The Portland Winterhawks almost pull another miracle comeback, coming from 3-0 down in the 3rd period to tie the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick. But a couple of bad bounces lead to a Jake Sloan goal that sinks them as the Americans win 4-3.
It’s Portland’s 5th loss in a row. Three were one-goal games, two of those in overtime, and they played a decent game in another. So they’ve had an unlucky stretch, following a fairly lucky stretch. It will probably lead to an adjustment in their goalie depth chart, as starter Ondrej Štěbeták struggled again, and Marek Schlenker came in relief and almost stole two points for the Winterhawks.
| 1st 17:15 TC (PP) Cruz Pavao (Gavin Garland, Brandon Whynott) 0-1 | Pavao opens things with a power play goal from the right dot. |
| 1st 19:33 TC Max Curran (Jake Sloan) 0-2 | Sloan knocks down a Portland clearing attempt, it bounces to Ryder Thompson in the Portland high slot, but Curran picks his pocket, goes in and scores. |
| 2nd 2:53 TC Cash Koch (Cruz Pavao, Jaxen Adam) 0-3 | A weak goal that led to the hook of Portland goalie Ondrej Štěbeták. Kock in open ice wrists one from the left dot. Štěbeták missed it more than Koch picked a corner. |
| 3rd 1:46 POR Ryan Miller (Josh Zakreski, Carsyn Dyck) 1-3 | Two Americans can’t cleanly corral Tyson Jugnauth’s long shot. Zakreski and Dyck fight for it in front to keep it alive, then Miller comes in, and in the scramble knocks the puck off Jordan Gavin, then off the post, then off goalie Lukas Matecha’s skate and in. He might have also knocked the puck of Dyck’s skate, in which case Dyck might get the goal. |
| 3rd 4:12 POR (PP) Kyle Chyzowski (Tyson Jugnauth, Jordan Duguay) 2-3 | Jugnauth puts the puck in front and Chyzowski deflects it in from the top of the crease. |
| 3rd 10:00 POR (PP) Ryan Miller (Kyle Chyzowski, Josh Zakreski) 3-3 | Chyzowski puts it toward the net, Matecha and Miller simultaneously get a stick on it, it pops up in the air, and Miller bats it out of the air and in. |
| OT :33 TC Jake Sloan (Jordan Gavin) 3-4 | A great play by Gavin, digging out a faceoff and going quickly to the net, evading a poke check from Marek Schlenker, then he puts the puck toward goal, where it bounces off Jugnauth and then Tyson Yaremko, right to Sloan on the backdoor who has an open net. Tri-City got the bounces Portland got on their first goal. |
| Portland leads by 2+ | 0:00 |
| Portland leads by 1 | 0:00 |
| Tied | 27:48 |
| Portland trails by 1 | 8:06 |
| Portland trails by 2+ | 24:39 |
Pregame: Portland in on a 4-game losing streak, Tri-City on a 3-game winning streak. Tri-City being at home was the fresher team.
1st period: Low event period in the first half. Then the Ams struck late on a power play goal and a Portland turnover in their own zone to go up 2-0.
2nd period: A poor goal by Ondrej Štěbeták ended his night, with it 3-0 Tri-City. Marek Schlenker came in and turned the game around, stopping a number of good Americans chances to prevent it from getting worse than 3-0. At the time it didn’t seem like it would matter, as Portland got some shots but didn’t look too threatening.
3rd period: Then the Winterhawks made another comeback. Their goals for-against is now 23-8; their +15 is best in the league. A hard work goal got them on the board, then they converted two power plays to make it 3-3. Schlenker and Lukas Matecha played well from there to send it to overtime.
Overtime: Tri-City never let Portland touch the puck, then Jordan Gavin made a great play and the pinball favored the Ams to send the fans home happy.
How it was won: 1. In a battle of two slow-starting teams, Tri-City won the start. Helped by more struggles from Winterhawks goalie Ondrej Štěbeták.
2. Good performances from some TC players who’d started the season slow. Jake Sloan, Lukas Matecha, Jordan Gavin, and Max Curran didn’t have giant games but all made contributions.
Key stretch/moment: 33 seconds of overtime?
Surprising: The Ams led after 1 period for the first time this season. Maybe not too surprising, since Portland is worse at starting games.
Not surprising: The power play for Portland almost pulled another game out with 2 goals in the 3rd. That’s 10 goals in the last 5 games now. On the other hand, their league-worst even-strength numbers get worse.
Best team won?: 50-50 game.
Injuries/suspensions: Kyle McDonough missed with an injury suffered Saturday. Diego Buttazzoni served the last of his 3-game suspension. Once again, it was a big loss.
| Top 10 | Stat line | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Sloan | TC | 1 goal, 1 assist | Game-winner and a good play for Tri-City’s second goal. 3-game point streak. |
| Marek Schlenker | POR | 22 saves-23 shots | Easily could have been number one. Tri-City got a lot of quality with those 23 shots, especially just after he came in. He should probably get a shot at the top goalie spot now. |
| Ryan Miller | POR | 2 goals | He might lose credit for one of the goals (probably won’t), but in any event he was the creator on both with hard work in front of the net. |
| Cruz Pavao | TC | 1 goal, 1 assist | 16-year-old averaging a point a game. The Ams have a good one. 4-game point streak. |
| Lukas Matecha | TC | 32 saves-35 shots | Only his third game at .900 or above this season. |
| Jordan Gavin | TC | 1 assist | Good work early on the penalty kill and set up the winner. |
| Terrell Goldsmith | TC | Anchored the defense, especially in the first two periods, and was very physical. | |
| Max Curran | TC | 1 goal | Scored the Ams second with a steal and 1-on-1 move. 4-game point streak. |
| Kyle Chyzowski | POR | 1 goal, 1 assist | He and Tyson Jugnauth now tied at the top of the list of top power play points in the WHL. |
| Tyson Jugnauth | POR | 1 assist |
| Other notables | Stat line | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandon Whynott | TC | 1 assist | 4-game point streak. |
| Gavin Garland | TC | 1 assist | 5-game point streak for Tri-City’s leading scorer, as a rookie after TC recruited him from the Alberta league. Showed a lot of speed. We’ll see if he turns into a star, but he looks very good. |
| Ondrej Štěbeták | POR | 8 saves-11 shots | A big slump after a great start. Probably could use some time off for a bit. Being a 17-year-old rookie import goalie is tough. |
| Carter MacAdams | TC | 4-game point streak snapped. |
| Winterhawks | Americans | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 6-4-2 (.583) | 5-3-1 (.611) |
| Scored/allowed (diff) | 43-50 (-7) | 33-35 (-2) |
| Goals/game | 3.6 | 3.7 |
| Goals allowed/game | 4.2 | 3.9 |
| Power play | 28.6% | 18.2% |
| Penalty kill | 81.1% | 75.7% |
| Power plays for/game | 4.7 | 3.7 |
| Power plays against/game | 3.1 | 4.1 |
| Outshooting opponents | 3-8-1 | 6-3 |
| After 1 period | 2-7-3 | 1-3-5 |
| After 2 periods | 2-7-3 | 2-4-3 |
| Score, last 10 games | 33-45 (-12) | 35-39 (-4) |
| Score, last 20 games | 63-76 (-13) | 62-101 (-39) |
Portland Winterhawks
Not playing terribly, not getting the results. Just have to keep grinding.
Tri-City Americans
4 wins in a row, and they’re beating teams they need to beat to guarantee making the playoffs. They’ll be happy about getting contributions from the usual top players.
Saturday vs. Edmonton, 6pm PDT
Sunday vs. Everett, 4pm PDT
Next road game: Friday 11/1 at Spokane, 7pm PDT
Looking ahead: Saturday 11/9 at Wenatchee, 6pm PST
Next game with Tri-City: Friday 12/27 vs. Tri-City, 7pm PST
