Vancouver Giants at Portland Winterhawks
Wednesday, October 28, 7pm PDT
Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Oregon
Portland Winterhawks
Back home: The Winterhawks return after a 6-game road trip in which they got 6 points out of a possible 12. Now they have 5 straight at home, although they have another back-to-back with Spokane, which so far has resulted in all 4 regulation losses this season.
Special teams: Two power play goals against Spokane on Saturday lifted their power play up to 15.0%, but they really have to get better at 5-on-4. The penalty kill got adjusted from 12 for 12 to 11 for 12 in the postgame statistics, which dropped them from 2nd in the league to tied for 6th. But it has been very good, especially without Max Pšenička.
Goaltending: After exclusively going with Ondřej Štěbeták for the first 24 days and 6 games of the season, they’ve gone with Cruz Chase in 3 of the last 4 games. You can’t complain about the results so far. Portland has the 3rd-best save percentage in the league. Can it continue?
Ozzie Ware, who was up here for the first month, has been sent down to his high school in Minnesota. Which was expected. He was here to get some practice in. He never got in a game, although he did suit up and was the final scratch a couple of times. It is expected he will be back later in the season.
Now that we’re back home, we can be reminded that the parking for games is a mess. If you consider apples for apples, it costs as much to park at Winterhawks games as it does for the rest of the US Division, combined.
Rankings
How each Winterhawk ranks in points for their age and position (forward or defense).
| Player | Position | Age | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown, Nathan | C | 20 | 25 |
| Miller, Ben | RW | 20 | 38 |
| Laliberte, Avery | D | 20 | 17 |
| Spehar, Sam | RW | 19 | 43 |
| McDonough, Kyle | C | 19 | 55 |
| Hoy, David | LW | 19 | 62 |
| Grumley, Stevie | D | 19 | 18 |
| Pšenička, Max | D | 19 | 54 |
| Duguay, Jordan | LW | 18 | 17 |
| Wilfley, Luke | C | 18 | 34 |
| Brown, Reed | LW | 18 | 47 |
| Gustafson, Jake | C | 18 | 54 |
| Auld, Sam | LW | 18 | 91 |
| McLaughlin, Will | D | 18 | 7 |
| Jacobson, Cameron | D | 18 | 49 |
| Domenichelli, Alessandro | RW | 17 | 29 |
| St. Louis, Jordin | C | 17 | 53 |
| Christopherson, Luke | D | 17 | 26 |
| Reed, Liam | D | 17 | 34 |
| Toyne, Trevor | RW | 16 | 6 |
| Dozark, Easton | D | 16 | 11 |
Vancouver Giants
The missed the playoffs last season for the first time since 2016-17, and that didn’t sit well with them, so they fired their coach after one season and brought back Michael Dyck, who I mainly remember for his swearing in a fairly empty Everett arena during an exhibition tournament. But so far it’s worked well. They have the 2nd-best record in the league, had a 6-game winning streak, and points in 8 straight.
But it is nitpick-able. They have 8 wins, but 1) 6 are against the bottom 2 teams in the conference (Seattle and Prince George), and 2) they haven’t yet beaten a team that’s won more than they’ve lost.
There’s also a question about how sustainable their shooting and save percentages are; they’re 3rd in save percentage and 6th in shooting percentage. Burke Hood probably can’t keep a .940 save percentage going. Mathis Preston might be able to keep his near-goal-per-game record going, but it’s not as clear about the others.
Key matchups
Probably Ondřej Štěbeták against the Giants forwards all shooting over .150: Cam Parr, Preston, Brogan McNeil, Blake Chorney, and Tobias Tomik.
