Jake Gricius scored a goal and had two assists to lead the Portland Winterhawks (2-0-0-0) over the Kamloops Blazers (0-3-0-0), 4-3 on Sunday evening.
Entering play on Sunday, when the Blazers and Winterhawks have played in the Moda Center since 2005, Portland is now 11-0-1 against Kamloops.
The Blazers were playing their final game of a three-in-three to start the season. Kamloops lost to Spokane on Friday, Seattle on Saturday, and then traveled south on I-5 to face the Winterhawks.
“This was a fairly solid effort, being the third game with lots of travel,” Blazers head coach Shaun Clouston said postgame. “We need to have a stronger team play all three games. If we did, we probably come up with a win somewhere. This is the toughest one to win.”
Part of what didn’t help Kamloops was falling behind early.
Similar to Saturday night, Portland scored within the opening minutes again. Jaydon Dureau was left alone in front of Rayce Ramsay for the game’s first goal just 1:41 into play.
The Winterhawks’ second goal came after the teams traded chances. However, it was Portland’s alternate captain Gricius who found the back of the net.
Describing his goal to winterhawks.com, Jake said, “Obviously every time you crash the net good things might happen for you. Jonas (Brøndberg) made a good shot. I thought it was going to go in, but it was right there, so I just tapped it in real quick.”
The Colorado Springs native picked up an assist on Dureau’s goal, giving him 100 points on his career. Before the night was over, he added another assist, meaning he left the Moda Center with 102 points to his name.
Gricius talked about the milestone. “It was obviously a team effort, but it feels good to hit that milestone. Obviously a good feeling for me, but like I said, it was a team effort and was a fun game.”
Clouston felt “there were a couple of goals in the first period where we just lost guys in front of the net, the most important area. They went hard to the net and we didn’t box out.”
After a Winterhawks turnover in the offensive zone, rookie Logan Stankoven and Kyrell Sopotyk broke the other way on a two-on-one rush.
The 16-year-old, and fifth overall selection in the 2018 WHL Draft, elected to shoot and beat Joel Hofer to get the Blazers within one heading to the first intermission.
Stankoven has two goals and an assist through three regular-season games. The Kamloops, British Columbia, native led the WHL in preseason scoring (8G, 7A).
“Logan has had a great start,” Clouston commented. “He’s a talented young player, hard worker. He is going to have a great career.”
The second period was filled with penalties. Portland took four in the middle frame and six in a row going back to the first. The Blazers also took two of their own before the horn sounded.
Montana Onyebuchi evened the game at two when he scored on the first five-on-three for Kamloops. “It was a five-on-three. They made a nice play to get it to me. I just boxed them out, did my role.”
Clouston described, saying, “You want to create some chances. It was just a matter of getting a puck at the net and banging it in. His job was to be net-front and be a screen, be available for those bang-in plays.”
However, despite having seven power-play chances in the game, only Onyebuchi could beat Hofer.
Clouston felt “the power play wasn’t good enough. We had great discipline, lots and lots of chances and lots of opportunities on the power play, but we only got one. We weren’t able to take advantage of the calls.”
Winterhawks head coach Mike Johnston talked on Saturday night about his team needing to be more disciplined when they played again on Sunday. Despite the seven penalties, he didn’t feel they were a result of discipline. “I don’t know if they were soft, not that to say they were the wrong penalties being called, but kind of light penalties. Little bumps, little touches, and guys fell, but the ice wasn’t very good. It was tough to tell if they fell because of the ice or because of the interference, the hook, or whatever it happened to be.”
Johnston continued, “I thought they were pretty tight calls. It wasn’t like we cross-checked somebody into the boards or somebody hit somebody and you retaliate by whacking them back. That was not the case. It was a hard way to go with two five-on-threes when you don’t take a real hard penalty.”
Despite the penalties, Johnston spoke about how his team handled the situation. “I like how we were fairly resilient tonight for a young team. Going down six penalties to none and two five-on-threes, I know that is hard. Usually, teams lose their composure, but I thought we hung in there. We have a good goaltender. The resiliency to kind of wade through six penalties and still keep your composure.”
Gricius added, “Anytime you can kill those (five-on-threes) off it is huge for the team and huge for our kill. It is good for our momentum and kills their momentum and we can get some off of it. That was really good for us to kill those off.”
One of the turning points in the game came when Kamloops forward Kobe Mohr was whistled for interference. The Winterhawks wasted little time and Johnny Ludvig scored on the power play just 23 seconds into the chance.
Johnston said, “I thought that was really key. We knew when we got ours, we had to get some momentum off of it. That was a really, really big goal.”
Just over a minute later, Mohr atoned for his earlier penalty. While he was falling, the overage forward’s shot found the top corner with only 33 seconds to play in the second.
Entering the third period, Portland once again scored early.
17-year-old Robbie Fromm-Delorme accepted a pass from 20-year-old defenseman Matthew Quigley and was all alone in front of the Kamloops net.
The Richmond, British Columbia, native kicked the puck free from his skates and completed a spin-o-rama wrist shot, giving the Winterhawks the lead for good.
Humbly after the game, Fromm-Delorme spoke of his game-winning goal. “I knew I had time and decided to get it to my forehand, so I just spun. It worked out for me in the end. I don’t look at it as anything special because it is a team thing. As a team, we played really well and deserved the win.”
Robbie’s head coach was impressed with the goal. “That was quite a play by a young kid. He picked up a pass in the skates, then had the wherewithal and spin and throw it onto the net; that was a huge goal. There have been some highlight goals scored this weekend. Robbie is a young kid playing with Gricius and Gilliss.”
Kamloops made one final push in the final few minutes, but Hofer and a couple of big blocked shots by Jake Gricius sealed the victory and two points for the Winterhawks.
Johnston was proud of the effort put forth by his alternate captain. “Gricius had a great night; he was really, really good. I think he knows that this is his year where he is battling to earn a contract and an opportunity professionally. I think he is one of the best forwards in the league when you look at 200 feet. Last night, he played the most minutes for us. He then came in back-to-back and played a good game tonight.”
The Winterhawks next play at home on October 19th and will play seven straight road games.
For Portland and Mike Johnston, they prefer to complete their eastern swing early in the year.
“It allows us to get to know each other well. As coaches, we get to spend a lot of time with the players, which I look forward to at this time of the year,” Johnston explained. “We do have so many new people and just integrate the team and just develop some chemistry. We are going into a tough building and a tough province to play in with Alberta. We have the Vancouver game before we leave, which will be really tough. Then, we have six hard ones on the road in the East. It is only going to make us stronger, and you need those tests earlier in the year.”
The Kamloops Blazers are now off until Friday when they play host to their rival Kelowna Rockets.
At practice, Onyebuchi is hoping the team can focus “mostly just on the structure and details of getting back in the defensive zone and figuring it out. The preparation for the boys, just have to be ready every night from the start to the finish.”
When asked what he wants to get out of practice the next several days, Clouston said, “Just get our teamwork, get our five guys on the ice working a little bit more together. We are working fairly hard but not working together as much. There are some things we can do, whether it is transition, D-zone coverage, or our forecheck. We are just a little bit off and out of sync.”
Notes:
– In addition to Jake Gricius scoring his 100th point, Lane Gilliss also had a milestone on Sunday. The 20-year-old forward skated in his 200th game with the Winterhawks.
– Shaun Clouston commented on the status of Luke Zazula, “I think he is going to miss some time, but we don’t know how much. We will probably find out more (on Monday).
– Through the opening weekend, special teams are a huge factor for both Kamloops and Portland. The Winterhawks power play scored on two of their eight (25%) chances this weekend. After struggling statistically in the preseason, through two games, the Portland penalty kill has successfully defended 11 of the 12 chances against. Kamloops has played three games and been in the penalty box nine times but have only yielded one power-play goal. However, their power play only has two goals on 15 opportunities.
