WHL Portland Winterhawks

Tri-Cities Edges Winter Hawks 2-1

Published on March 14, 2007 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Portland Winterhawks News Release


Shaun Vey had a goal and an assist and goaltender Chet Pickard (PICK-urd) stopped 21 shots, including a huge save on Portland's Colton Sceviour (SEE-vee-yur) in the goal crease late in the game, as the Tri-City Americans beat the Portland Winter Hawks 2-1 Wednesday in Kennewick, Washington.

Sceviour had Portland's lone goal in the first period. Portland goalie Kurtis Mucha stopped all 19 shots he faced in the third period and 32 in the game. The Hawks outplayed Tri-Cities for 40 minutes, but the Americans had five power plays in the third period to keep the Hawks from getting into any offensive flow late in the game.

Portland, (16-50-1-2), came into the game with 3 points in its last 3 road games following a 3-2 shootout loss in Chilliwack Sunday. Portland closes out the season with 3 games in 3 nights starting in Seattle Friday at 7:05 (Audio Webcast at winterhawks.com); in the Rose Garden against Seattle Saturday at 7:30 with "green ice" on St. Patrick's Day for "retro jersey" night where the Hawks will wear traditional Portland Buckaroo jerseys and Seattle will wear traditional Seattle Totem jerseys (Live TV on CNW-14, Audio Webcast at winterhawks.com, Rose Garden In-Arena audio at 98.1 FM); and the season's final game is Sunday at 5:00 against Spokane in Memorial Coliseum (No TV, Audio Webcast at winterhawks.com, Memorial Coliseum In-Arena Audio at 96.5 FM). This is just the 5th time in 31 seasons that Portland has missed the WHL playoffs, the first since 1999-2000.

Tri-Cities is completely healthy and came into Wednesday's game with 4 wins its last 5 outings. The Americans now have a magic number of 2 points to clinch second place in the US Division and home ice advantage in the playoffs. Any combination of 2 points Tri-Cities gets or 2 points Seattle does not get cinches the spot for the Ams. Seattle beat Kamloops on Wednesday. Spokane lost Wednesday, so the Chiefs finish fourth and play Everett in the first round of playoffs. Tri-Cities will play Seattle in the first round of playoffs. Chilliwack clinched a playoff spot with its win over Spokane Wednesday as the Kelowna Rockets missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history going back to 1991-92 when the expansion franchise was established in Tacoma.

The Americans are thankful to have 19-year-old leading scorer Colton Yellow Horn back from missing 11 games with a leg injury. Even with the time missed, Yellow Horn entered Wednesday's game in the top 15 in league scoring with 73 points. Tri-Cities coach Don Nachbaur is relieved he does not have to tape together a blue line either as the Ams have had a string of injuries on defense for much of the second half of the season, but they have assembled a team with a lot of depth thanks to recruiting 19-year-old defenseman T.J. Fast from the University of Denver and 20-year-old defenseman Roman Tesliuk from the ECHL pro league right before the January 10 trading deadline. Defenseman Scott Gabriel is still out until Sunday's last game of the season due to league suspension. The Hawks welcomed back power forward Viktor Sjodin, who missed his first game due to injury all season Saturday in Chilliwack. Sjodin has been a warrior and played through a less than perfect knee all season. Portland coach Mike Williamson elected to watch the game from above to get a different perspective while allowing assistant coaches Brian Pellerin and Kyle Gustafson to gain experience at working the bench.

Portland got a couple of quick power play opportunities to establish some momentum, even though they did not score on them. Cameron Cepek and Bo Montgomery fired a couple of hard entry shots to create some second chances "" Nick Hotson and Colton Sceviour missing wide from tough angles. But, it was Hotson and Sceviour who opened the scoring on a 4-on-4 situation. Hotson picked up a loose puck at center ice and turned with speed into the Tri-Cities end as Sceviour filled the lane to create a 2-on-1. Hotson fed Sceviour full flight and he cut to the net on his backhand, stuffing it home past Tri-Cities goalie Chet Pickard at 10:53. Tri-Cities tied it on their first power play chance of the game. After 17-year-old Joel Broda, who has 4 goals and 6 points in his last 2 games, could not find a way to slam home an entry pass in the crease, T.J. Fast fired a shot from the high slot that beat Portland goalie Kurtis Mucha on the glove side at 14:31. Portland outshot Tri-Cities 10-7 in the first period, but failed to score on 4 power plays. The Hawks came into the game with only 3 power play goals in their last 18 games.

Tri-Cities had a couple of early chances in the second period foiled by Mucha, who stopped Broda in the crease and Taylor Procyshen with super glove save. The Americans took the lead on a speedy transition rush as Broda tipped the puck ahead at center ice, catching Shaun Vey full stride. Vey blew by the Portland defense, in on Mucha on a partial breakaway, Mucha the initial pad save. But, Vey still had time to bury a short rebound to make it 2-1 at 8:24. Portland completely dominated the latter stages of the second period, burying Tri-Cities in their end with a couple of deep forechecking shifts. Sceviour was set up in front on a beautiful pass from below the goal line, but Pickard made a nice pad save and cleared the rebound. Sceviour had another chance in the mid-slot, but Pickard got that one too. And, the shift continued as Cepek's blast from the right point was deflected just wide of the mark by Matt Sokol. The Hawks had 6 shots on goal in the sequence, but Pickard turned them all away. Portland outshot Tri-Cities 9-8 in the period and opened the third period on the power play. Luke Alexiuk entered the zone on a quick up-ice rush, taking a feed from Sceviour, and Hotson was pulled down as he tried to file the rebound producing Portland's 7th power play of the game.

The Hawks did not get anything going on their 1:30 of power play to start the third period and then spent most of the rest of the period in penalty killing mode. Yellow Horn had a clear breakaway and defenseman Bo Montgomery got a stick up on him as he shot the puck, Mucha making a right pad save, but Montgomery to the box for 4 minutes for high sticking. Portland killed that penalty, along with three others, but Tri-Cities had all the territorial play as the Hawks did not get its deep forechecking game going again. The Americans shot the puck from everywhere on their power play, Mucha making 19 saves in the third period, but the Hawks did a good job of keeping Tri-Cities from getting second chances or scrambles. Most of the Ams' chances started with quick point shots, but Mucha had to come up with a big save on Vey in tight, set up by Broda, and on Yellow Horn low on left wing, set up by a Vey pass. He also made a nice save on a deflection of Roman Tesliuk point shot. Portland's best chance came on an even strength chance as Hotson and Sceviour had another 2-on-1 low and a perfect crease feed and stuff by Sceviour was stopped by Pickard and the left goal post.

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Western Hockey League Stories from March 14, 2007


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