What: The Portland Winterhawks (7-5) take on the Victoria Royals (6-3-2-1) in Western Hockey League action.
When: Sunday, October 26, 4pm PDT.
Where: Memorial Coliseum.
Watch: You can stream the game FOR FREE on Victory Plus:
Listen: Winterhawks and Royals audio.
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The Portland Winterhawks returned home Saturday after 11 straight games on the road, and took maximum advantage of a Saskatoon Blades team that was off their game, especially top goalie Evan Gardner. They chased Gardner in the 2nd period after scoring 4 goals on 16 shots, on their way to a 6-3 win. 12 players hit the scoresheet for Portland, all with single points except for Carsyn Dyck, who scored the first two goals of the game.
Now they try to overcome a schedule disadvantage, and sweep a 3-game weekend, against the more rested Victoria Royals.
[stats are subject to late adjustments]
| Forwards | (Career games – season points/games) |
|---|---|
| 20 | 39-Tyson Yaremko (112 – 0/0) 88-Alex Weiermair (69 – 12/10) |
| 19 | 14-Ben Miller (3 – 0/3) 17-Carsyn Dyck (97 – 6/10) 28-Nathan Brown (10 – 6/10) 86-Nathan Free (12 – 11/12) |
| 18 | 15-Sam Spehar (12 – 6/12) 18-Kyle McDonough (154 – 4/12) 23-Ryan Miller (142 – 13/12) |
| 17 | 9-Jordan Duguay (92 – 13/12) 27-Jake Gustafson (12 – 7/12) 72-Reed Brown (90 – 4/6) 96-Luke Wilfley (18 – 0/12) |
| 16 | 46-Finn Spehar (7 – 3/7) 92-Alessandro Domenichelli (6 – 1/6) |
Dyck had the first 2-goal game of his career.
Point streaks: Ryan Miller, 5; Duguay, 4; Reed Brown, 3 (with goals in 3 straight games).
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 59-Carter Sotheran (251 – 8/10) |
| 19 | 12-Cole Slobodian (93 – 3/11) |
| 18 | 77-Max Pšenička (50 – 6/8) |
| 17 | 3-Cameron Jacobson (4 – 0/4) 22-Griffin Darby (67 – 3/12) 24-Will McLaughlin (12 – 5/12) |
| 16 | 20-Luke Christopherson (6 – 0/6) |
Sotheran is a +5 in his last 3 games. In the last 2 he’s been shouldering much of the defensive load with Pšenička missing; we’ll see if Pšenička gets back in the lineup. Sotheran also has a 3-game point streak.
McLaughlin was +3 on Saturday and has had a very good weekend.
| Goalies | (Career games – season save%/games) |
|---|---|
| 18 | 1-Ondrej Štěbeták (75 – .884/10) 32-Cruz Chase (2 – .865/2) |
| 16 | 80-Blake Clark (1 – .857/1) |
Štěbeták stopped 29 of 32 on Saturday and should get the start in this one.
A potential juggernaut season for the Victoria Royals was derailed in the offseason when they lost five of their top players to the NCAA, including NHL 1st-rounder Cole Reschny and near-certain 1st-rounder Keaton Verhoeff, who was only 17. So they’ve had to scramble to recover, and they’ve done a decent job, although they don’t look to be a championship contender.
They’ve played a ton of close games so far. Exactly half of their games have gone to overtime, and they’ve played 6 straight 1-goal games.
Most of their success has been on special teams. They have the league’s 2nd-best power play, and they’ve been on the power play more than any other team in the league (notable as the Winterhawks give up a lot of power plays). While their penalty kill is below average, they’ve been very good at staying out of the box.
They’re coming off a 3-2 loss at Tri-City on Friday, their 2nd loss in a row, but had Saturday off to travel down the Gorge, so they will be much more rested compared to the Winterhawks.
| Forwards | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 25-Reggie Newman (257 – 12/10) 93-Roan Woodward (269 – 17/12) |
| 19 | 19-Hayden Moore (167 – 15/12) 22-Heath Nelson (12 – 10/12) 47-Logan Pickford (137 – 0/0) 89-Miles Cooper (159 – 11/12) |
| 18 | 9-Caleb Matthews (86 – 3/12) 16-Wyatt Danyleyko (59 – 5/10) 23-Ashton Brown (120 – 6/11) 37-Max Finley (106 – 1/3) |
| 17 | 8-Layne Schofield (4 – 1/2) 17-Nolan Stewart (12 – 7/12) 28-Cruz Waltze (10 – 1/7) |
| 16 | 10-Jacob Schwartz (15 – 2/11) 11-Ludovic Perreault (15 – 6/12) 71-Eli McKamey (2 – 0/2) |
Ex-Silvertip Woodward is their leading scorer, on the back of a league-high 8 power play goals and a .278 shooting percentage. He has a 3-game point streak.
Newman, who has played all 257 of his games with the Royals, missed Friday’s game.
Perreault and Schwartz are both WHL 1st-rounders.
Finley and Pickford are out long term.
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 12-Cosmo Wilson (221 – 0/0) |
| 19 | 4-Seth Fryer (155 – 0/7) 14-Cohen Massey (19 – 1/11) 24-Carsten Kayter (6 – 0/6) 74-Landon Young (133 – 1/4) |
| 18 | 2-Henry Peterson (12 – 2/12) 5-Timofei Runtso (12 – 12/12) 55-Mykola Kosarev (8 – 1/8) |
| 17 | 7-Odin Vauhkonen (11 – 5/11) |
Wilson and Kayter are both out for awhile; Young is day-to-day.
Runtso sounds like an import based on his name, but he’s not; he’s from California. He has 7 power play assists, one off the league lead. He’s another player who will be going NCAA next sesaon.
| Goalies | |
|---|---|
| 19 | 1-Jake Pilon (63 – .778/1) 50-Ethan Eskit (69 – .903/11) |
Eskit has been good as the number one goalie and should get the start. Pilon came over from Kelowna and hasn’t played for the Royals yet.
| Winterhawks | Royals | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record | 7-5 (.583) | 6-3-2-1 (.625) | .544 |
| Goals/game | 3.7 | 3.9 | 3.6 |
| Goals allowed/game | 4.0 | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| Team shooting % | .124 | .133 | .114 |
| Team save % | .878 | .889 | .886 |
| Power play | 22.4% | 29.1% | 22.3% |
| Penalty kill | 71.2% | 73.7% | 77.7% |
| Power plays for/game | 4.1 | 4.6 | 3.9 |
| Power plays against/game | 4.3 | 3.2 | 3.9 |
| Outshooting opponents | 4-8 | 5-6-1 | 6-6-1 |
| After 1 period | 3-6-3 | 4-3-5 | 5-5-3 |
| After 2 periods | 3-7-2 | 7-4-1 | 5-5-2 |
| Score, last 10 games | 41-35 (+6) | 37-39 (-2) | 35-36 |
| Score, last 20 games | 80-96 (-16) | 84-78 (+6) | 67-74 |
| Total WHL games | 1397 | 2139 | 1854 |
| WHL drafted top 60 | 7 | 4 | 9 |
| NHL drafted | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| NHL drafted top 80 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Players 6’2 or over | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Players 5’10 or under | 7 | 10 | 5 |
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.oregonlive.com ’
