The Portland Winterhawks were hoping that they would get off to a fresh start after a rough stretch before the holiday break where they won one of their last seven games. To do so, they would need their star player to produce. Cody Glass did just that, notching his first multi-goal game since Nov. 29. Unfortunately for Portland, the visiting Tri-City Americans had a few potent play-makers of their own. Morgan Geekie and Nolan Yaremko each had a goal and three assists and Issac Johnson had two goals, leading the way for Tri-City to come back from a 3-2 second period deficit to win 6-3. Those three were in on three of the four consecutive goals that the Americans scored.
Despite being without Juuso Vålimåki and Michael Rasmussen, Tri-City showed that they have plenty of scoring depth and seem primed to make a run for the U.S. Division. After the win in Portland, the Americans are just five points behind the U.S. Division leading Everett Silvertips with five games in hand and two behind Portland with two games in hand.
Beck Warm provided solid netminding for the Americans, stopping 30 of 33, including all nine attempts he faced in the third period. Warm has now won his last three starts, despite allowing three or more goals each time.
In a free-flowing and entertaining start to hockey post-holiday break, Johnson opened the scoring. Defenseman Mitchell Brown found a charging Johnson and the rookie batted the puck out of the air. The puck then fluttered through the pads of Portland goalie Cole Kehler. The overage netminder struggled in this one. He stopped just 19 of 25 for his worst save percentage (0.760) in a single game this year.
Kehler was beaten again with 7:54 left in the first. On the power play, Jordan Topping tried to chip the puck in to Yaremko but it went out if his reach. Instead a hard-charging Geekie got to it and then swiftly dropped a pass to Yaremko. Yaremko then fired a cross-crease pass to Kyle Olson who hammered it home.
Despite the 2-0 deficit, Portland charged right back and would tie it in a small period of time in the opening frame.
First, Brendan De Jong faked a shot then found Conor MacEachrn who hammered a shot wide. Glass then had the awareness to find it and poked it in past Tri-City goalie Beck Warm. Just 28 seconds later, Jake Gricius fired a cross-ice pass to Ilijah Colina, who one-touched it to a charging Matthew Quigley, up from the blue line. Then Quigley’s shot hit the right post and Gricius followed up on the play he crated, by tapping home the rebound off the iron.
Things then started looking up in the second period as Portland notched their third straight marker. After Brett Clayton went off for interference and Anthony Bishop followed him to the box for slashing, the Winterhawks had a five-on-three power play for 1:21. Glass capitalized on the two-man advantage after Keoni Texeira drew the defense and found him in the left slot. Glass surveyed before wiring a shot past Warm for his second of the night.
Then the Geekie-Johnson-Yaremko line kept on finding the net and they tied it up. Geekie, while taking a check on the half-boards found Yaremko in the slot and after his shot was stopped by Kehler, Johnson was right there for the rebound for his second on the night.
Out-shooting Tri-City 30-18 after 40 minutes, Portland had to feel like they deserved a better outcome then a 3-3 tie.
Things would get worse for them in the third though, as the Americans scored three times in just seven shots in the final frame to pull away.
First, Yaremko found Geekie bursting out of the zone. Geekie turned MacEachern inside out at the blue line, before walking in a wiring a shot into the top corner over Kehler’s glove. The goal was an extremely skillful one and showed why Geekie is one of the more underrated forwards in the league.
Topping then won a battle in the corner and headed out to the face off dot, before surprising Kehler with a hard wrist shot. Kehler stopped it but in doing so kicked out a massive rebound right into the slot. Dylan Coghlan pounced on the puck and drilled a shot by Kehler.
The rebound looked just like those that plagued Kehler at times a season ago. His ability to control these rebounds has been a big reason behind his success this year.
Geekie then helped finish off the Winterhawks with 10:30 left. He took the puck off of the stick of Quigley along the half-boards and stickhandled through traffic before finding a wide open Yaremko for his 10th goal this year and third in his last three games.
Geekie looked like an elite player and brought back some memories of his incredible post-holiday run last year. He put up 46 points Dec. 28 and on last year. He now has 44 points this year, good for 22nd in the league. If he keeps playing like he did this night, he will shoot up the scoring leaderboard.
Portland was 1-for-2 on the power play, while Tri-City was 1-for-3.
Portland, who has now dropped three straight and seems to be struggling defenisvely without their top d-man in Henri Jokiharju, will try to turn things around in Kennewick Friday.
Game Notes:
-Brad Ginnell was traded to the Kootenay Ice for a second round pick in 2018 and a third round pick in 2019 Wednesday afternoon. Ginnell had five goals and six assists for 11 points in 25 games this year. The trading of Ginnell seems to have a couple different reasons behind it. First, Portland seems to firmly in the sweepstakes for a high profile acquisition at the trade deadline like Calgary’s Jake Bean or Prince George’s Dennis Cholowski. Both would seem to reap a ton of draft picks in return for the Hitmen and Portland now has quite a few they can move. Second, moving Ginnell creates some more playing time for Ty Kolle on the left wing. He has looked great in recent games, like he did tonight.
