The Portland Winterhawks are in the midst of a rush of games prior to the Holiday break in December and will face several US Division opponents in that stretch to try and make the playoffs.
Following their decisive win in Seattle on TV, the Hawks headed to Wenatchee to face the Wild. The Wild has gone through several changes in short order. Following their departure from Winnipeg, where they were the ICE, they had to make some hard decisions on Connor Geekie and Matthew Savoie. As they had not made it past the WHL Final, losing to Seattle and the move, it was clear they had to offload two talented players to restock a very barren Draft Pick stash. In trading Savoie to Swift Current and Geekie to Moose Jaw last year, the draft picks were again restored, and the fans understood a rebuild had to go on.
The Hawks, meanwhile, hadn’t experienced close to this from when Mike Johnston took over the team in 2009. There was a close call in 2015 when Jamie Kompon came in as coach during Mike’s brief run in the NHL with the Penguins shorted the team with draft picks to salvage a winning season. Mike’s return saw the Draft closet restored and a continuation of success. With last year’s all in the run, the Hawks had little returning this season, and so knew they had to rebuild. This also saw Kyle Gustafson take over as bench boss as Johnston moved to just GM and President of the club. Some may think Mike’s move put Kyle as the “Sacrificial Lamb” in terms of the win-loss record, but Kyle also being resilient and youthful, may allow players to react better with him,
Portland’s special teams did well in the match against the Wild. Josh Zakreski in the first period and Tyson Jugnauth very early in the second tallied powerplay goals. On the Jugnauth goal, Ondrej Stebetak assisted. Kyle Chykowski and Kyle McDonough were both unassisted. That put the Hawks up by 4. Wenatchee got close with a pair just 30 seconds apart as the second period ended, the latter on the powerplay.
In the third period, Kyle Chykowski got a shorthanded marker early in the third. Wenatchee returned with a goal midway through the third period, but Diego Buttazzoni tapped in the empty net goal for the 6-3 win. Wenatchee outshot Portland 40- 34, with Ondrej Stebetak getting the game’s second star in the net. Portland at 2-3 and Wenatchee 1-5 on the powerplay settled the final.
Stebetak was awarded the Rookie of the Week, going 1-0 and 3.00 GAA with one assist.
A midweek game took place with the Hawks and Calgary Hitmen. The Hitmen have what seems to be a constant rebuild mode, but they cannot make a real dent in the playoffs. They won the WHL Final and lost to Brandon in the tiebreaker. Since then, the Hitmen have been out of the playoffs four times and have lost in round three twice. They are a stubborn team for sure, one that may not get lots of attention but is tough to play against at any time.
The Hawks and Hitmen went through the first period with no goals. Calgary scored very early in the second period, and that’s how the game stood after 40 minutes.
Calgary would add another midway through the third to tighten things up for the Hawks. With Marek Schlenker on the bench for an extra attacker, Diego Buttazzoni would bring the Hawks within 1. Going to the well again, the Hawks pulled Schlenker, only to have Calgary grab the empty net goal and a 3-1 win. Portland outshot Calgary 29-26 with both goaltenders getting stars, Schlenker at 2nd and Kason Kolbeka at one. Both teams were goose egged on the powerplay, with Calgary 6 attempts versus Portland at four.
The Hawks will hit two games this weekend, with Red Deer coming to town and a quick jaunt to Langley, BC, to face the Vancouver Giants.
Wenatchee Wild, in last place in the Western Conference, has made three trades since Halloween, adding a couple of players and trading low draft picks to spice the team up. The hottest team in the WHL is the Tri-City Americans. A slow start has propelled them to a hot run with 12 straight wins. They are four points back of Everett with two games in hand.
Out east, the shock is on the Swift Current Broncos, who were part of the big trades with Wenatchee last season. Swift Current is atop the Eastern Conference with five straight wins and playing some strong hockey. On the other end, the Moose Jaw Warriors, who battled in the Memorial Cup after getting Connor Geekie from Wenatchee last year, are currently 4-13, 14 points back of the top spot, but have played the most games.
Of note, though there was no splash on the Hawks page, they silently added an assistant coach with knowledge of the Hawks. After runs with the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks, a few stops with the respective AHL affiliates, and a cup of coffee with the Las Vegas Golden Knights before a return to Bern, Switzerland, to finish his career a couple of years ago, Sven Baertchi is alongside Kyle on the Hawks bench. At 32, Sven, a very likable guy from all that meet him, is one of the youngest assistants in Portland history. It should be a good fit. Sven, an up-tempo player under Johnston, will bring that style to the team.
It will be interesting to see how everyone reacts to the addition in the future.
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