What: In Western Hockey League play, the Portland Winterhawks (16-12-2) play the Seattle Thunderbirds (11-18-2-1).
When: December 14, Saturday, 6 p.m. PST.
Memorial Coliseum is the location.
Watch: CW 32, locally in Portland. Another option is to watch the game on the CHL TV pay-per-view service, which costs roughly US$7.50 each game.
Listen to the audio of Winterhawks and Thunderbirds.
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
After defeating Everett on Wednesday and Prince George 4-1 on Friday, the Portland Winterhawks have now defeated the two division leaders in the Western Conference twice in a row. Kayd Ruedig scored his first WHL goal and had his first 3-point shooting night, while Josh Zakreski recorded his second hat trick of the year. Tyson Jugnauth kept up his recent success.
The Winterhawks play two home games against clubs missing a key player at World Juniors to wrap up the first half of the season before Christmas break, however the Thunderbirds also get one back. They can hope for four consecutive victories and 18 wins out of 32 at the end, which would put them 12-5 after an 8-game losing run.
[Later revisions may be made to the statistics]
| Forwards | (Career games – season points/games) |
|---|---|
| 20 | 19-Kyle Chyzowski (275 – 43/30) |
| 19 |
8-Braeden Jockims (74 – 1/29) 15-Joel Plante (1 – 0/1) 28-Josh Zakreski (206 – 32/28) 39-Tyson Yaremko (107 – 22/30) 88-Alex Weiermair (4 – 4/4) |
| 18 |
17-Carsyn Dyck (33 – 12/30) 29-Hudson Darby (97 – 10/24) 61-Brodie Hankel (20 – 0/20) 90-Diego Buttazzoni (177 – 36/27) |
| 17 |
18-Kyle McDonough (90 – 18/27) 23-Ryan Miller (81 – 12/17) 37-David Hoy (24 – 3/24) |
| 16 |
9-Jordan Duguay (30 – 14/30) 11-Owen Chapman (3 – 0/3) 72-Reed Brown (30 – 8/30) |
In addition to Zakreski, Buttazzoni has a five-game point streak and two more assists. Despite losing his point run, Chyzowski is still tied for ninth place in the league in terms of scoring.
There may be concussion concerns for this game because Kyle McDonough was elbowed in the head by Prince George’s Kayden Lemire on Friday.
Joel Plante, who joined Zakreski and Buttazzoni on the second line, made his debut on Friday after returning from the BCHL.
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 20 |
27-Tyson Jugnauth (87 – 39/28) 43-Ryder Thompson (264 – 13/30) |
| 19 | 59-Carter Sotheran (185 – 13/28) |
| 18 | 12-Cole Slobodian (35 – 2/30) |
| 17 | 7-Kayd Ruedig (31 – 9/29) |
| 16 |
22-Griffin Darby (27 – 3/27) 93-Aaron Zulinick (2 – 0/2) |
Jugnauth is now six points ahead of the league’s top defenseman with a five-game point streak and 13 assists. He had only been doing it on the power play, but now that has changed. He currently leads all skaters in power play points with 22, and he is now 12th in the NHL in even-strength points by defenseman.
| Goalies | (Career games – season save%/games) |
|---|---|
| 18 | 74-Marek Schlenker (13 – .894/13) |
| 17 | 1-Ondrej t bet k (20 – .896/20) |
Even though he might not have faced the shot quality those figures suggest, K stopped 39 of 40 against Prince George on Friday. He only played one game versus Seattle, losing 6–5. In his lone game against the Thunderbirds, Schlenker won 5-2 by stopping 31 of 33 shots. It will probably be Schlenker, although it doesn’t really matter.
Seattle Thunderbirds
Since their 6-8-1 victory over the Winterhawks, the Seattle Thunderbirds have not been very good. They have won four of those games in shootouts, including three straight in late November. Two victories came against Red Deer and Lethbridge during their lengthy road trips, and the other four came against non-playoff clubs. They just suffered a 4-3 loss at home to Spokane, as they were outshot 42-16.
Their final game before the break is this one. They have a difficult run ahead of them; Portland is their lowest-ranked opponent from now until January 11. Three each versus Victoria, Tri-City, Prince George, and Everett.
They just lost two 20-year-olds: Owen Boucher retired due to an injury, while Kyren Gronick left for the BCHL. This is a game between the league’s two least experienced teams because that has reduced their experience to the point where they are ranked second in the league. It would be somewhat surprising if they weren’t behind Portland in late January, as they anticipate moving star 19-year-olds Sawyer Mynio and Scott Ratzlaff at the trade deadline.
After having his spot guaranteed, Mynio is gone at World Juniors; it is uncertain if he will play for Seattle again. It was quite unexpected when Ratzlaff was removed from the team. He might therefore return for this game.
| Forwards | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 29-Nathan Pilling (179 – 27/28) |
| 19 |
9-Coster Dunn (140 – 20/32) 73-Arjun Bawa (156 – 13/30) |
| 18 |
22-Simon Lovsin (86 – 16/30) 81-Nishaan Parmar (98 – 16/32) |
| 17 |
24-Brayden Holberton (76 – 6/30) 77-Kazden Mathies (86 – 4/25) 86-Braeden Cootes (99 – 29/28) 88-Matej Pekar (28 – 15/28) 89-Antonio Martorana (85 – 10/17) 91-Sam Charko (86 – 9/28) |
| 16 |
17-Brendan Rudolph (30 – 3/25) 18-Colton Gerrior (28 – 7/25) |
Cootes participates in his 100th WHL match. He is the foundation of their comeback and was selected as the number one star on Friday. Central Scouting gave him a sB rating.
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 19 |
3-Ashton Cumby (171 – 4/32) 43-Sawyer Mynio (236 – 19/18) |
| 18 | 5-Hyde Davidson (129 – 3/22) |
| 17 |
21-Radim Mrtka (8 – 5/8) 25-Tai Riley (30 – 7/30) 27-Kaleb Hartmann (84 – 8/30) 28-Jaxson Pawlenchuk (19 – 0/19) |
| 16 | 6-Vanek Popil (26 – 2/25) |
Being nearly tripled in shots by Spokane makes some sense because they don’t currently have another defenseman with double figures in points due to Mynio’s absence.
| Goalies | |
|---|---|
| 19 | 33-Scott Ratzlaff (131 – .893/20) |
| 17 | 31-Grayson Malinoski (15 – .864/12) |
| 16 | 50-Jaxson Dikur (3 – .811/3) |
On Friday, Malinoski stopped 38 of 42. Even though Ratzlaff hasn’t performed well in either of their games versus Portland this season, they would really like to have him return for this one.
Tale of the tape
| Winterhawks | Thunderbirds | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record | 16-12-2 (.567) | 11-18-2-1 (.391) | .552 |
| Goals/game | 3.8 | 2.9 | 3.6 |
| Goals allowed/game | 3.9 | 4.2 | 3.6 |
| Team shooting % | .112 | .095 | .111 |
| Team save % | .888 | .877 | .889 |
| Power play | 28.1% | 19.8% | 22.7% |
| Penalty kill | 80.7% | 72.4% | 77.3% |
| Power plays for/game | 4.3 | 3.3 | 3.8 |
| Power plays against/game | 3.8 | 4.2 | 3.8 |
| Outshooting opponents | 10-19-1 | 10-19-3 | 14-14-1 |
| After 1 period | 8-12-10 | 7-20-5 | 10-10-9 |
| After 2 periods | 10-15-5 | 7-20-5 | 12-12-6 |
| Score, last 10 games | 44-38 (+6) | 31-35 (-4) | 35-35 |
| Score, last 20 games | 73-75 (-2) | 58-82 (-24) | 72-74 |
| Total WHL games | 1916 | 2029 | 2428 |
| WHL drafted top 60 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| NHL drafted | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| NHL drafted top 80 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Players 6 2 or over | 4 | 10 | 8 |
| Players 5 10 or under | 10 | 3 | 6 |
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