Brett Cullen

Portland wins first two games in rare four straight with Prince George

(Prince George, BC) Tuesday and Wednesday brought the Prince George Cougars (6-18-1-2) and Portland Winterhawks (18-6-1-2) together for the first two games of four back-to-back games against one another. 

A rare occasion on the WHL schedule, all four meetings between the two Western Conference opponents will occur over the course of six days.

The Winterhawks left the CN Centre with four points, while the Cougars took one forcing overtime on Wednesday night. 

On Tuesday, the Winterhawks scored a goal in each period on their way to a 3-0 shutout victory. 

Joel Hofer (Photo- Brett Cullen)

Joel Hofer, who was recently announced as a member of Hockey Canada’s Selection Camp roster for the World Juniors, stopped all 23 shots he faced. 

Reece Newkirk, Seth Jarvis, and Jake Gricius scored for Portland.

Jarvis had a strong night as he also picked up two assists as well.

His first assist came on a half-spinning pass to Newkirk who was cutting into the slot. The 17-year-old forward then picked up his third point of the night when he sent a pass a Gricius from a knee. Gricius had the majority of the net to shoot out and made no mistake for his 11th goal of the 2019-2020 season. 

Newkirk told winterhawks.com after the win, “We had our game plan, knew they were going to come out hard. We capitalized (on Tuesday) and did what we had to do and we won, which is a good thing.” 

Portland was not called for a penalty on Tuesday when picked up their 17th win and 3rd shutout of the season. However, penalties were more of an issue in the rematch on Wednesday. 

The Cougars used a first-period power play to open the scoring on Wednesday evening. Forward Josh Maser was left unguarded at the front of Joel Hofer’s goal and netted his 12th of the year. 

Despite not allowing another power-play goal, the Winterhawks committed five total penalties which often led to momentum for Prince George. 

In the second period, the Cougars doubled their advantage to 2-0 on a broken play. The puck came off the wall and the Portland skaters had a moment of miscommunication of who was going to take the puck. Instead, Nikita Krivokrasov, the former Tri-City American and Prince Albert Raider, scooped up the loose puck. He skated around Hofer for his second tally of the campaign. 

Before the second-period horn sounded, the Winterhawks cut the deficit to one. While on a power play, overage forward Lane Gilliss fired a shot off the post, Portland’s third of the frame. This time the puck went to a favorable location for the Winterhawks second layer, Robbie Fromm-Delorme seized the opportunity to bury the second goal of his 17-year-old season. 

Marco Creta (Photo- Brett Cullen)

The Cougars took a 2-1 lead into the third period, where they had yet to surrender a point (4-0-0-0) when leading after 40 minutes. Meanwhile, the Winterhawks were winless (0-4-0-1) when facing a deficit after the second period. 

Former Winterhawk forward Ilijah Colina started the third period off strong for the home side. With an assist to Filip Koffer, Colina scored his third goal of the year and Prince George’s third goal of the night. 

About four minutes, later Clay Hanus was upended in the neutral zone which sent the league’s 4th best power play to the ice and a chance to get Portland back within one. 

The Winterhawks only needed 18 seconds before Jarvis picked up his second goal of the mini-series. 

Portland’s second power-play goal of the game turned the momentum towards the visitors. 

In seven minutes the Winterhawks turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 advantage. 

Johnny Ludvig, a third-round selection by the Florida Panthers in the 2019 NHL Draft, deked a Cougars defender near the top of the blue line before beating Taylor Gauthier for his 10th goal of the year. 

39 seconds later Prince George was on the wrong end of a controversial call. Reid Perepeluk cleared a puck from inside his own zone over the glass which may have been deflected by Jake Gricius. However, instead, the officials decided the puck was sent cleanout and Portland was awarded a power play. 

Less than a minute later Newkirk made the most of the opportunity presented. The New York Islanders prospect faked a shot that took two Prince George penalty killers out of position as they attempted to block the attempt. Newkirk then used a well-placed wrist shot to give the Winterhawks the 4-3 lead. 

Prince George pulled Gauthier for an extra attacker with under two minutes to play. 

Tyson Upper (Photo- Brett Cullen)

Tyson Upper’s initial shot was stopped by Hofer, but the rebound went to a waiting Vladislav Mikhalchuk. The six-foot-three, 176 pound forward from Belarus deposited the puck in the net with 56 seconds left in regulation. 

Overtime was required to find a winner in a wild, back-and-forth game. 

Both teams had a couple of chances with the puck in the offensive zone before Clay Hanus won the game for Portland. 

On a rush, Fromm-Delorme spotted the Excelsior, Minnesota native driving the zone and hit him with a pass in stride. The 2001-born defenseman elected to use a wrist shot for his sixth of the year and first game-winning goal. 

The Cougars and Winterhawks will now ride the bus for approximately 727 miles, 1,170 kilometers, south to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum to conclude their season series on Saturday and Sunday. 

On Saturday the Winterhawks are playing in their annual Teddy Bear Toss. 

After Wednesday’s game, Ludvig told winterhawks.com, “It was a good game. They came out hard, they had a good push to start off the game. We had to stick with our game plan, and it eventually went our way. We will watch video over the week and see what we did right and what we did wrong and then bring that into our next two games coming up here.”

Notes from the first two games in Prince George:

– Portland was 4-for-7 on the power play and 4-for-5 while on the penalty kill. 

– Prince George went 1-for-5 on the man advantage and 3-for-7 when a man down. 

– Joel Hofer stopped 49-of-53 shots while his counterpart Taylor Gauthier turned aside 61-of-69.

– Five Winterhawks left the CN Centre with over three points – Seth Jarvis (2G, 2A), Robbie Fromm-Delorme (1G, 2A), Johnny Ludvig (1G, 2A), Reece Newkirk (2G, 1A), Jake Gricius (1G, 2A).

– Cross Hanas was scratched on Wednesday and is out day-to-day with an upper body injury.

– Isaiah DiLaura received a video tribute from the Cougars during the first media timeout on Wednesday night.