On Wednesday evening the Portland Winterhawks (28-13-3-2) faced-off against the Tri-City Americans (24-17-2-1) at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum for their final matchup in Portland during the regular season. Entering the contest, Tri-City had won all five games against the Mike Johnston led Winterhawks with four games requiring overtime.
The Americans jumped out early with a 2-0 lead, but Portland battled back with four straight goals. The win on Wednesday gave the Winterhawks their first victory against Tri-City during the 2018-2019 campaign.
Portland Winterhawks Head Coach Mike Johnston said, “I thought we played a good game overall. I didn’t really think we gave them a lot of scoring chances. I thought we outchanced them as the game went along. They had some grade A chances early that they scored on. We made some mistakes and were flat in the first ten minutes.”
For head coach Kelly Buchberger he felt the Americans “played really well for the first 19 minutes of the first period and unfortunately they scored [twice] as they have a lot of skill on that team. They took advantage of breakdowns we had. We got a little soft in front of our net. From then on the second was better for us.”
Krystof Hrabik opened the scoring for the Americans after Riley Sawchuk spotted the import forward alone in front of Joel Hofer’s crease. Hrabik’s tenth goal of the season gave the Americans a boost and Kyle Olson scored just 40 seconds later.
Coming off a two goal game on Sunday, the 19-year-old Anaeheim Ducks prospect forced a turnover at the Winterhawks blue line. On his partial breakaway the Calgary, AB native made no mistake slipping the puck under the pad of Hofer.
Prior to the media timeout in the first period, the Americans carried play; however, Portland utilized the 90 second break to find their game.
Johnston said, “At about the ten or 12 minute mark of the first period I thought we started to pick up our game.”
Jaydon Dureau commented after the game, “After the ten minute mark the team knew we weren’t playing our best hockey. We knew we had a lot more to give. Once we had the TV timeout, I think we came out better.”
Dureau cut the Americans’ lead to 2-1 after battling for a rebound from a point shot. The 17-year-old rookie was well positioned and ultimately deposited the puck behind Beck Warm for his tenth goal of the season.
Assistant captain Joachim Blichfeld described the line of Reece Newkirk, Seth Jarvis, and Jaydon Dureau as “great for us all year, one of our best lines.”
While Dureau was first down the handshake line for scoring the goal, he credited his teammates, “I have to give all the credit to linemates. Give recognition to Newkirk and Javis. We kept out-muscling our opponents. We got a shot from the point, out-muscled them again, and I was able to put it in.”
Earlier in the first period Tri-City scored two goals in 40 seconds, and Portland responded with their own when Josh Paterson tied the game at two with 25 seconds left in the first period.
Johnston said, “Josh was right at the net. He screens, gets the rebound, and puts the rebound in. Those are kind of playoff and stretch run goals. A key part of the game.”
The Americans and Winterhawks played a scoreless second period. Each team failed to convert on a power-play opportunity. In the two most recent games, Tri-City held Portland off the score sheet on the power play.
“We key on certain players their is no question; we know who they are.” Buchberger when describing his team’s success on the penalty kill. “We try to take away their time and space, have good sticks, and good reads. Obviously strong goaltending helped.”
With the score tied at two entering the final 20 minutes, Johnston felt “the best part of our game was the third period, which it was the other night as well. I thought we had them back on their heels and on the run. We had quite a few scoring chances in the offensive zone. I thought Warm played really good in the third. They had [Sasha] Mutala away [attending the top prospects game in Red Deer] and had a few extra defensemen playing. They don’t have the forward depth now.”
Portland continued to roll four lines throughout the entire game and with Tri-City only starting 11 forwards Johnston said, “Anytime you catch a team like that you have an opportunity to keep the pace high to give them trouble. That is what we did. I knew it would pay dividends at one point in time. In the third period I thought they looked a little fatigued.”
Buchberger described the third period saying, “They outplayed us and we just couldn’t keep up right now. The way we play we have to muck it through in the offensive zone to create chances by keeping pucks low and then getting to the blue paint. We can’t get into a horse race, they have too much talent.”
Portland broke the deadlock at two on a goal by Joachim Blichfeld. The WHL’s leading scorer also provided the insurance goal about seven minutes later. The two goal night for Blichfeld pushed his season total to 42 goals.
As of Thursday evening, the 20-year-old signed San Jose Sharks prospect’s 86 points is ten more than Moose Jaw’s Tristin Langan and Edmonton’s Trey Fix-Wolansky. Blichfeld also leads Langan by five in goals scored as the overage forward for the Warriors has 37 on the campaign.
Tri-City pulled Warm for the extra attacker with 2:45 remaining trying to tie the game; however, they were unable to get anything by Joel Hofer who made 26 saves in his second win since joining the Winterhawks.
Tri-City headed back to Kennewick Wednesday evening in preparation to play the U.S. Division leading Everett Silvertips on Friday. Buchberger feels the biggest thing is “we are giving up too many shots right now. It is about assignments in our defensive zone. We have a day to work on it [before Everett]. There isn’t a lot of time to work on it as we are playing a lot of hockey lately. We just need to focus on our defensive zone coverage a little bit better.”
Meanwhile, Portland next plays Seattle on Saturday. The Thunderbirds are red hot winning five of their last six, and obtaining points in all six. Johnston said, “They have been playing well. I think we have been playing really well the last two months too. Sometimes at this time of the year you really want to focus on your game as much as the opponent’s game. We haven’t played Seattle for a while, so we want to take a look at what they have been doing well and break it down for our guys. However, we really want to keep building on our game.”
Notes:
– Joachim Blichfeld registered his 200th career point on Wednesday evening. When asked about the milestone he said, “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. Paty [Josh Paterson] came in, kind of a new guy. We got chemistry with him right away. Cody [Glass], like I said before, in my eyes he is the best player in the whole CHL. It feels great to play those guys. They got me there tonight.”
– Blichfeld has enjoyed playing with Josh Paterson, “He is a guy who makes a lot of space for Cody and I. I’ve never seen a guy who has been so strong on his stick like him. If it is a 50-50 battle you know Josh is going to come out with the puck, so great to have him on our line.”
– John Ludvig was scratched for the Winterhawks. Johnston provided an update post-game, “He is just a little banged up. I don’t know if we will see him [this weekend]. He was getting treatment tonight [Wednesday]. We kept him out of practice on Tuesday and the game today as precautionary. I don’t think it will be long term. It is just a nagging injury that has been going on for a couple of weeks. We just finally said we better shut him down.”
– Johnston did not give any indication if Shane Farkas or Joel Hofer is expected to start in net for the Winterhawks on Saturday against Seattle or Sunday vs Lethbridge. The head coach said, “We will decide later.”
