On Thursday afternoon I spent some time attending the Portland Winterhawks practice at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
This weekend the Winterhawks play a three-in-three starting with a home game against the Spokane Chiefs. On Saturday and Sunday Portland travels to conclude their season series with the Kelowna Rockets. The next weekend the Winterhawks play two away games against the Prince George Cougars.
Mike Johnston spoke after practice about the upcoming trips through the B.C. Division, “We have a long road trip coming up again with three-in-three, a tough three-in-three this weekend, with travel to Kelowna. It is one of the hardest travel weekends we have. Then we head off to Prince George, come back, then there is only two weeks or so before playoffs start.”
“Work Week” in practice
After playing two games last weekend the Winterhawks had the opportunity for some practice time. “We looked at the second half of the season, we had three weeks where we could get good ‘work weeks’ as we call them. That is where you get quality off-ice workouts, quality on-ice workouts, and do some things on the ice that you are kind of preparing for playoffs with. I think it is really important.”
When I asked Shane Farkas about the week of practice in advance of the weekend’s games he said, “I don’t really think the long-term preparation changes for the short-term this weekend.”
During the last portion of the season Johnston discussed how Portland breaks the schedule into five game segments. “We are in the middle of our second to last segment. We have won every segment so far which is good, our first three segments. With a week like this we don’t necessarily taper down as much as we normally do because we felt it was important to get the work in, so we did a lot of extra time on the ice this week.”
Despite the extra on-ice time Johnston feels “it will pay dividends. I don’t think it will pay dividends this weekend, but it will down the road for us with what we have been able to accomplish this week.”
I also spoke with Clay Hanus after practice where I asked him about the week, “It was definitely a work week. We were touching up on a lot of details getting ready for playoffs here. We want to finish really strong here.”
Clay Hanus has success against Seattle
On Saturday night in Kent against the Thunderbirds defenseman Clay Hanus scored Portland’s first goal. His sixth goal of the season helped spark Portland to erase a 3-0 first period deficit. The game was tied before the third period was four minutes old.
Three of the Minnetonka, Minnesota native’s six goals have come on the road against Seattle. The second-year defenseman is tied with Jared Freadrich for most goals by a blue liner in the series with the Thunderbirds.
In fact, all of Hanus’ goals this season have come on the road, three in Seattle, and one in Kamloops, Moose Jaw, and Regina.
When I asked Hanus about his success on the road specifically against the rival Thunderbirds he said, “I think is just a little bit lucky for me right now. I like their rink, the way Seattle plays in their zone, and I think I can take advantage of that.”
Goalie of the month
On Thursday the WHL announced Winterhawks goalie Shane Farkas was named WHL goalie of the month for February.
During the month of February the 19-year old posted a 4-0-0-1 record. He stopped 137 of 142 shots for a 0.965 save percentage. In the five appearances his goals-against-average was an even 1.00.
One of Farkas’ best nights came against Vancouver where he stopped 24 shots in route to his fourth shutout of the season.
Shane commented quickly on being named goalie of the month “It is a huge honor. I don’t know who decides that stuff, but obviously a good feeling. I just hope we can keep it going this weekend.”
Johnston offered some additional praise for the Penticton, B.C. native, “I think it is outstanding. You look at what Shane has done and what we have talked about before. He has had a good run in the second half. We felt he has been more rested and has been able to train off the ice. He has had good focus in the games.”
Perhaps what impressed Johnston the most during this stretch was how Farkas played on Saturday against Seattle where he entered the game in relief.
“I thought that was a tough one, the Seattle game” the Winterhawks head coach said. “Not a lot of people know, but we went from Tri-City to Seattle and got in around 5:00 in the morning. That was a tough back-to-back. I thought our team started slow, Joel [Hofer] started slow, Farkas comes in a shuts them out like that. It is amazing what he did considering how hard of travel we had and when you enter into the game you are behind 3-0; not an easy start.”
In 47 games this season Farkas’ record includes 29 wins, a 2.69 goals-against-average, and 0.907 save percentage. The 29 wins ranks him fifth in the WHL.
Joel Hofer gets new equipment
After still wearing some of his Swift Current Broncos colored pads, the 18-year-old goalie now has Winterhawks colors from head to toe.
Ryan Miley returns to Winterhawks
2000-born defenseman Ryan Miley joined the Winterhawks this week in practice after his season with his previous team ended on Sunday.
“In the BCHL I played for the Surrey Eagles” Miley said. “We had a pretty rough year, but it was fun and a good experience. There is a lot of talented guys and a really skilled league.”
Needless to say, Ryan was excited to be back in Portland, “I always like playing here. This is probably one of my dream places to play. It is nice coming back, seeing all the guys, and getting in a routine again; kind of more professional.”
The Brookings, South Dakota native played four games with the Winterhawks in pre season before joining the Surrey Eagles.
Miley joins fellow defenseman Nick Perna, Matthew Quigley, John Ludvig, and Clay Hanus who were not selected in the WHL bantam draft. Ryan was instead added to the Winterhawks Protected List which was something new to him at the time.
“I’m from South Dakota, and basically the middle of nowhere” Miley described. “I didn’t really know much about the WHL. [Portland] was at a camp and they just saw me and asked if I would come so I said, ‘sure’ and it just took off from there.”
In April 2017 the Winterhawks announced they signed Miley.
When asked about the process from the time he was added to the protected list to signing, the 18-year-old said, “I played a full year of 16s for the Sioux Falls Junior Stampede; they are now the Sioux Falls Power. [Portland] watched me throughout the year, then I came in for practices, kind of like this at the end of the year, they signed me after that.”
The signing process included three people, “Mike Johnston and I met, my dad was there as well which was pretty special for him too” Miley described.
Ryan’s mom received the first call after he signed. “I told her I signed. She was very happy because I come from a small town, so it was pretty exciting for us. My parents wanted to keep it low-key.”
The rookie, left-shot blue liner describes his game as a “two-way defenseman. I like to jump up in the play, but also like to take care of my own zone as well.”
Away from the rink he enjoys golfing and fishing, “I like to go to Top Golf. We don’t have that where I’m from, so here it is kind of a bonus. Other than that, back home I like to go fishing. I ice fish sometimes, maybe a couple of times, but I’m always away during the winter.”
The adjustment period was quick for Miley who described how the WHL differs from his experience in the BCHL, “It is a little bit faster, but I feel like the BCHL is a lot skill. Here is a lot of systems, speed, and skill. It was kind of different the first day, and had a little bit of jitters at first, but good now.”
Mike Johnston confirmed Miley will be up with the Winterhawks the rest of the season since “his season is finished. Ryan is a call-up guy for us. We are going to be bringing in more players as we go down the stretch run for playoffs. We have to have some extra bodies around for playoffs so if somethings happens we’ve got a guy right here, especially if their season is already over.”
Injury updates
At this time of the season it is very common for players to receive maintenance days.
After practice concluded Mike Johnston mentioned, “We are just trying to be careful. Anybody at this time of the year that has kind of nagging things going on, not major injuries or anything, we are careful with them. Maybe we give them a maintenance day or maybe put them in a non-contact [jersey] for practice.
John Ludvig and Cody Glass each received maintenance days on Thursday. Ludvig was wearing a non-contact jersey.
Johnston said, “He (Ludvig) is fine, just a maintenance day for him. I just didn’t want him to do the contact drills.”
Matthew Quigley was skating in a non-contact jersey as well; however, he is still out week-to-week.
Meanwhile, Brendan De Jong was in a regular jersey all week and per Johnston, “He got better and better as the week went along. He will be a game-time decision [Friday].” Ryan Miley will also be a game time decision for the last spot on the blue line depending on the status of De Jong.
Nick Cicek will serve his one game of supplemental discipline for his checking from behind penalty on Saturday against Seattle.
