Three-goal third period powers Portland by Vancouver

The Vancouver Giants (9-2-1-0) and Portland Winterhawks (6-3-0-1) kicked off their home-and-home series Friday night in the Moda Center in Portland. Both teams have tremendous fire power and high-end players. Vancouver’s Bowen Byram will be a top pick in the upcoming NHL Draft and Cody Glass, Portland’s captain, was the sixth overall pick in the 2017 draft. Byram and Glass did not disappoint the 5,568 fans in attendance.

Jake Gricius (Dayan Fjord/Portland Winterhawks)

Portland got on the board first as Joachim Blichfeld held onto the puck a half-second longer thna expected to open a passing lane to Jake Gricius in front of the net. Gricius was able to tip the puck by Giants goalie David Tendeck for his sixth goal of the season. Gricius played in his 150th WHL game tonight, something he considers “pretty special to me; to be in this league that long is a good moment.” Scoring on the power play was something the Winterhawks were unable to do in their last game going 0-for-10 on the man advantage. The teams would end up trading power play goals.  

James Malm (Photo by Portland Winterhawks/Keith Dwiggins)

Brendan De Jong took a tripping penalty with just over two minutes left in the first period. On the man-advantage, 19-year-old James Malm took a pass from Dylan Plouffe, turned, and fired a shot by Shane Farkas. The power-play goal for Malm was his ninth goal of the season; he scored 19 a season ago. Portland thought they would be able to capitalize in the second period on the power play, but Vancouver had other ideas.

Justin Sourdif, Vancouver’s first round selection in the 2017 bantam draft, scored his third goal of the season after serving a tripping penalty early in the second period. The goal came just 21 seconds after the Giants killed his penalty and Sourdif forced a Winterhawks turnover. Byram would later score off a Farkas rebound giving Vancouver a 3-1 advantage until Gricius scored again.

Mike Johnston (photo-Dayna Fjord)

The Winterhawks’ power play has been effective, Johnston said post-game, “every good power play has a great net-guy. He [Jake Gricius] has taken that under his wing to say I’m going to play on this power play and I will be really good in front of the net tipping pucks.” Johnston continued speaking about Gricius’ impact even when he isn’t scoring, “he makes a lot of things happen for other guys; we can hit seams if we don’t use the low play.”

The second power-play goal for Gricius was one where he caught the puck and spun towards the net. This is something he has been working on developing, “Don [Hay] and Kyle [Gustafson] have been working with me on spinning pucks after practice” Jake commented. The second Winterhawks goal set up the comeback in the third period.

The Giants were executing shutdown-hockey flawlessly. They were not giving Portland any quality looks at the net, until the midway point of the final frame. Cody Glass had shown fire and passion earlier in the night after getting in a shoving match with Vancouver defenseman Ty Ettinger. Glass came through for Portland tying the game at three. His linemate Reece Newkirk put the Winterhawks ahead for good a little over a minute later.

Reece Newkirk (Photo by Portland Winterhawks/Chad Baker/Keith Dwiggins)

Matthew Quigley, returning from missing several games due to injury, found Newkirk on the rush. Reece scored after shooting the puck off the far post and ultimately behind David Tendeck. Newkirk described the goal saying he has “been working with our skills coach Tomas Pacina and he’s been showing us how to pull the puck in [to our feet]. I listened to him and it helped.” Ryan Hughes would ice the game for the Winterhawks as he scored into the empty net just nine seconds after the Giants pulled Tendeck for the extra attacker.

The two teams travel north to Langley Events Centre for a rematch tomorrow night.

 

Notes:

– Robbie Fromm-Delorme was hurt in practice this week and Mike Johnston commented after the game, “we don’t have a timeline yet, but right now it is week-to-week. I don’t think it is going to linger, but since it just happened we have to wait a few days.”

– Rylan Bettens is no longer on Portland’s active roster, Johnston spoke about Rylan’s decision, “I like the kid and I like the player. He just decided he wanted to go to school and didn’t want to play in the league anymore. You never really know their mindset, Brandon wasn’t really using him, we thought we would give him an opportunity here. I don’t think his heart was in playing hockey anymore.”

– The Winterhawks gave up a conditional draft choice to Brandon in the Bettens trade. Johnston said, “I don’t think any of the conditions will kick in, we will probably lose an 8th round in 2021.”

– As a result of the Fromm-Delorme injury, and Bettens no longer being on the roster, the Winterhawks only have 12 healthy forwards at this time.  

– Kade Nolan and Nick Perna each took warmups, but Perna drew into the lineup as the sixth defenseman