and none of the above is a liability. Jokiharju though is the main man on the blue line and will get the lions-share of the minutes. He is Portland’s best player in his own zone, as he does with subtle back-checks and reads that take away scoring chances for the opponent and -in the same motion – creates one going the other way. He will need to be great in both zones for Portland to make a deep run.

Impact Players to Watch:

  1. Cody Glass
  2. Kailer Yamamoto
  3. Jaret Anderson-Dolan
  4. Henri Jokiharju
  5. Cole Kehler

Prediction: Portland has a lot of high-end talent and all the coaching experience you could want on their bench with Johnston and assistants Danny Flynn and Kyle Gustafson. That said, I’m counting on Weatherill to come out and frustrate them enough for Yamamoto, Elynuik, Anderson-Dolan, Jake McGrew, Eli Zummack and Riley Woods to score enough for Spokane to take a couple. Ultimately that experience and their high-end talent in Glass, Bellows and Jokiharju will be too much for the Chiefs.

Winterhawks in six games.

 

Schedule
Game 1 – Saturday, March 24 – Veterans Memorial Coliseum – Portland –6:00pm PDT
Game 2 – Sunday, March 25 –Veterans Memorial Coliseum – Portland –5:00pm PDT

Game 3 – Wednesday, March 28 – Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena -7:00pm PDT
Game 4 – Thursday, March 29 –Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena -7:00pm PDT

Game 5* –Saturday, March 31 – Veterans Memorial Coliseum – Portland –6:00pm PDT

Game 6* – Monday, April 2 –Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena -7:00pm PDT .

Game 7* – Tuesday, April 3 – Veterans Memorial Coliseum – 7:00pm PDT
*if necessary

-Banner photos by Chris Mast/Everett Silvertips and Dayna Fjord/Portland Winterhawks