(Portland, Oregon) On Saturday night the I5 rivalry between the Portland Winterhawks (14-8-0-2) and Seattle Thunderbirds (8-12-3-0) resumed after a week break. The location shifted from Kent to the Rose City.
Portland started as if they were shot out of a cannon. The Winterhawks used their speed and transition game to help direct over ten shots towards Liam Hughes by the first media timeout. Last weekend Hughes faced 55 shots and saw another 45 on Saturday from a determined Portland team.
In a 4-3 Portland victory, the Winterhawks found the back of the net three times in the first or last two minutes of periods and the Thunderbirds’ Zack Andrusiak contributed a hat trick.
Clay Hanus’ tripping penalty gave Seattle an opportunity to strike first, but Portland ended up capitalizing instead. Cody Glass and Reece Newkirk rushed in on a 2-on-1 with the Vegas first round selection shooting off Hughes’ pad. The puck went directly to Newkirk’s stick and the 2019 draft eligible prospect made no mistake giving the Winterhawks the game’s first goal.
The 5,357 Portland faithful were still settling back into their seats when Andrusiak netted his first goal of the game just 20 seconds later. The Seattle overager scored his 13th goal of the season and pushed his streak of games with a goal to six. Seattle’s head coach Matt O’Dette said after the game, “He’s a dangerous player, a streaky player. When he has it going they can come in bunches for him. That’s what’s going on right now, he’s got the hot hand and that’s a good thing for our team.”
Portland carried the play in the offensive zone, but the score remained tied until the Winterhawks’ line of Reece Newkirk, Seth Jarvis, and Jaydon Dureau worked a cycle play around the perimeter. Newkirk saw an opportunity to get the puck to the net by attempting a wrap-around shot. The puck caromed right to Dureau who scored two seconds before the “one minute remaining” announcement. Jaydon said, “All three of us: Jarvis, Newkirk, and I have been clicking very well together. We’ve been struggling lately to find the back of the net, but I think our line showed some dominate factors at times.”
The goal gave Portland the advantage heading to the first intermission. Assistant Winterhawks captain Brendan De Jong said, “That was big momentum getting into the room. It just starts the positive vibes in the room and everyone is talking about the game.” Mike Johnston thinks “psychologically when you have such a good first period you want to come out with the lead and it was a tie game going into the last few minutes. That was a big goal for sure.”
Johnston praised the Newkirk line, “I really liked that line. I thought Jarvis and Dureau had a really good game. Newkirk is pretty steady all year, that was a big shorthanded goal he got.”
What was talked about in the Portland locker room clearly carried into the second period. The Winterhawks opened the period on the power play and Cody Glass scored just 28 seconds into the second period extending the Winterhawks lead to 3-1.
De Jong picked up his fist of two assists, but was humble after the game, “We have some forwards who can put the puck in the net. On the power play, just give the puck to Cody Glass and Joachim Blichfeld and that’s pretty much it.”
Portland’s goals were separated by an intermission, but were scored only 1:30 a part in game time. O’Dette said, “It is something we have been talking about. If you can maintain contact and not give up late goals, add-on goals, that one late was near the last minute of the period. Obviously that was the difference in the game.”
Shane Farkas saw six official Thunderbirds shots in each period, total of 18, but stopped a few more opportunities than the shot clock credited the 19-year-old netminder.
Seattle’s Matthew Wedman picked off an outlet pass by the Winterhawks’ defense and passed to Andrusiak for his second of the game, and 14th of the season. The goal gave the Thunderbirds new life and they started to press more in the offensive zone.
The effort was not rewarded though, and once again, Portland scored in the last two minutes of the period. De Jong said, “Getting pucks through to the net was a big thing we emphasized before the game. That was going through my head at the blue line. We have been emphasizing the past week that if we want to score goals we are going to have to get in front and bang them in. I thought Mannek did that ‘To a T’ tonight.” The goal was Mannek’s seventh of the season, well ahead of his pace from last year when he scored ten in 58 games.
The momentum belonged to Portland, and once again, the momentum carried through to the following period. “I thought we controlled the puck in the offensive zone in the third period,” Johnston said. “That helped us out defensively. They had a lot of their chances at the end of the game.” As of the media timeout, Seattle was only credited with two shots in the period. Portland was keeping the Thunderbirds to the outside.
De Jong expressed, “I think a key for us is killing pucks in the corner as fast as we can. When Seattle gets pucks to the net they are good down there and can burry pucks right in front. So that is big for us killing pucks in the corner and getting them up to our forwards so they can skate.”
Seattle pressed hard in the last few minutes of the game and Andrusiak’s third goal of the game got them within one. However, the goal was too little too late for the Thunderbirds as Portland held on for the 4-3 victory.
O’Dette said, “Our guys emptied the tank. We knew it would take that type of effort to give us a chance. Those guys left it all on the line tonight. We are pretty exhausted right now; lots of character in that room. We knew it was going to be a tough test, which it always is. We say it to our guys all the time, we’re obviously disappointed with not winning the game, but we can look ourselves in the mirror and know the fact that we worked as hard as we could. I thought we did that tonight. We made it a one goal game by sticking to it to the very end.”
Johnston was pleased his team got the win, but “that was too close of a game at the end for the number of chances we had. We had some phenomenal opportunities; [Liam] Hughes played well. We are getting the shots, we’re getting the actual quality chances and if we convert them I think we at least have a cushion running down the third. I liked our game overall.”
Seattle is now off until Friday when they host the Kootenay Ice on Friday, November 30th. O’Dette says there is a lot to improve on, but specifically, “the puck movement, transitioning, and working on our puck skills. That is always something we are going to continue to work on. Special teams, power play, and trying to build on any momentum we would have created tonight. Hopefully the injury front we can get some good news there.”
O’Dette was quick to point out, “There is a light at the end of the tunnel. If we continue to work this way we will get ourselves out of this.”
Portland, meanwhile, faces the Everett Silvertips tomorrow in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum before playing in Everett on Wednesday. Both Dureau and De Jong know the importance of playing their game against the U.S. Division leading Silvertips. Dureau said, “It is a good rivalry with them. The U.S. Division is very tough and is very competitive. We want to set the tempo, we know what style they play. They are a little more of a trap game so we have to make sure we are ready to play and that we are executing our shifts properly.”
De Jong referenced last season, “These are big points for us. I know last year it came down to a few points us and Everett [to win the U.S. Division and have home ice advantage in the second round]. We know these games are going to be huge at the end of the year.”
Johnston expects both Sunday and Wednesday to be “very close games. It is a fine line between two very good teams.”
Notes:
– While not an official statistic, the Winterhawks have blocked a significant amount of shots the last several games. “Don Hay is a big shot blocker, loves the special teams, loves the penalty kill. He got some rubber pucks for us and we have been working on that after practice blocking shots. So whenever there is a block the boys are into it,” Dureau mentioned post-game.
– Dureau commented after the game about the Portland/Seattle rivalry, “We knew what this game was about. It was a rivalry game for sure. It is a big weekend in all of North America right now, like college football too, you see big rival games. We had a little discussion beforehand. We play them eleven times. If we want to do well in our season and more forward into the playoffs, these are big, key games for us.”
– Nick Perna dressed as the sixth defenseman on Saturday. Mike Johnston and associate coach Kyle Gustafson continue to rotate three defenseman into this role. Nick Cicek and Kade Nolan were healthy scratches on Saturday.
