It was a celebratory night on Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum as the Portland Winterhawks had nearly the entire 1997-98 team that won the Memorial Cup in attendance and honored them as part of a pre-game ceremony. They also inducted Marian Hossa, Brenden Morrow, Todd Robinson and Andrew Ference into their Hall of Fame, revealing a banner as part of the same ceremony. Those four names joined those of former coach and general manager Ken Hodge, former player and coach Brent Peterson and former player Dennis Holland.
By the the time the ceremony was over, nearly 30 minutes had passed and the fans and the 2017-18 Winterhawks seemed energized.
Portland would ride that energy into a hot start that saw them control a large majority of the possession and out shoot the visiting Tri-City Americans 18-5. However, Portland trailed Tri-City 2-0 and the Americans would go on to beat the Winterhawks 6-2, behind a three-point night from Juuso Vålimåki, two goals from Michael Rasmussen and 38 saves from Patrick Dea to a key U.S. Division win.
Portland started with some zip and put the first six shots on net. The best looks were those by an activated Keoni Texeira and Joachim Blichfeld on a follow up. Dea was up to the task though and held off the early Winterhawks push.
Tri-City was helped in two situations on an early penalty kill, when Kieffer Bellows broke his stick on a one-timer and then that same stick would break up a Portland pass, leading to a Tri-City clear.
That kill would be key as Tri-City got on board shortly thereafter on a man advantage of their own.
The Americans got on their power play when Matthew Quigley was taken off for tripping. Rasmussen took a pass and skated in past the face off, wiring an NHL-caliber wrist shot just under the bar on Portland goalie Shane Farkas.
Juuso Vålimåki then extended the Tri-City lead on his team’s fifth shot. He took a cross-ice feed from Joe Gatenby and beat Farkas inside the near post. Quality over quantity in the first 20 minutes as Portland out shot Tri-City by 13, but trailed where it counted by two.
Portland center Alex Overhardt felt like his squad was confident they could overcome the emotional letdown of trailing after dominating a period though.”It’s tough. We’ve been in certain situations like that before though We’ve been down and we’ve come back. No one was really too worried. We were pretty confident in our ability to come back but we were doing a good job. They got a couple lucky bounces so we wanted to do more of the same. Unfortunately we could not get it done this time.”
The line that created a positive possession for Portland on seemingly every trip on the ice in the first, netted the team’s first goal. Ryan Hughes zipped around the Tri-City net and got the puck out front to Overhardt, who pounded home his 15th of the year.
Overhardt said that the differing styles of play between, Hughes, Joachim Blichfeld and him is a reason why the three have found so much chemistry together. All three combined for both of Portland’s goals on the night.
“I think that we just compliment each other. They are two very different players. Blichs is a shooter. Hughesy is a play maker – he holds onto the puck and I’m a defensive player so I try and chip in there. They can put the puck on my tape, so I just try and put it in the net. I’m lucky to play with both of those guys.”
All that possession and all those good looks on Dea had only led to one goal through the first 37 minutes of the game. That meant that when Tri-City mounted their first substantial and continuous possession of the game, the goal they scored was a big one. After Farkas stopped Morgan Geekie and Parker AuCoin in succession, Isaac Johnson buried a shot by him on the near post again and the score 3-1.
The teams traded posts later in the second as Henri Jokiharju rang one on a 4-on-3 Portland power play and Jake Bean struck one for the Americans.
Hughes lost his composure after the second period buzzer rang and the result was a two minute power play for the American to start the third period.
That power play would be the death nail for the Hawks. Rasmussen again scored on the power play, this time on the rebound of a Jake Bean shot and it was 4-1 Tri-City early in the third.
Tri-City was 2-of-3 on the man advantage this night. Overhardt explained why the Ams are so dangerous with an extra man on the ice. “They have two top d-men and Rasmussen can put the puck in the net. They zip the puck around really good. I think the biggest thing is that Rasmussen is really good in front of the net and he’s got a really good shot.”
With the momentum swinging towards the Americans, a former Winterhawk potted a goal against his former club. Geekie had the puck behind the net and drew the defense before putting the puck on the stick of a wide open Brett Clayton. The result was Clayton’s fourth goal this year and first against the team that he played 87 games over parts of three seasons with.
The fact that Portland shed him at the start of this season, had to make this goal a nice personal moment for him. His exuberance after the marker seemed to highlight this point.
Farkas was pulled from the net after Clayton’s goal. He stopped 18 of 23. He took the loss, his first against Tri-City this year, after going 5-0, with two shutouts in his first five games against the Americans.
Blichfeld helped the Winterhawks crawl closer with a tap in off a feed from Hughes, but it was looking like it wasn’t Portland’s night.
Riley Sawchuk then sealed this one for good as Portland pulled Farkas’ reliever, Cole Kehler with around three minutes left.
Notes:
Portland is now 42-21-1-4.
-Tri-City is 34-24-8-1 and is three points up on Seattle for the first wild card spot and a date with the B.C. Division winner.
-Portland won the season series 7-3, outscoring the Americans 41-26.
-With Everett beating Seattle Saturday, the Winterhawks are now six points back of Everett with four games to play. They play each other Sunday at the Moda Center.
-Portland is five points up on Spokane with one more game coming between the two teams in Portland next Sunday.
-Ryan Hughes now has 11 points in his last seven games.
Below is an incomplete list of the 1997-98 team and what their current professions are:
Chris Jacobson (Center)- University of Saskatchewan corporate relations.
Mike Muezechka (Defense)- Policeman in Calgary
Mike Hurley (RW)- Owns Sherwood Meat in Sherwood Park, AB
Shon Jones-Parry (Defense)-Managing a restaurant in Vancouver B.C
Kevin Haupt (Defense)- Instructor at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
Marty Standish (RW)- Owns a construction company in Oklahoma City.
Derek MaClean (LW)- Policeman in Calgary
Jared Smith (Center)-Working on the family farm and also for Canadian Natural Gas.
Todd Robinson (Center-franchise leader in points)-Car sales manager in Muskegon, Michigan.
Andrew Ference (Defense)- Working for the NHL.
Brenden Morrow (LW)-Owner of Codigo Tequila company.
Marian Hossa (RW)- Currently still playing for the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL.
Ryan Thrussell (Defense)- International marketing lead for the NHL with the Adidas Company.
Bobby Russell (RW)-Works at a brewery.
Joey Tetarenko (Defense)- Territory sales representative.
Ken Davis (RW)- Works for Goldman Sachs.
Jason LaBarbera (Goalie)- Goalie coach for the Calgary Hitmen.
Matt Walker (Defense)- Owner of Nelson Brewing in Nelson, B.C.
Kyle Chant (LW)- ?
Ken Hodge (General Manager)- Works with the Winterhawks in a role as an adviser.
Brent Peterson (Head Coach)- Runs the Peterson for Parkinson’s Foundation.
Innes Mackie (Trainer)-Trainer for the Tri-City Americans.
Mike Williamson (Assistant Coach)- Head Coach of the Tri-City Americans.
Due to airport issues Brent Belecki (Goalie) and Andrej Podkonicky (LW) were unable to make it.
Todd Hornung (Center) and Josh Green (Center) were both unable to make it for unknown reasons.
I will work on completing this list when I am able to discover more information.
