Portland Winterhawks at Kamloops Blazers, Game 1: Preview, updates, chat, how to listen and watch the stream

What: The Portland Winterhawks (44-21-5-3) take on the Kamloops Blazers (52-13-4-3) in Game 1 of their best-of-7 Western Hockey League 2nd round playoff series.

When: Friday, April 14, 7pm PDT.

Where: Sandman Centre, Kamloops, British Columbia

Watch: You can stream the game via the CHL TV pay per view (US$7.64 for one game).

Listen: Winterhawks and Blazers audio.

Follow:

• The box score.
• Get updates and chat before, during, and after the game.

After a 5-game 1st round win over Everett, the Portland Winterhawks move to the 2nd round.

The Winterhawks only had 15 fewer points than the Kamloops Blazers during the regular season. But the difference feels like so much more. The difference in team numbers is staggering–Kamloops was 89 goals better!–and then you realize that Kamloops wasn’t at the strength they are now for most of the regular season. Over the last 20 games for both teams, the Blazers are 67 goals better. And then when you compare player by player, it’s a big advantage to Kamloops, with eight of the top ten players in the series. They have 9 NHL draft picks, Portland has 2, and if you go by the rounds the players were taken, it’s a massive difference.

If you want to find a positive, you can look to history. Three times since 1995 when they were big underdogs, as big or bigger than they are now, they’ve actually won Game 1. Mostly the history is meaningless, but it does show that the underdog can take an early game before the series takes shape.

Portland’s forwards finished better in the Everett series than they had much of the last couple of months. But Tyler Palmer still had a .901 save percentage for the series. They’ll have to find even more goals to be in this series.

Schelter missed the entire playoff series, and Litke missed the last two games of the series after missing the last 14 of the regular season. Either one of those would be a welcome return.

Leading forwards: Klassen (73 points/69 games), Fromm-Delorme (72/70), Stefan (70/69), O’Brien (65/71), Nguyen (50/71)

In 6 games against Seattle and Kamloops since February 1, Cagnoni is -9. In 34 games since the calendar turned to 2023, he’s had 10 games of -2 or worse. There is a worry about fatigue.

The defense corps overall, however, had a good series against the Silvertips.

Leading defensemen: Cagnoni (67/72), McCleary (32/71), Alscher (27/65).

Špunar had a .928 save percentage against Everett in the 1st round.

Save percentages: Giannuzzi .894, Špunar .911.

They had a routine 4-game sweep of Vancouver in the 1st round, and dropped the hammer early with a 4-0 lead after 1 and a 7-0 lead after 2 in Game 1. They’ve been the best 1st period team in the league, having the lead after the 1st period 46 times, 7 better than any other team. The first task for Portland will be to not be out of the game before they find their legs.

Minten, who had 67 points in 57 games, missed the entire Vancouver series but is expected to be back in this one. Kuefler, with 62 points in 57, missed the final game of that series and is less sure to return.

17-year-old Finnie had 5 points in the series.

Bankier and Stankoven had 9 points each in the 4 games with the Giants; Hofer, Demek, and Seminoff each had 6, along with Finnie’s 5.

Finnie, Hofer, and Bankier scored points in all 4 games. As if Kamloops didn’t have enough riches, that gives Finnie, with 40 points in 68 games, a 14-game point streak counting the end of the regular season. 21 points, over half of his points for the season, have come in the last 14 games. Hofer has a more modest 5-game streak.

Leading forwards: Stankoven (106/52), Bankier (94/61), Seminoff (88/66), Hofer (74/70), Levis (70/72).

Zellweger had 8 points in the 1st round series.

Leading defensemen: Zellweger (88/59), Masters (67/70), Bairos (41/72).

Ernst was good against Vancouver, with a .946 save percentage.

Save percentages: Ernst .909, Kieper .885, Sanche .882.

Join us here at my site. Everyone is welcome.