Skating undermanned again and playing their seventh game in ten days, the Portland Winterhawks (28-15-1-3) came out flat. Evan Weinger and the Brandon Wheat Kings (28-15-3-1) did not.
The former Winterhawks forward scored twice in the opening 20 minutes and had his squad leading 3-0 over the team that he suited up for 187 games over four seasons with.
Portland was forced to trade away speedy winger Evan Weinger due to the WHL’s overage limit at the start of the season and El Segundo, California native was relishing taking on the club that traded him away.
Weinger opened the scoring by parking out in front of Cole Kehler and the Portland net. He found the rebound of a shot from Connor Cutenberg and poked in a power play marker 8:41 in. Many cheers from those that saw him score 37 times while wearing Portland’s colors could be heard.
He then added a short handed marker when Ryan Hughes misread where a teammate was and had his cross-ice pass picked off at the Brandon blue line, leading to a Weinger breakaway. The 20-year-old forward opened up Kehler’s pads and tucked in his second of the game and 20th of the year.
Ty Lewis added his 26th of the year on a two-on-one after Henri Jokiharhju had a bouncing puck get away form him. With Brendan De Jong taking away the pass, Lewis beat Kehler on the glove side for the 3-0 lead.
What followed was 40 minutes of the best hockey the Winterhawks have played in some time.
Portland, who was outshot 12-10 in the first, outshot the Wheat Kings 30-14 over the last two frames.
Joachim Blichfeld started the Portland comeback on an odd-man break in the second. De Jong corralled a puck in his own zone and flipped a brilliant backhand feed right onto the stick of a charging Blichfeld. The Danish import then beat Brandon goalie Logan Thompson for his 16th of the year.
Just 2:13 later in the middle frame, De Jong cut the Brandon lead to one. He pump faked both Gutenberg and Thompson and skated into some space before wristing a shot into a wide open area off to Thompson’s right. The Brandon goalie was screened by two Winterhawks and did not seem to see that De Jong had changed his shooting angle.
Portland then completed the comeback off a face off win. 16-year-old rookie Reece Newkirk won the draw back to Matthew Quigley. The defenseman’s ensuing shot was redirected pastThompson by Lane Gilliss. The goal was Gilliss’ first since November 21st.
The Winterhawks then got the winner off yet another face off win. Alex Overhardt, who was one of the overagers that the Winterhawks chose to keep over Weinger won a draw back to Dennis Cholowski. The d-man got it over to Jokiharju, who had his shot redirected past Thompson with 6:12 left by Overhardt.
The marker was Overhardt’s 12th this year.
With number one center Cody Glass out with a lower body injury, the Winterhawks have found a way to consistently win face off draws and this has led to some big goals.
The Hawks won 31 of 52 draws in this one for a 59.6 percent advantage. Overall this weekend, they won 55.2 percent of the face offs in their three games, tow of which were wins.
Overhardt’s goal was also the sixth goal by a different scorer in the team’s last two games. For a squad that has struggled at times this year in finding secondary scoring outside of the Glass, Kieffer Bellows and Skyler McKenzie line, the fact that one of those three was not one of the six scorers has to be a good sign for Portland.
Cole Kehler turned away 23 of 26 for Portland, while Thompson stopped 36 of 40.
Brandon’s road trip has been a bit of a nightmare so far as they have dropped four straight against the U.S. Division. Their last game on the trip comes Tuesday against Seattle.
Portland was 1/5 on the power play, while Brandon was 1/1.
The Winterhawks kept pace with the Everett Silvertips, as the U.S. Division leaders beat Swift Current and remain two points ahead of Portland. The Winterhawks have one game in hand left. The Hawks will next play Friday in Kamloops.
That game will be a homecoming for rookie defenseman John Ludvig, who is from Kamloops.
