Medicine Hat Tigers at Portland Winterhawks
Wednesday, November 4, 7pm PST
Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Oregon
Portland Winterhawks
The special teams of the Winterhawks was -3 in Saturday’s loss to Kelowna: only 1 for 3 on the penalty kill (although one was an empty-netter), 0 for 4 on the power play with a shorthanded goal against. That puts them -3 for the season, actually tied with Wednesday’s opponents for 7th-worst in the league. The power play is 4th-worst, the penalty kill had a slight drop to 7th, with a number of teams bunched around them.
By that math, the defense only gave up one goal at even strength, and while it was off a turnover, it required a couple of great plays from William Matte and Dawson Gerwing of Kelowna. Even with 4 goals against, they’re still 2nd-best in the league in goals allowed. It will be tested this week.
Ondřej Štěbeták and Cruz Chase each got a game last week and both were pretty good, so Portland’s goaltenders continue to be a strength. Spokane, the Friday/Saturday opponent has been the achilles heel for both goalies.
The offense is 3rd-worst at 2.5 goals per game, in a weird state where the seven worst teams in the league in offense are from the Western Conference (five of them from the US Division). The big culprit is the shooting percentage, also 3rd-worst (and this time the nine worst teams are from the Western Conference). Or maybe the goalies on this side of the Rockies are just that good.
Parking: on a Wednesday night against an Eastern Conference team with no big event next door, it will probably be more reasonable, although likely still more expensive than that for all the other US teams combined (apples to apples).
Old business: the Central Scouting rankings are all about the opposition.
Winterhawks shooting percentages
| Pos | Goals | Shots | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown, Reed | LW | 6 | 23 | .261 |
| Spehar, Finn | RW | 1 | 4 | .250 |
| Domenichelli, Alessandro | RW | 2 | 9 | .222 |
| Auld, Sam | LW | 1 | 5 | .200 |
| Toyne, Trevor | RW | 4 | 25 | .160 |
| Hoy, David | LW | 2 | 13 | .154 |
| St. Louis, Jordin | C | 2 | 16 | .125 |
| McDonough, Kyle | C | 2 | 24 | .083 |
| Duguay, Jordan | LW | 3 | 42 | .071 |
| Grumley, Stevie | D | 1 | 14 | .071 |
| Gustafson, Jake | C | 2 | 35 | .057 |
| Wilfley, Luke | C | 2 | 35 | .057 |
| Laliberte, Avery | D | 1 | 19 | .053 |
| McLaughlin, Will | D | 1 | 23 | .043 |
| Brown, Nathan | C | 1 | 29 | .034 |
| Spehar, Sam | RW | 0 | 26 | .000 |
| Dozark, Easton | D | 0 | 21 | .000 |
| Christopherson, Luke | D | 0 | 15 | .000 |
| Jacobson, Cameron | D | 0 | 6 | .000 |
| Pšenička, Max | D | 0 | 5 | .000 |
| Reed, Liam | D | 0 | 5 | .000 |
| Miller, Ben | RW | 0 | 3 | .000 |
| Chapman, Owen | C | 0 | 0 | .000 |
For the league this season, the average forward has a .119 shooting percentage, for the average defenseman it’s .050. For the Winterhawks, forwards are .097 and defensemen are .028.
Medicine Hat Tigers
The Tigers are loaded with talent. The have the most NHL-drafted players, the most high-drafted players, and the only NHL 1st-rounder in the league, Liam Ruck. They have 6 players on Central Scouting’s Players to Watch list, one of them, Noah Davidson, a potential 1st-rounder. They have one of the best 20-year-old groups.
They were expected to dominate the league, and so far they haven’t. They’re 2nd place in the division, 4th in the conference, 8th in the league, which is very respectable. But to this point they’ve probably fallen short of expectations. Their goal difference is only +4. Six teams are within two points of 1st overall, and they aren’t one of them.
To the extent you can say anything has gone wrong, it’s their goaltending, as number one Casey Carter has an .891 save percentage; their power play, which has been below average and might need a quarterback (a team with a lot of offensive talent only has one more power play goal than the Winterahwks); and some injuries, with Davidson not yet having played this season and Riley Pickford, who started his career with 5 points in 5 games, also going out month-to-month. Secondarily, it seems like their top-line stars haven’t been as dominant as you’d think.
They might still be favorites to win the East. Too much talent.
Their road trip started badly, with a 7-2 loss to Wenatchee (with the backup goalie), which to some extent shows how their season has gone so far, but they followed that with a shootout win in Spokane and an easy win in Tri-City, which to some extent shows how their season might go in the future.
Top players
1 Liam Ruck, MH
2 Markus Ruck, MH
3 Josh Evaschesen, MH
4 Luke Cozens, MH
5 Jordan Duguay, POR
6 Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll, MH
7 Ondřej Štěbeták, POR
8 Yaroslav Bryzgalov, MH
9 Mace'o Phillips, MH
10 Will McLaughlin, POR
Portland last game lines
Nathan Brown-Luke Wilfley-Jake Gustafson
Reed Brown-Jordin St. Louis-Kyle McDonough
Trevor Toyne-Sam Spehar-Jordan Duguay
David Hoy-Sam Auld-Alessandro Domenichelli
Avery Laliberte-Easton Dozark
Stevie Grumley-Will McLaughlin
Liam Reed-Luke Christopherson
Tigers last game lines
Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll -Markus Ruck-Liam Ruck
Yaroslav Bryzgalov-Josh Evaschesen-Luke Cozens
Gavin Kor-Kadon McCann-Arvid Drott
Owen Hayes-Brayden Holberton-Luke Ruptash
Dayton Reschny-Riley Steen
Denis Pasler-Mace'o Phillips
Tyson Moss-Luke Warrener
Defenseman Dayton Reschny is off to a point-per-game start.
