The Portland Winterhawks dropped both weekend games in Spokane, and have now lost 15 in a row to the Spokane Chiefs: 4 this season, 6 last season, 4 in the 2025 playoffs, and the last regular season game of 2024-25.
Friday at Spokane: Winterhawks lose 2-1 to the Chiefs
1st 3:52 SPO Owen Martin (Tyus Sparks, Nolan Saunderson) 0-1
1st 6:35 POR Will McLaughlin (Stevie Grumley, Sam Auld) 1-1
2nd 16:14 SPO Bryson Roberts (Brody Gillespie, Jan Brabenec) 1-2
Ondřej Štěbeták POR 38 saves-40 shots
Carter Esler SPO 18 saves-19 shots
Game preview.
Box score.
Talking points
The big moment was the 9-minute penalty to Avery Laliberte in the 3rd period: a 4-minute slew foot, and a 5-minute major for a solo fight. This mostly condemned the Winterhawks to losing. Down 2-1, they ended up on the penalty kill most of the last half of the 3rd, although a couple of Chiefs penalties evened things up. They didn’t give up a goal, but by the time they got past that, they were out of gas and only had a minute to tie the game.
Here’s the video. It’s wasn’t so obvious that everyone knew what the call was before it was announced; the broadcast thought it was an interference penalty, and the phrase “slew foot” was never mentioned in the entire broadcast. On the other hand, 1) the Winterhawks didn’t argue that strenuously, 2) much of Winterhawks nation seems OK with the call, and 3) the officials did review the call and then stuck with it (although it’s not clear if they were reviewing the slew foot or the fight). So maybe it was right.
Then there was the one-man fight call, which was the more damaging part. It’s clear Laliberte was the only player to drop the gloves, so that is the right call and he got a suspension for it. My one complaint here is that he was set upon by a couple of Chiefs, and the recent standard would be to give Spokane at least one minor for that. That would have offset 2 of those 9 minutes. But it was an unusual situation.
That killed 90% of Portland’s chances of a comeback, but the Winterhawks power play had already started the murder. They went 0 for 5. Twice they got 4-minute power plays due to Spokane high sticks, and in those 4 minutes they had 2 shots.
On the other hand, their penalty kill gave them a chance to win: 9 for 9, including 5 for 5 in the 3rd with a major penalty and a couple of 5-on-3s.
Ondřej Štěbeták kept the Winterhawks in the game, especially in the last period and ended up with 38 saves on 40 shots. Unfortunately, the winning goal he gave up was a pretty soft one, a shot from the blue line by nonscorer Bryson Roberts. But he made up for it.
It ended up being a game of carnage: Tyus Sparks went out in the 1st and didn’t return; Nathan Brown took a high stick late in the 2nd and didn’t return. Reed Brown took a high stick in the 3rd but did return, as did Will McLaughlin very late in the game when he had a big collision. In the end, only Nathan Brown ended up missing the Saturday game.
Best
1 Ondřej Štěbeták POR 38 saves-40 shots
2 Owen Martin SPO 1 goal
3 Brody Gillespie SPO 1 assist
4 Jordan Duguay POR
5 Bryson Roberts SPO 1 goal
6 Carter Esler SPO 18 saves-19 shots
7 Will McLaughlin POR 1 goal
8 Easton Dozark POR
9 Sam Spehar POR
10 Chase Harrington SPO
Saturday at Spokane: Winterhawks lose 4-3 to the Chiefs
1st 10:52 SPO Parker Colmer (Tyus Sparks, Brody Gillespie) 0-1
1st 12:31 POR Alessandro Domenichelli (Luke Wilfley, Will McLaughlin) 1-1
2nd :50 SPO Gavin Burcar (Chase Harrington, Marek Howell) 1-2
2nd 2:57 SPO Matěj Tománek (Marek Howell, Nolan Saunderson) 1-3
2nd 5:22 POR (PP) Jake Gustafson (Stevie Grumley, Kyle McDonough) 2-3
3rd 15:57 SPO Owen Martin (Chase Harrington, Nolan Saunderson) 2-4
3rd 16:38 POR (PP) Trevor Toyne (Sam Spehar, Will McLaughlin) 3-4
Cruz Chase POR 21 saves-25 shots
Carter Esler SPO 28 saves-31 shots
Preview: Portland Winterhawks at Spokane Chiefs: Gameday, October 24, 2026
Box score.
Talking points
Just to re-state it, 15 losses in a row to the Chiefs.
The Winterhawks couldn’t take advantage of a good start: they had the first 6 shots of the game, but gave up a goal on Spokane’s first shot, and were only tied after the 1st despite a 10-3 shot advantage.
Portland did go with backup goalie Cruz Chase instead of Ondřej Štěbeták, the third game in four for Chase. Three of the four Spokane goals were iffy, and it’s valid to ask if Portland would have won with Štěbeták playing. But it’s about the longer game, and Chase had played two good games.
The Winterhawks did get two power play goals, which moved them up from worst in the conference to 5th-worst (there are a lot of bad power plays out there). It was encouraging that power play quarterbacks Will McLaughlin and Stevie Grumley each got power play assists, taking their total power play points from 1 to 3. On the other hand, the power plays were 4-on-3 and 6-on-4, so you can’t really say much about the 5-on-4.
Still, the Winterhawks were shorthanded missing Laliberte, Nathan Brown, and Max Pšenička, and put together a good effort. The Winterhawks juggled their lines beyond what they needed to do with Brown out (Alessandro Domenichelli-Luke Wilfley-Jake Gustafson, Reed Brown-Jordin St. Louis-Kyle McDonough, Jordan Duguay-Sam Spehar-Trevor Toyne, David Hoy-Sam Auld-Ben Miller), and it did seem to pick some players’ games up.
Best
Chase Harrington SPO 2 assists
Owen Martin SPO 1 goal
Will McLaughlin POR 2 assists
Parker Colmer SPO 1 goal
Alessandro Domenichelli POR 1 goal
Luke Wilfley POR 1 assist
Carter Esler SPO 28 saves-31 shots
Marek Howell SPO 2 assists
Nolan Saunderson SPO 2 assists
Gavin Burcar SPO 1 goal
Weekend talking points
The Chiefs are the league’s best team right now, and maybe aren’t the best judge for how the Winterhawks are going. The Winterhawks are 0-4 against Spokane and 5-0-1-1 against everyone else.
The roadtrip: 6 points out of 12, which is reasonable given that two games were at Spokane.
Special teams: the penalty kill went 12 for 12, although it was more like 10 for 12 since the Chiefs scored twice right as the penalty ended. Still above average. The power play is still a big work in progress.
Still need offense: 5th-worst in the league, and they’ve only scored 4 or more twice.
But in the end, it feels like the biggest thing is to get some games into their young defensemen. Portland’s defensemen on Saturday totaled 189 games; three Chiefs defensemen better that by themselves.
