4 days Ago By Dylan Bumbarger
In one of the most entertaining games of the season, Portland scores 4 goals in the 3rd period to come from behind after losing the lead, and beats Spokane 6-4. Tyson Yaremko had 3 points in the 3rd; Kyle Chyzowski and Alex Weiermair each had 2 goals. Portland, after winning their 4th straight, now gets 9 days off for Christmas before returning to action at home against Tri-City on December 27.
Game preview Game thread with game updates and postgame reaction. The off day forum Pregame: A tough one to call. Usually a top-3 team would mostly survive the loss even of their best player, but Spokane seems to rely more than normal on Berkly Catton, away at World Juniors, and they hadn’t yet done much to show either way that they can or can’t play without him.
They’re also missed Asanali Sarkenov, who’s given them some offense, to World Juniors. And Portland had been playing pretty good hockey lately. If not a 50-50 game, then one where it was hard to tell where the advantage was.
1st period: In an entertaining game, Portland played a little bit more defense than Spokane and led by one. Shots were 13-13 but chances were more in Portland’s favor. 2nd period: Dawson Cowan owned the period, stopping 17, including 4 or 5 big ones early when Portland was trying to increase their lead to 2.
Spokane only got 5 shots but made them count, with a power play goal by Rasmus Ekström early and a nice backhand by Shea Van Olm late. 3rd period: With 20 minutes to go the sugar plums started dancing, as we got 6 power plays, almost all of them of the undisciplined type. It led to three power play goals--a tying goal for Portland, a tying goal for Spokane, and the winning goal by Alex Weiermair for Portland.
Cowan couldn’t hold the dike and Portland picked up four goals for the come-from-behind win. How it was won: Portland outshot Spokane 47-30, a good performance against a team that’s pretty good on shot difference. They took big advantage of Catton’s absence.
He does a lot to control the game himself, and probably would have done so even more with a lead. Key stretch/moment: A lot of them in a game like this. Maybe the biggest one was Hayden Paupanekis going crazy with Spokane up 3-2, giving up a power play and 10 minute misconduct, and within two minutes Portland had a 4-3 lead.
Although right after Portland tied it, Ekström had a great chance to put Spokane back ahead, giving him his hat trick 8 minutes earlier than he eventually got it. Surprising: Beside Portland winning the shot total by a lot, Portland winning the even strength goals 3-2. Their goal difference at even strength is still -26, but getting better.
Not surprising: In a battle of two teams with good special teams at both ends, Portland edges Spokane 3-2 on an empty-net shorthanded goal, the 10th shorthanded goal Spokane has allowed this season and the major difference in the teams’ special teams numbers. Controversies: Ekström had a goal waved off in the 2nd period that took an awful long time on review. It might have been one that was in, but you just couldn’t find an angle that definitively said it was in.
Best team won?: Probably. You can make the case that Spokane was in the game only because of Cowan. Injuries/suspensions: None.
Portland They finish the first half one point behind Victoria for 5th in the conference. The high point of their first half is pretty much this final game. Spokane You can’t make too much of an evaluation of them without Catton.
They didn’t have a great defensive night and were kept in the game by Cowan, but their defensive numbers are usually better than this, so it might be a one-off. They still have the 2nd-best record in the league at the Christmas break. Friday 12/27 vs.
Tri-City, 7pm PST Saturday 12/28 at Tri-City, 6pm PST Looking ahead: Tuesday 12/31 vs. Everett, 5pm PST Next game with Spokane: Thursday 1/2 vs. Spokane, 7pm PST.
