The Portland Winterhawks played a game this weekend in Langley, BC, against the Vancouver Giants before turning around and heading back down to the VMC for a battle with the Seattle Thunderbirds.
The Vancouver game saw the Hawks pounce early, with an initial Tyson Jugnauth shot from the face-off dot redirected by Kyle McDonough past Burke Hood in the Vancouver net. Joel Plante made it 2-0 after he made a second effort on his shot while being tackled. He had received a stretch pass heading to the Vancouver zone and, as he shot, was hauled by Koby Gapter from Vancouver. The result was him and Gapter crashing into the net with the puck squeezing past Hood. The momentum by Gapter was deemed to be the root cause, and the goal was counted.
That stood until the second period when Alex Weiermair scored after an initial save by Ondrej Stebetak. The puck was rushed up ice by the Hawks. Ryan Miller passed the puck to Weiermair, who one-timed it to the open net less than a minute into the second. It was less than 30 seconds after that when the Hawks scored again.
Ondrej Stebetak passed a puck to Jugnauth, who wired yet another stretch pass, this time to Diego Buttazzoni, and the shot out in front made it 4-0, and that stood through the second period
Two powerplay goals made it closer for Vancouver. Still, they were snuffed out on the comeback as Ryder Thompson relieved the pressure in the Portland zone with a pass to Ryan Miller, who then circled to the open net, depositing the puck to make the final 5-2.
Portland held the edge in shots at 34-25 but was unsuccessful on the powerplay at 0-3, while Vancouver was 2-6.
The next night, Marek Schlenker was called upon to guard the Hawks’ net, and the game was featured on CW 32. Seattle started off the night by scoring off a rebound on the back wall of the rink after a couple of hard stops by Seattle’s Scott Ratzlaff. Portland got that back 8 minutes later, with Jordan Duguay doing the honors after shooting once wide of the net, but when it came the second time around, he wired it. The score remained tied at the end of one.
Just like the first period, Seattle once again took the lead as Nathan Pilling was on the doorstep by the net for the rebound. Five minutes later, Portland was on the powerplay with a whistle of a shot by Diego Buttazzoni, tipped in by Kyle Chykowski, and again the teams were tied at 2, this time headed to the third period.
It seemed like it was trading goals as Seattle scored again in the third, this time a powerplay goal, a wrister from the blueline through a maze of players to, once again, restore the Seattle lead. The Hawks weren’t to be denied as Cole Slobodian fired a shot saved by Ratzlaff, only to have the rebound go to Alex Weiermair at the back of the goal to feed out to Jordan Duguay for an easy slapper into the open net for his second of the night and again the teams were tied. Three minutes later, Seattle was shorthanded and caused a traffic jam in the front of the net, only to get a handle on it and bury it left side of Schlenker. Despite spending over two minutes with the extra attacker, the Hawks couldn’t find the equalizer, falling 4-3. Shots and powerplays were indicative of the tightness of the play, with the Hawks scoring 39-37 shots and both teams scoring 1-5 on the powerplay.
The Hawks will travel for a pair of games this coming weekend, stopping in Wenatchee and Battle in Seattle before a President’s game on Monday against the Thunderbirds.
As expected, the Everett Silvertips became the first WHL team of 2025 to gain access to the postseason when they beat Kamloops Friday. Even though they would lose versus the Vancouver Giants the next night, they had punched their ticket in. The Hawks seem to be set for being back of Spokane when it comes to second place in the US Division. Ten points back this late in the season makes it tough for any team to gain that ground. Meanwhile the Tri City Americans are four points back of Portland for 3rd spot in the Division, however they do yield a game in hand to the Hawks.
The teams fighting to get into postseason action, Kelowna, Wenatchee, Kamloops, and Seattle, are within four points of each other. Unlike the West, the bottom teams are at least 12 points out of contention and give up games in hand to their higher counterparts. Teams 3 through 8 are just four points in separation, meaning this could go down to the final games played to determine their status. Medicine Hat Tigers continue to hold the Division but do so by just a point over the Calgary Hitmen. Calgary has three games in hand.
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