WHL Portland Winterhawks

Winter Hawks Win, Close in on First Place

Published on February 5, 2004 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Portland Winterhawks News Release


Alex Aldred's seeing eye shot from the boards went off the right goal post and in with 3:07 left in the game to break a tie and send the Portland Winter Hawks to their third straight win, 3-1, over the Prince George Cougars Wednesday in Memorial Coliseum.

Dan Da Silva (Duh-SILL-vuh) added an empty net, power play goal with 53 seconds left for the final margin. Goaltender Krister Toews (TOES) stopped 24 shots to back up a solid defensive game played by both teams.

Portland, (26-21-4-1) for 57 points, is now just one point behind the first place Tri-City Americans and the Winter Hawks have played four fewer games. The Hawks have now won 7 of their last 8 games. Wednesday's win ended a 4-game winning streak, for Prince George (24-25-6-1). The Cougars were on a (12-5-2-1) run over their last 20 games, including back to back wins over the league's best team, the Kelowna Rockets, this past weekend.

Portland continues a 4-game in 5-night stretch at Seattle Friday (6:35 airtime on 970-AM KUPL), Seattle is in the Rose Garden at 7:00 Saturday and then the Moose Jaw Warriors invade Memorial Coliseum at 5:00 Sunday afternoon.

Portland, which is healthy right now, has 23 players on the roster and only 20 can dress for any one game. So, the Hawks scratched 17-year-old defenseman Taylor Sutherlin, 17-year-old forward Garrett Festerling and 17-year-old forward C.J. Jackson on Wednesday.

17-year old Cougar goalie Justin Pogge came into Wednesday's game riding back to back shutouts. Pogge stopped 32 shots to shut out Kelowna 2-0 Friday in Prince George and also stopped 27 shots to blank Everett Tuesday. Prince George is the top scoring team in the entire Western Conference, but, until recently, the Cougars were very generous at allowing goals too. They have tightened up, except when Portland lit them up in a wild 7-6 victory in the Prince George Multiplex back on January 20. Jordan Mc Laughlin started in goal in that game and Portland immediately put him under siege as the Hawks outshot Prince George 26-9 through two periods and led at one point 6-1. Prince George showed its offensive abilities in coming back to nearly win anyway.

Pogge played Wednesday, as did Portland's Krister Toews, who made 42 saves in a 3-1 win up in Tri-Cities Saturday. Both teams came out checking and playing extremely solid at center ice. Neither team generated a shot on goal in the first five minutes and both teams made safe plays and won their share of key battles. So, scoring chances were very limited. Portland got a few chances with Brandon Dubinsky setting up Robin Big Snake down left wing, but the shot went wide. A good outlet pass by Michael Funk sprung Big Snake down left wing, but the Cougars got back very well and denied a good shot. And Dubinsky set up Brian Woolger once in the slot, but his shot was deflected wide. So, Pogge had great support. Toews did too, although ex-Winter Hawk Danny LaPointe had an apparent goal denied after a Portland turnover in its own zone resulted in a point blank range chance. Referee Andy Thiessen blew the whistle before LaPointe stuffed the puck over the goal line. The Cougars took the lead as the Hawks were making a line change and Portland rookie forward Kyle Bailey entered the Cougar zone and was completely surrounded, resulting in a turnover before Bailey could dump the puck deep. The Cougars came the other way and 17-year old rookie Joshua Aspenlind fired his 11th goal of the season, beating Toews from the top of the right circle.

Portland got a little more physical on its forecheck in the second period as end wall hits by Brad Priestlay and Cody Mc Leod jarred a couple of pucks free. Portland also got a couple of cycling shifts from the Aldred, Darrell May, Cody Mc Leod line, but open ice and scoring chances were very scarce. Meanwhile, the Cougars still seemed to have a little more open ice as Chris Falloon, Prince George's captain, rung a hard shot off the crossbar early and then hit the top of the bar with another blast later in the period. LaPointe got a good chance on a two on one break, taking a pass from Devin Featherstone, but Toews held his ground with a nice short-side save. Portland got one good chance even strength when Aldred penetrated behind the Cougar defense and took a pass low from Braydon Coburn, but Pogge beat him with a blocker stop. The Hawks finally got their first power play late in the period, but did not really get any great chances. On the next shift after the power play ended, though, Ivan Dornic won an offensive zone draw back to Derek Poplawski, who let fly with a quick wrist shot. Dornic angled right to the net for the tip to tie the game, 1-1, after two.

Portland has owned the third period in the last eight games, seven of them wins. During the Hawks first nine games after the Christmas break, when the club only won once, Portland was outscored by a cumulative margin of 17-3 in the third period. But, in the last 8 games, if you take out the one big Cougar comeback on January 20th in their 7-6 loss to Portland up in Prince George, the Hawks have outscored the opposition 10-2 in the third period and out shot them 85-34. Other than one good chance off a turnover along the boards that allowed skilled 16-year-old Nick Drazenovic in alone, point blank range, the Cougars almost never even crossed Portland's blue line, even strength, in the entire third period. Toews beat Drazenovic with a terrific kick save to keep the game tied. The Hawks also had to kill two Cougar power plays to set up the winning goal by Aldred with 3:07 to go. Richie Regehr held the puck in at the blue line, under pressure, and Aldred took a short pass, worked his way through a check and flipped a harmless looking shot from about 45 feet, along the boards. Pogge was screened as the puck caromed off the inside of the right post and in. After the Cougars pulled Pogge, down 2-1, trying to swarm the Portland zone, Aldred made a key play along the boards in his own zone forcing Cougar forward Myles Zimmer to pull him down and take a penalty. Da Silva scored his 16th goal in his last 19 games, on the power play, into an empty net off a 3-on-1 passing play from Mc Leod and Dubinsky.

Check out the Portland Winterhawks Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from February 5, 2004


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