What: The Portland Winterhawks (40-20-5-3) take on the Everett Silvertips (33-32-2-1) in Game 1 of their best-of-7 Western Hockey League first round playoff series.
When: Friday, March 31, 7pm PDT.
Where: Memorial Coliseum.
Watch: You can stream the game via the CHL TV pay per view (US$7.56 for one game).
Listen: Winterhawks and Silvertips audio.
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Portland Winterhawks
This is the season for the Portland Winterhawks. 3rd place in the conference and a playoff series win is about par. A win would forget the fade in the second half; a loss and that’s all that will be remembered. Everett’s injuries make Portland a big favorite in the series, and they need to back it up.
Luca Cagnoni is one of the keys. He needs to be healthy, after going out midway through the regular season finale, and he needs to have a big series. It wouldn’t hurt if Portland could get back Aidan Litke and Kyle Chyzowski, who have missed multiple games at the end.
Forwards | |
---|---|
20 | 11-Robbie Fromm-Delorme (258 games) |
19 | 92-Jack O’Brien (206) 13-James Stefan (198) 16-Gabe Klassen (192) 9-Aidan Litke (129) 51-Chaz Lucius (6) |
18 | 72-Marcus Nguyen (161) 19-Kyle Chyzowski (153) 77-Luke Schelter (130) |
17 | 28-Josh Zakreski (83) 93-Nicholas Johnson (65) 8-Braeden Jockims (23) 20-Aiden Sotas (20) |
16 | 90-Diego Buttazzoni (56) 29-Hudson Darby (7) |
15 | 18-Kyle McDonough (6) |
Fromm-Delorme had an odd but good finish to the season: a 6-game point streak but all in single-point games.
Josh Zakreski and Luke Schelter each have 3-game point streaks. Zakreski has points in 7 of his last 8. Those two along with Diego Buttazzoni have been a good third line lately.
Klassen has scored in his last two after being held scoreless in the previous three.
Leading forwards: Klassen (69 points/64 games), Fromm-Delorme (67/65), Stefan (64/64), O’Brien (59/66), Nguyen (46/66).
Defensemen | |
---|---|
19 | 6-Ryan McCleary (158) |
18 | 73-Luca Cagnoni (151) 43-Ryder Thompson (140) 26-Marek Alscher (132) 2-Josh Mori (103) |
17 | 59-Carter Sotheran (68) 14-Rhett Ravndahl (29) |
16 | 91-Alex Thompson (40) |
Cagnoni will be glad to avoid Seattle for awhile. Since February 11 he was scoreless in all 5 Seattle games, but was a point-a-game player against everyone else.
McCleary and Alscher’s play as the top defensive line will be a key to the series.
Leading defensemen: Cagnoni (64/67), McCleary (31/66), Alscher (24/60).
Goalies | |
---|---|
20 | 74-Dante Giannuzzi (109) |
18 | 31-Jan Špunar (31) |
Everyone will be shocked if it’s not Špunar. He’s played OK; they’ve gone out of their way to give him soft landings.
Save percentages: Giannuzzi .894, Špunar .908.
Everett Silvertips
The Silvertips come in hit hard by injuries in a season where they’ve always been hit by injuries. Austin Roest and Ben Hemmerling, two of their top three scorers, have missed the last 8 games. You never know about injuries with how tight-lipped teams are, but there haven’t been any indications that they’re playing. It’s a huge hit to Everett’s offense if they can’t play; they’d be big underdogs in this series.
Forwards | |
---|---|
20 | 17-Jackson Berezowski (283) 18-Raphael Pelletier (198) |
19 | 29-Vincent Lamanna (83) |
18 | 14-Austin Roest (148) 9-Ben Hemmerling (140) 12-Caden Zaplitny (112) 10-Beau Courtney (107) 21-Oren Shtrom (106) 16-Dominik Rymon (18) |
17 | 13-Roan Woodward (112) 58-Kyan Grouette (60) 20-Matthew Paszkiewicz (54) 26-Andrew Petruk (51) |
16 | 22-Jesse Heslop (70) 11-Carter Bear (19) |
15 | 19-Julien Maze (5) 25-Lukas Kaplan (4) |
A lot will fall on Berezowski, whose had a stellar career with Everett but only has 10 playoff games as a 16-year-old. He missed last year’s playoffs, which helped derail their season.
Heslop is one of the better 16-year-olds; he’s probably their biggest hope to fill the offensive void.
Leading forwards: Berezowski (81/62), Roest (78/60), Hemmerling (62/55), Pelletier (52/65), Heslop (41/66).
Defensemen | |
---|---|
20 | 44-Aidan Sutter (189) |
19 | 6-Ty Gibson (156) |
18 | 4-Dexter Whittle (95) |
17 | 47-Kaden Hammell (148) 5-Eric Jamieson (77) 27-Niko Tsakumis (51) |
16 | 3-Cameron Sytsma (55) 24-Tarin Smith (12) |
Obviously a big void since the trade of Olen Zellweger. But this group had a collective 8 points in Everett’s 10-3 win over Portland on March 3.
Leading defensemen: Sutter (38/62), Hammell (26/67), Gibson (24/66).
Goalies | |
---|---|
19 | 31-Tyler Palmer (94) |
17 | 35-Tim Metzger (17) |
15 | 30-Corbin Sanderman (0) |
With Victoria, Palmer had two nightmare games against Portland in November, then left the team, was traded to Everett, and his first two games were nightmare games against Portland. But since then he’s had two good games against them.
Curious that Everett used a Euro spot on a 17-year-old backup goalie. Maybe the long game didn’t start with the Zellweger trade.
Save percentages: Palmer .892, Metzger .888.
Tale of the tape
Winterhawks | Silvertips | Average | |
---|---|---|---|
Record | 40-20-5-3 | 33-32-2-1 | |
Goal difference | +26 | -24 | |
Goals/game | 3.6 | 3.3 | 3.5 |
Goals allowed/game | 3.2 | 3.6 | 3.5 |
Power play | 23.7% | 21.2% | 22.3% |
Penalty kill | 17.8% | 21.7% | 77.7% |
Power plays for/game | 4.2 | 4.0 | 4.1 |
Power plays against/game | 4.1 | 3.5 | 4.1 |
Outshooting opponents | 48-18-2 | 35-30-3 | |
After 1 period | 25-18-25 | 28-24-16 | |
After 2 periods | 29-24-15 | 32-28-8 | |
Score, last 10 games | 31-32 | 25-41 | |
Score, last 20 games | 50-74 | 58-71 | |
Total WHL games | 2654 | 2464 |