What: The Portland Winterhawks (36-13-2-3) take on the Prince George Cougars (25-23-4) in Western Hockey League action.
When: Tuesday, February 21, 7pm PST.
Where: CN Centre, Prince George, British Columbia.
Watch: You can stream the game via the CHL TV pay per view (US$6.10 for one game).
Listen: Winterhawks and Cougars audio.
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Portland suffered their 4th loss in a row Monday, in a game where both teams went scoreless for 65 minutes before Prince George won in a shootout. It put an exclamation point on Portland’s recent goalscoring problems. In the 4 losses, the Winterhawks have scored 3 goals. But they’ve been getting chances. Those 3 goals came on 140 shots. The Winterhawks have actually played well, but the finishing has eluded them. You can only take “bad finishing is bad hockey” so far. Finishing is the most volatile part of the game. 3 out of 140 won’t continue for long. They’ve played well enough to win 3 games, putting aside the opposition for the moment. At worst they’ll finish 3rd, and they’ll be the favorites against whoever plays the worst out of the 4, 5, and 6 seeds. So, the sky isn’t falling.
| Forwards | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 11-Robbie Fromm-Delorme (245 games) |
| 19 | 92-Jack O’Brien (193) 13-James Stefan (186) 16-Gabe Klassen (178) 9-Aidan Litke (129) 51-Chaz Lucius (6) |
| 18 | 72-Marcus Nguyen (147) 19-Kyle Chyzowski (142) 77-Luke Schelter (116) |
| 17 | 28-Josh Zakreski (69) 93-Nicholas Johnson (51) 8-Braeden Jockims (11) |
| 16 | 90-Diego Buttazzoni (42) |
We wait to hear on the status of Fromm-Delorme, who didn’t play Monday. Litke is also a question mark.
Leading forwards: Stefan (59 points/52 games), Klassen (58/50), Fromm-Delorme (57/52), O’Brien (49/53), Litke (36/50).
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 19 | 6-Ryan McCleary (144) |
| 18 | 73-Luca Cagnoni (137) 43-Ryder Thompson (126) 26-Marek Alscher (118) 2-Josh Mori (89) |
| 17 | 59-Carter Sotheran (54) 14-Rhett Ravndahl (22) |
| 16 | 91-Alex Thompson (32) |
Leading defensemen: Cagnoni (53/53), McCleary (26/52), Sotheran (21/54).
| Goalies | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 74-Dante Giannuzzi (103) |
| 18 | 31-Jan Špunar (21) |
Giannuzzi made amends for a poor game last week with a great game Monday, he had everything except the run support. Decent chance it will be Špunar, trying to make up for a poor game of his own.
Save percentages: Giannuzzi .905, Špunar .901.
Tyler Brennan had a big game in goal in the Cougars 1-0 shutout win on Monday. The Cougars suddenly getting good at goal prevention is the last thing the conference’s middle of the pack wants to see. You can almost consider PG to be the favorite to take the 4th spot, since after this game they have 13 in a row with teams under .500.
| Forwards | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 18-Cole Dubinsky (225) 29-Chase Wheatcroft (204) 22-Jaxsen Wiebe (166) |
| 19 | 28-Blake Eastman (164) 17-Zac Funk (144) 20-Fischer O’Brien (128) |
| 18 | 13-Koehn Ziemmer (148) 19-Carlin Dezainde (124) 14-Cayden Glover (102) 21-Ondrej Becher (49) |
| 17 | 27-Riley Heidt (142) 8-Caden Brown (121) 9-Arjun Bawa (48) |
Leading forwards: Wheatcroft (75/52), Ziemmer (72/52), Heidt (70/52), Funk (45/48), Becher (30/49).
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 19 | 4-Ethan Samson (199) 12-Hudson Thornton (127) |
| 18 | 24-Keaton Dowhaniuk (149) 6-Viliam Kmec (112) 5-Ross Stanley (75) |
| 17 | 2-Bauer Dumanski (111) 3-Ephram McNutt (42) |
Team captain Ethan Samson plays in his 200th game.
Leading defensemen: Thornton (52/52), Samson (42/44), Kmec (22/48).
| Goalies | |
|---|---|
| 19 | 30-Tyler Brennan (90) |
| 18 | 33-Ty Young (55) |
Save percentages: Brennan .892, Young .890.
| Winterhawks | Cougars | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record | 36-13-2-3 | 25-23-4 | |
| Goal difference | +42 | +16 | |
| Goals/game | 3.8 | 4.0 | 3.4 |
| Goals allowed/game | 3.1 | 3.7 | 3.4 |
| Power play | 26.0% | 27.4% | 22.5% |
| Penalty kill | 83.3% | 71.8% | 77.5% |
| Power plays for/game | 4.1 | 4.3 | 4.2 |
| Power plays against/game | 4.0 | 3.9 | 4.2 |
| Outshooting opponents | 42-11-1 | 25-23-4 | |
| After 1 period | 22-13-19 | 17-24-11 | |
| After 2 periods | 26-16-12 | 19-23-10 | |
| Score, last 10 games | 23-36 | 45-25 | |
| Score, last 20 games | 68-68 | 84-66 | |
| Total WHL games | 2361 | 2725 |