Saturday evening in Portland was hockey night as the Brandon Wheat Kings (4-7-0-0) made their only visit to the Rose City in 2019-2020.
With the teams only playing once per season, the Portland Winterhawks (6-3-0-1) have not lost to Brandon since the 2014-2015 season. The Wheat Kings will need to wait another year as the Winterhawks won 4-1.
The game started out with some early fireworks as Dom Schmiemann and Mason Mannek dropped the gloves less than 90 seconds into the contest.
Winterhawks goalie Joel Hofer said, “The boys were buzzing for sure. Manny (Mason Mannek) got us going with the fight early on. I think we just took that momentum throughout the game and the guys played real well.”
Portland capitalized on the momentum from the fight, scoring twice before the first-period horn sounded.
Jarvis was flying in the opening 20 minutes and was in on both Portland goals. First, he scored his fourth of the year. “I think our team came out really fast in the first and Manny had the big fight there to kind of get the guys going. We were able to capitalize early. (Jaydon) Dureau definitely had some speed there on the wall. I joined him on the rush. He made a sweet move on the D and slid it over to me. I just put it in.”
Later, he started a perfect passing play, finding Reece Newkirk. The New York Islanders 2019 draft pick spotted import Simon Knak alone to the right of Brandon’s Ethan Kruger. Knak was simply able to tap the puck in for his fourth of the young season.
“Johnny (Ludvig) made a good play to reset the puck down low. I heard Newy (Newkirk) calling for it, so I kind of just threw it to an area. He made a great pass over to Simon for the score,” Jarvis said.
Hofer offered some quick praise to the 17-year-old forward. “Seth has been rolling every game for us this year and is a big player for us.”
Knak is also off to a hot start with the Winterhawks as he picked up his fourth goal and 11th point in ten games.
Winterhawks head coach Mike Johnston feels “he’s had a good start to the year. He looks comfortable out there and is getting better and better. I think (Jonas) Brøndberg is the same.”
Jarvis, along with Newkirk, are starting to build some chemistry with Knak on their line. Seth feels Knak “is doing unreal so far. He’s having a great start to the season, playing well, playing hard. It has been really good for us. I think we all have the same idea — work hard and play fast which makes stuff happen. I think we are just creating chances with our speed and skill which really helps us.”
Hofer joined in on the praise for Knak and Brøndberg, “They are in their first year in the league. They are starting to get settled in. At first, they were kind of shy getting used to the team, but I think they are settling in really well.”
Portland outshot Brandon 14-7 in the first period which was a key to the game for Johnston. “I liked our start. I think when you are playing eastern teams coming west, we just experienced it, (good starts) are really important because they play a lot of games in a short period of time. We had a lot of energy, a lot of puck possession time in the first.”
The Wheat Kings pushed back in the second, keeping pace with the Winterhawks on the shot clock. Each team was able to generate 14 shots on net. However, only one lit the lamp.
Portland’s all-rookie line of James Stefan, Jack O’Brien, and Tyson Kozak combined to give the Winterhawks a 3-0 lead on Kozak’s third of the year.
“I thought we had a good balance through our lines,” Johnston expressed. “It was nice to see O’Brien and Stefan and Kozak score. I liked our balance as some lines had heavy matchups against (Ridly) Greig’s and (Luka) Burzan’s line, who are a handful. I thought Newkirk’s line with Jarvis and Knak were a solid line with a nice puck-possession shift that they had in the offensive zone which led to a goal.”
After Kozak’s goal, Kruger had to leave the game after a collision with Kozak. With Jiri Patera listed as out with a lower-body injury for the next 2-to-3 weeks, 17-year-old Connor Ungar made his season debut.
Ungar played well in relief, stopping 19 of 20 Portland shots over the final 29 minutes of action.
The lone goal came via a Winterhawks power play. Lane Gilliss deflected fellow overager Matthew Quigley’s point shot while standing in front.
Portland’s fourth goal restored their three goal lead after Ben McCartney scored on a power play for the Wheat Kings. Braden Schneider and Ridly Greig paired well together before Greig’s pass was directed in by McCartney’s skate.
Mike Johnston felt “in the second and third (period), even though we outshot them, the game was very even. Brandon has a pretty good team with some really good players on that team. Schneider and Greig will be top NHL picks this year.”
Portland limited Brandon to only two shots in the final 20 minutes and won their sixth game of the season.
The Wheat Kings continue their US Division swing on Tuesday. They travel to Kennewick, Washington, to face the Tri-City Americans.
Portland is next in action on Wednesday at home to another East Division opponent. The defending WHL champion Prince Albert Raiders come to town, currently sitting atop the East Division one year after winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
Jarvis is hoping for more of the same on Wednesday. “Prince Albert is also coming down on their swing, so it will be a long trip for them. We need to capitalize like we did on Brandon off the start, need to start hard by playing fast.”
