The Portland Winterhawks have a great record at home, a perfect 2-0 as they destroyed the Edmonton Oil Kings 8-2 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday. A strong performance last week in their win over Seattle and three stellar wins in two matches against Kamloops and then the Everett Silvertips gave the Hawks a great deal of momentum in coming home to face the Edmonton Oil Kings.
On a day they awarded the captain “C” to Cody Glass, he ran with it and pocketed a pair of goals and a pair of assists in the cause. The Hawks never trailed in the contest with singles by Reece Newkirk, Ryan Hughes, Mason Mannek, Brendan DeJong, Cross Hanus with his first ever WHL Goal, Michal Kvasnica and Jake Gricius rounded out the scoring. Edmonton got close just eight seconds into the second to make it 2-1, but four goals in the second period gave the Hawks a comfortable 6-2 lead heading into the third. Joachim Blicheld added five assists.
On the powerplay, Portland picked up four goals on six chances while Edmonton was held scoreless in their eight chances they had on the man advantage. Portland outshot Edmonton 31-30. Edmonton switched goaltenders to start the third and stem the hemorrhage as Dylan Miskiw gave way to Boston Bilous, but it didn’t help matters as the Hawks were relentless in their attack.
Edmonton closes the road trip with games in Everett and Seattle on Friday and Saturday after losing the first three, by far the biggest beating was in Portland. The Hawks will play on the 14th against Everett and a game on the 19th against Vancouver before a pair on the road, a game one night later in Vancouver and then another three in three as they go to Spokane on the 26th and then come home to face Kamloops on the 27th and 28th at the Coliseum.
Portland then faces Everett Silvertips, a team they had looked strong against this last week in Everett and had a tough go of things in their first week.
As mentioned before, the Hawks announced their 43rd captain of the team in Cody Glass. Brendan De Jong will be a regular alternate captain. Ryan Hughes and Jake Gricius will serve as alternate captains when the team wears white; Jared Freadrich, and Joachim Blichfeld will wear the A when the team wears red.
The CHL poll was released and drops Lethbridge out completely. Five previously unranked teams enter the poll, mostly in spots 6-10. Baie-Comeau jumps to top spot after last week sixth, with Prince Albert jumping from fourth to second and Halifax dropping two spots with two losses this week .Victoria joins the poll in fourth after being ranked. for one week. The Vancouver Giants also made the poll as number seven, and also had been out of last week’s poll. Honorable mention went to Brandon at 4-0-1 and Saskatoon at 6-2. It will be interesting to see where the poll goes next week.
