The Portland Winterhawks had three games on its schedule before the Christmas break. Just before the break, a few players from various teams will be part of tournaments, including the World Juniors. Marek Alscher is part of the group representing team Czechia at the IIHF in Gothenburg, Sweden, starting December 26. While the Hawks are missing him on the backline, Wenatchee Wild, coming to town, was missing its top two scorers, Matthew Savoie and Connor Geekie, playing on the Team Canada squad. This midweek matchup was the first of those three games.
While the Hawks missed Alscher, the Wild was missing two top point-getters, and it allowed the Hawks to feat wildly on the Wild. Jack O’Brien started things off near the sixteen-minute mark. The powerplay got to work in the second period as Marcus Nguyen and Josh Davies on two separate occasions within the first two minutes of the frame. Graham Sward, who took an earlier penalty of his own resulting in the Marcus tally, could covert a powerplay against the Hawks just before the eight-minute mark. Five minutes later, Gabe Klassen hit on the powerplay, and with less than two minutes to play in the period, Wenatchee scored its second of the game.
Midway through the third period, Josh Zakreski found the back of the net for his 11th of the year. Jack O’Brien snuffed out any hope Wenatchee had with an empty net goal for his second of the night, and Hudson Darby notched only his third goal on the season while on the powerplay as he finished off a Kyle McDonough play. Hawks win 7-2 before just under 2600 at the VMC. Hawks outshot the Wild 39-28 and were 4 of 5 on the powerplay, with Wenatchee just 1 for 7 on the man advantage.
Even with impressive wins, the Hawks didn’t crack the CHL Top Ten with Prince George at 3 and Saskatoon and Wenatchee at 9, but that is likely to change with this week’s results.
James Stefan was snubbed as Player of The Week. However, he had an impressive two hat tricks with seven goals total and an assist for 8 points. Instead, Dominck Rymon of the Everett Silvertips, with 3G and 5A in two games, got the nod.
Next up for Portland are home and home games with Spokane, with the final game before the break at home in Portland. The Winterhawks then play in Kennewick against the Tri-City Americans on the 28th.
