With Cody Glass joining Kieffer Bellows and Ryan Hughes in the stands, the Portland Winterhawks knew they were going to need a gutsy game from the whole team. They played a more limited, conservative game under coach Danny Flynn, who had the reins with vice president, head coach and general manager away doing some scouting.
With a veteran-laden and potent Swift Broncos team on the other side, Portland did a good job of limiting chances and actually owned the shot clock 34-26. The Broncos won the part of the score sheet that matters though as they got two goals from defenseman Colby Sissons and a three-point night from Giorgio Estephan to win in Portland 5-3.
Estephan, who was recently acquired from the Lethbridge Hurricanes, netted the game’s opening goal as he took a feed from Aleksi Heponiemi on the fly and tucked a wraparound goal by Portland netminder Cole Kehler.
The goal was the overage forward’s 300th career WHL point.
One of the other players that came over in the same deal played a bog role in the Swift Current win, their 32nd this year. Goalie Stuart Skinner stopped 32 of 34 and earned his second victory over Portland this season. While he did not make as many highlight-reel saves as he did when he led his former team over the Winterhawks, he still had a few high-quality stops when forced to do so.
Portland answered Estephan’s goal with one of their own in the first period. Skyler McKenzie netted his 35th this year and 15th in his last 14 games with 5:49 left in the opening 20 to tie the game at one.
Sissons then gave the Broncos the lead back he jumped up into the play and turned a two-on-one rush into a two-man advantage. He took a drop pass from Heponiemi and buried a shot by Kehler.
Again Portland had the answer though. In perhaps his best game since being acquired from the Prince George Cougars, Dennis Cholowski found Henri Jokiharju and a floating point shot from the Chicago Blackhawks prospect was redirected by Skinner by Alex Overhardt. The overage center now has 11 goals this year.
Cholowski had two assists for the second straight game and his sixth since coming over from P.G.
Overhardt was forced into increased ice time with Portland’s top center out and his 27 faceoffs are a testament to his enlarged role. He won 18 of those draws.
Early in the third, the Broncos kept the pace of the game going with a rebound buried by Beck Malenstyn. The marker was the former Calgary Hitmen forward’s fourth this year.
A strange sequence then led directly to another Swift Current goal later in the third. Malenstyn appeared to be clipped by the stick of Overhardt and after play continued for another minute and the mid-period break commenced, the officials met up. What commenced was a four-minute double minor assessed to Overhardt and a long power play for the Broncos.
Sissons netted his second of the game on the man advantage to make things 4-2.
With Kehler pulled for an extra attacker, Blichfeld made things interesting. He gathered in a rebound on his backhand and lifted a shot up over a down Skinner for his 15th of the year.
Portland had some more good looks down 4-3 and with six attackers, but some strong defensive play by former Hawk Tanner Nagel, led an empty netter from the strong two-way playing forward. He iced the game 5-3 with his fifth of the year. He had a key block just prior to his insurance goal.
Kehler made several big stops as the Broncos had plenty of high-quality looks as they looked to be more of the high-paced counter-attack team on this night. He stopped 21 of 25 overall.
Things do not get an easier for the Winterhawks as they continue their three games in three nights with an affair up in Langley against the Vancouver Giants Saturday night. They will then take on the Brandon Wheat Kings back home on Sunday.
With six attackers out late vs the Broncos, the Winterhawks were using a whole lot of the likes of Cholowski, Jokiharju, McKenzie, Blichfeld, Brendan De Jong and Overhardt. That group will certainly be seeing a whole lot of ice, by the time the weekend is over, if none of Hughes, Glass or Bellows return.
Notes:
Winterhawks VP, GM and Head Coach Mike Johnston is away from the team tonight for scouting and GM duties. The Hawks will have Assistant Coach Danny Flynn step in as HC against the @SCBroncos. Flynn becomes one of few in CHL history to be a Head Coach in the QMJHL, OHL and WHL. pic.twitter.com/REagzH4BJF
— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) January 19, 2018
-With Johnston away “scouting,” one could be forgiven for pondering whether this could be related to someone coming over this season. Of course the WHL trade deadline is over, but according to the recently released WHL Media Guide, the final roster deadline is not until February 10th.
-With only 12, non-affiliate forwards on the roster, Portland could be in the market for adding one to their roster. The trading away of Bronson Sharp to Everett still is a puzzling one, unless you belong to the camp that believes Johnston is working on adding someone to the group up front.
-A source close to DubNetwork has reported that Johnston was seen at the John Reid Memorial Tournament in St. Albert, Alberta though and that is a Bantam AAA tournament. If that is the only place he was going, that means he is not working on adding anyone to this year’s team but instead is just scouting for May 3rd’s Bantam draft in Red Deer.
-Jaydon Dureau again was called up and the 16-year-old played a limited role on a line with d-men John Ludvig and Conor MacEachern. It was Dureau’s fifth game this season. He has 58 points in 28 games with the SMHL’s Regina Pat Canadians.
