The Portland Winterhawks, who’ve given up as many goals as they’ve scored (11), went into ShoWare Center and routed their I-5 rivals 6-1 before nearly 6200 fans.
The Winterhawks started midway through the first period with Diego Buttazoni and then three minutes later by Kyle Chykowski. to end the period up by a pair.
The second period was almost all Hawks, with Marcus Nguyen starting things off with a powerplay marker. Sam Popovich replied for Seattle with a shorthanded goal, but then Portland rattled off three straight in seven minutes with Kyle Cykowski’s second of the night, Gabe Klassen, and Luke Schelter.
Seattle responded by changing netminders at the start of the third period from Scott Ratzlaff to Spencer Michnik, who handled the seven shots his way. Spunar stopped all further shots from Seattle in the third period.
Portland was welcomed by Jan Spunar, who was the netminder as the Hawks completed a full roster with returning players on their team. Portland outshot Seattle 30-18 and went 1 for 4 on the powerplay while stoning Seattle on their 4 tries.
Up next for the Portland Winterhawks is a five-game homestand starting with opening night versus Everett Silvertips on October 6 and ending versus Brandon on October 18. Portland will then play Everett as they head on their Central Swing with 6 games in 10 nights in Alberta and Western Saskatchewan.
Teams will have to have rosters set with the maximum of three 20-year-old players by October 10. Portland has already done so with Gabe Klassen, Jack O’Brien, and James Stefan.
After making the trade with Swift Current to get goaltender Justen Maric, it appears that he has been dropped from the roster in favor of seventeen-year-old Luke Brunen. Maric, 19, was reassigned to the Battleford All Stars of the SJHL, and Kayd Ruedig, 16, to Swift Current Legionaries U-18 Adult Male (SMAAAHL) The Hawks now have 27 players on their roster, where Mike typically likes 22-23, so we will see further reductions in the coming weeks.
