What: In Western Hockey League play, the Portland Winterhawks (21-13-2-1) play the Seattle Wild (13-18-3-1).
When: January 4, Saturday, 6 p.m. PST.
Memorial Coliseum is the location.
Watch: The game is available to stream on the CLH TV pay-per-view service, which costs roughly US$7.50 each game.
Listen to Wildaudio and Winterhawks.
Do the following:
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The box score.
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Get updates and chat before, during, and after the game.
Portland Winterhawks
The Portland Winterhawks lost Friday due to a subpar second period. They controlled the game early on and had a strong late comeback, but the Tri-City Americans, who were shorthanded, beat them with four goals in a row in the second half. Portland’s strong comeback was only enough to force a shootout, which they lost, and make it 6-6.
They are traveling to Manitoba and Saskatchewan for their final home game in nearly three weeks, and this is their third game in three nights.
[Later revisions may be made to the statistics]
| Forwards | (Career games – season points/games) |
|---|---|
| 20 |
19-Kyle Chyzowski (282 – 62/37) |
| 19 |
15-Joel Plante (8 – 5/8) 28-Josh Zakreski (213 – 36/35) 39-Tyson Yaremko (112 – 30/35) 88-Alex Weiermair (11 – 13/11) |
| 18 |
17-Carsyn Dyck (40 – 15/37) 29-Hudson Darby (102 – 11/29) 61-Brodie Hankel (22 – 0/22) 90-Diego Buttazzoni (184 – 46/34) |
| 17 |
18-Kyle McDonough (95 – 21/32) 23-Ryan Miller (83 – 14/19) 37-David Hoy (26 – 3/26) |
| 16 |
9-Jordan Duguay (37 – 18/37) 72-Reed Brown (37 – 9/37) 96-Luke Wilfley (5 – 2/5) |
The main takeaway from Friday is that Chyzowski, who has four assists and a recent hot streak, has surpassed Andrew Cristall, who is about to be traded, and Gavin McKenna, who has been away at World Juniors, by two points in the league scoring lead. With five goals and fourteen assists in a seven-game point streak—all multi-point games—he has claimed the lead. He has 11 goals and 16 assists in his last 12 games.
Buttazzoni, meanwhile, extended his point run to 12 games on Friday with two power play goals.
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 20 |
27-Tyson Jugnauth (94 – 49/35) 43-Ryder Thompson (271 – 14/37) |
| 19 | 59-Carter Sotheran (192 – 18/35) |
| 18 | 12-Cole Slobodian (42 – 2/37) |
| 17 | 7-Kayd Ruedig (38 – 12/36) |
| 16 | 22-Griffin Darby (32 – 3/32) |
After his 10-game point run ended Thursday, Jugnauth continued his recent trend of going scoreless in consecutive games with a 3-point performance on Friday.
After winning the ball behind the net with a terrific play of his own, Thompson went to the net to convert a rebound and tie the game 6–6 on Friday.
| Goalies | (Career games – season save%/games) |
|---|---|
| 18 | 74-Marek Schlenker (17 – .894/17) |
| 17 | 1-Ondrej t bet k (25 – .896/25) |
After two periods on Friday, Schlenker became addicted; I wager that he played the third, overtime, and shootout with just seven shots. I’m willing to wager that K was the one who lost on New Year’s Eve. Portland’s goaltending will most likely be a disaster in the end.
Wenatchee Wild
During the week, the Wentachee Wild traded their top two players, goalie Daniel Hauser and forward Kenta Isogai, for player rights and draft pick packages. The previous Winnipeg owners essentially left them without any draft picks, and they are still struggling to pay off the debt they incurred. Last season, it made them punt against a rival team, and this season, it has affected them less. Since Kamloops is still pulling itself together and Seattle and Kelowna are also selling, they still have a chance at the eighth playoff place.
They have pulled in numerous spare or rejected parts from other teams in order to assemble a team that is at least somewhat competitive. They only had four players selected overall by Winnipeg/Wenatchee in the Prospects Draft, which is an extremely low number. There are still 10 players selected in the top 60, meaning that many players with respectable reputations are being given second chances.
The redesigned Wild didn’t have a great start, losing 3-0 on Friday in Vancouver despite being 0-0 for the first two periods. Even though the Winterhawks are on their third-in-three, the Wild aren’t in the best position to capitalize because they had to make the overnight trek down I-5.
| Forwards | |
|---|---|
| 20 |
10-Evan Friesen (244 – 34/33) 20-Maxim Muranov (214 – 25/34) 29-Tye Spencer (220 – 21/33) |
| 19 |
14-Dawson Seitz (200 – 16/30) 17-Deagan McMillan (195 – 10/19) 18-Shaun Rios (26 – 17/26) |
| 18 |
16-Maddix McCagherty (105 – 18/34) 19-Miles Cooper (115 – 28/34) 22-Zane Saab (77 – 14/35) 27-Luka Shcherbyna (96 – 20/28) |
| 17 |
4-Ashton Brown (79 – 6/30) 8-Morgan Hackman (1 – 0/1) 9-Ben Davis (27 – 6/27) 15-Grant Reid (30 – 2/26) 23-Jeramiah Roberts (52 – 4/20) |
| 16 | 28-Caelan Joudrey (46 – 12/34) |
The only true relic from the Winnipeg Ice era is Friesen, who still contributes points per game. Playing with Isogai helped him score many of his points, so we’ll see if he can continue.
To get their 20-year-old back up to three, they recently signed Spencer and Muranov. Muranov, who is currently in Wenatchee, began playing hockey in Moscow before moving to Calgary. At that rate, he will be playing for Bridal Veil if he is traded again.
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 19 |
3-Eastyn Mannix (89 – 7/20) 21-Reid Andresen (253 – 26/34) 25-Lukas McCloskey (17 – 9/17) |
| 18 |
5-Josh Fluker (149 – 8/15) 6-Seth Tansem (117 – 4/24) 7-Brayden Pankey (58 – 2/32) 26-Brendan Dunphy (14 – 5/14) |
| 17 | 13-Tyler Russell (14 – 2/14) |
| 16 | 12-Radoslav Dimitrov (20 – 1/20) |
Their best defenseman and power play quarterback is Andresen, one of the key components from their transactions from the previous season. Fluker did not play on Friday and has been in and out of the lineup due to injury.
| Goalies | |
|---|---|
| 19 | 35-Brendan Gee (37 – .947/3) |
| 17 | 88-Anthony Ganoung (0 – .000/0) |
Gee was playing in the KIJHL in gorgeous Osoyoos, but he didn’t make the club to start this season despite playing a lot with Wenatchee previous season. They appear to have decided that he is the goaltender, barring any more changes, and he has performed admirably thus far.
From Vancouver, Washington, Ganoung has been participating in Wenatchee’s under-18 program. It’s unclear if he’s more than a temporary solution.
Tale of the tape
| Winterhawks | Wild | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record | 21-13-2-1 (.608) | 13-18-3-1 (.429) | .548 |
| Goals/game | 4.0 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| Goals allowed/game | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.6 |
| Team shooting % | .116 | .104 | .111 |
| Team save % | .888 | .891 | .889 |
| Power play | 27.6% | 21.1% | 23.2% |
| Penalty kill | 79.1% | 83.1% | 76.8% |
| Power plays for/game | 4.2 | 4.3 | 3.7 |
| Power plays against/game | 3.8 | 4.1 | 3.7 |
| Outshooting opponents | 14-21-2 | 12-23 | 17-17-2 |
| After 1 period | 11-14-12 | 10-16-9 | 12-12-11 |
| After 2 periods | 14-18-5 | 11-14-10 | 14-14-8 |
| Score, last 10 games | 44-37 (+7) | 30-31 (-1) | 34-35 |
| Score, last 20 games | 88-76 (+12) | 71-69 (+2) | 71-70 |
| Total WHL games | 1968 | 2495 | 2549 |
| WHL drafted top 60 | 7 | 10 | 11 |
| NHL drafted | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| NHL drafted top 80 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Players 6 2 or over | 4 | 9 | 8 |
| Players 5 10 or under | 8 | 6 | 6 |
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