With the regular season officially underway, teams are seeing some of their drafted and invited players return from NHL camps, and with it, there will be some nights where scores won’t fall the way people think they should.
The Portland Winterhawks started one season of the road with a game in Wenatchee versus the Wild, and a crowd of close to 3,000 took in the action. After being in Winnipeg, where less than 1,700 would take in the game, having an extra 1,000 attend made the venue electrify.
The Hawks started things off with a beautiful shorthanded goal by James Stefan, who took a pass from Gabe Klassen at the goal early in the contest. Portland took a two-goal advantage five minutes later with a Kyle Chykowski marker.
Wenatchee would halve that mark less than two minutes later before Portland regained the lead and added to it with Marcus Nguyen and Diego Buttazoni. Winnipeg rallied towards the end on the first, leaving it at 4-2 at the end of one.
Seconds into the second period, Wenatchee got it close, following a stretch pass from their own end where Briley Wood finished things off for Wenatchee. Gabe Klassen scored on a penalty shot to put Portland ahead 5-3.
Wenatchee took over, scoring midway through the second frame and a pair very early in the third, and hung on to win 6-5. Luke Brunen came in relief of Justen Maric to shut the door on the Wild, but Daniel Hauser, who had been in for all five Portland goals, was able to snatch the win for the home squad.
Portland outshot Wenatchee 42-32, and neither team scored on the powerplay, with Portland 4 chances and Wenatchee 7 tries.
The Winterhawks headed north and had a battle with the Kelowna Rockets.
The Rockets’ Tij Iginla opened the scoring on a nifty backhand to get Prospera Place rocking. The Hawks tried it with a clean faceoff and a pass by James Stefan to Jack O’Brien, which hit the back of the net while on the powerplay.
Stefan hit the scoresheet on his own following a give-and-go by Gabe Klassen to put the Hawks up by one while shorthanded.
Just over thirty seconds later, Kelowna hit the twine on their powerplay to tie the game.
Portland’s Nicholas Johnson and Gabe Klassen added a pair over the next six minutes to leave the Hawks with a 4-2 lead at the end of one.
Early in the second, Kelowna struck on the powerplay, adding another two minutes later to tie the game at the end of two.
Just past the 12-minute mark of the third period, Kelowna struck again to retake the lead. A couple of minutes later, Nicholas Johnston hit for the Hawks to tie the game at 5, heading to overtime.
Luke Brunen stopped a Kelowna attack and sprung free Marcus Nguyen, who shot past Jake Pilon for the Portland Winterhawks win at 6-5. Over 4,200 took in the action in Kelowna. Portland outshot Kelowna 36-30, with the Hawks 1-6 versus Kelowna 2-3 on the man advantage.
Overall, at 1-1 and 11 goals for and 11 goals against, the practice this week is bound to be goaltending and defense.
Portland’s next game will be Saturday in Seattle as they take on the Thunderbirds.
Still not back with the team are goaltender Jan Spunar, defensemen Marek Alscher, Luca Cagnoni, and Carter Southern, and forward Josh Davies.
