What: The Portland Winterhawks (42-33-3-1) take on the Everett Silvertips (54-16-4-4) in Game 5 of their best-of-7 Western Hockey League 2nd round playoff series. The series is tied 2-2.
When: Friday, April 18, 7pm PDT.
Where: Angel of the Winds Arena, Everett, Washington.
Watch: You can stream the game FOR FREE on Victory Plus:
Listen: Winterhawks and Silvertips audio.
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The Portland Winterhawks head back to Everett for Game 5.
After losing the first 2 games of the series in overtime, it wasn’t clear we would be back here at all, much less with the series at 2-2. But the Winterhawks rallied to take both games at home. In Game 4, Kyle Chyzowski’s hat trick helped stake them to a 5-3 lead. But the last 5 minutes were a nightmare, and Portland found themselves tied after 60 minutes. As the focus shifted to the officiating, negatively, a jittery Portland struggled through the overtime. It took 11-and-a-half minutes for Portland to get their first shot on goal. But it was the 3rd shot that did it. Josh Zakreski, banged up after getting sandwiched and then facewashed by Cole Temple while down on the ice, got the bounce and slid the puck home to even up the series.
Portland has now outscored Everett in the series, and has led in games 117 minutes and trailed in only 26. The Silvertips have a lot more shots, but Ondrej Štěbeták has taken care of that so far. It’s now a best-of-3, and the Winterhawks will like their chances of being the team trying to clinch the series in Portland on Saturday.
[stats are subject to late adjustments]
| Forwards | (Career games – season points/games) |
|---|---|
| 20 | 19-Kyle Chyzowski (322 – 125/77) |
| 19 | 15-Joel Plante (50 – 18/50) 28-Josh Zakreski (255 – 78/77) 39-Tyson Yaremko (112 – 30/35) 88-Alex Weiermair (52 – 59/52) |
| 18 | 17-Carsyn Dyck (80 – 25/77) 29-Hudson Darby (144 – 23/71) 61-Brodie Hankel (32 – 0/32) 90-Diego Buttazzoni (224 – 91/74) |
| 17 | 8-Lochlan Tetarenko (31 – 5/31) 18-Kyle McDonough (135 – 31/72) 23-Ryan Miller (124 – 40/60) 37-David Hoy (62 – 7/62) |
| 16 | 9-Jordan Duguay (79 – 36/79) 72-Reed Brown (77 – 12/77) |
Ryan Miller’s suspension for a hit on Dominik Rymon is now set: 2 games. So he won’t be back until Game 6.
With Miller suspended, Portland shifted their lines around, putting Chyzowski with Buttazzoni and Zakreski, and the trio had 10 points. So maybe the league did the Winterhawks a favor.
After 1 goal in 2 games in Everett, Chyzowski had 3 goals and 2 assists in Portland. Buttazzoni was scoreless in Everett, had 5 points in Portland.
Chyzowski and Weiermair each have 3-game point streaks.
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 27-Tyson Jugnauth (135 – 110/76) 43-Ryder Thompson (312 – 28/78) |
| 19 | 59-Carter Sotheran (234 – 43/77) |
| 18 | 12-Cole Slobodian (75 – 4/70) |
| 17 | 7-Kayd Ruedig (77 – 24/75) 77-Max Pšenička (35 – 12/35) |
| 16 | 22-Griffin Darby (53 – 7/53) 24-Will McLaughlin (0 – 0/0) |
Ruedig made the first 2 points of his playoff career count with a huge goal and an assist on Wednesday.
Jugnauth is finding the points as always, with 5 points in the series and a 5-game point streak. Gavin McKenna is now done for this round, so there’s a good chance for Jugnauth to be at the top of the playoff scoring when this round concludes.
| Goalies | (Career games – season save%/games) |
|---|---|
| 18 | 74-Marek Schlenker (30 – .893/30) |
| 17 | 1-Ondrej Štěbeták (58 – .893/58) |
The Silvertip have to think they can start getting to more of Štěbeták’s rebounds at some point. But it hasn’t happened so far, and he’s had a .925 save percentage in the series.
The pressure is on the Everett Silvertips as the Scotty Munro Trophy winners for the league’s best regular season record. Austin Roest is the lone Silvertip from the 2022 team that was victim to a 47-point upset in the 1st round by the Vancouver Giants. This wouldn’t be close to that, but a 28-point upset would still be one of the biggest, and would be as galling a loss as it was for the Prince George Cougars, after losing to Portland in previous seasons.
On the plus side, they’ve outshot the Winterhawks by over 10 shots per game in the series. Despite the fumble that costs the Tips in overtime, Tarin Smith has 2 goals and 4 assists in the series, and 15-year-old star Landon DuPont has the same numbers. Raiden LeGall will be key in goal after a poor Game 4.
They were here last series, tied 2-2 going to Everett after rallying from down in the series 1-2. They beat Seattle 7-4, without DuPont, Tyler MacKenzie, and Cole Temple. It’s gut-check time again for the team with championship hopes.
| Forwards | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 14-Austin Roest (236 – 19/17) 16-Dominik Rymon (158 – 76/74) 21-Tyler MacKenzie (279 – 80/73) |
| 19 | 18-Zackary Shantz (164 – 40/68) 19-Nolan Chastko (73 – 16/73) |
| 18 | 11-Carter Bear (156 – 82/56) 17-Julius Miettinen (121 – 46/46) 22-Jesse Heslop (220 – 67/78) 51-Jaxsin Vaughan (194 – 24/74) |
| 17 | 8-Cole Temple (136 – 43/71) 15-Clarke Schaefer (64 – 8/58) 25-Lukas Kaplan (120 – 26/74) 38-Shea Busch (49 – 27/49) |
| 16 | 45-Owen Cooper (48 – 6/48) 49-Caine Wilke (55 – 21/54) |
| 15 | 20-Eddy Spytz (8 – 1/8) |
Does Miller’s suspension being set at 2 games mean that Rymon is cleared for Game 6? It probably means they at least have a timetable on him. Ready for Game 6 if not this one.
While Portland reacted to the loss of a top 6 forward by loading up their top line, it seemed like Everett spread their forward lines out more. It kind of worked, since they got 5 goals, but you feel like the forwards could have done more. A lot falls on Roest, Miettinen, and Busch, and they were all scoreless. Temple scored a goal, but also gave Portland some motivation with his antics on Zakreski in the 2nd period.
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 19 | 5-Eric Jamieson (233 – 39/76) 23-Rylan Pearce (158 – 18/76) 47-Kaden Hammell (283 – 47/69) |
| 18 | 3-Avery Laliberte (0 – 0/0) 6-Landon Cowper (71 – 1/23) 24-Tarin Smith (162 – 74/75) |
| 17 | 44-Kaeson Fisher (14 – 0/14) |
| 16 | 42-Brek Liske (82 – 11/76) |
| 15 | 9-Landon DuPont (71 – 69/71) |
Hammell had the 2 goals at the end of the 3rd to tie the game. Smith had 3 assists, and DuPont had a goal and an assist. Jamieson had an assist. Those are your big guns.
Smith has a 4-game point streak and motivation for redeeming himself after the final play in Game 4.
| Goalies | |
|---|---|
| 18 | 31-Jesse Sanche (68 – .903/37) 35-Raiden LeGall (31 – .922/31) |
A tough Game 4 has dropped LeGall down to .901. Everett not drawing the goalie battle is the biggest surprise of the series, although that’s more on their forwards.
| Winterhawks | Silvertips | Average (of 7 teams left) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Record | 42-33-3-1 (.557) | 54-16-4-4 (.744) | .680 |
| Goals/game | 3.8 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Goals allowed/game | 3.9 | 2.7 | 3.0 |
| Team shooting % | .108 | .101 | .113 |
| Team save % | .888 | .909 | .899 |
| Power play | 25.0% | 26.2% | 26.4% |
| Penalty kill | 74.7% | 77.7% | 78.2% |
| Power plays for/game | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.7 |
| Power plays against/game | 3.6 | 3.4 | 3.5 |
| Outshooting opponents | 37-40-2 | 69-6-3 | 52-22-2 |
| After 1 period | 27-32-20 | 34-17-27 | 33-22-23 |
| After 2 periods | 32-35-12 | 46-22-10 | 40-24-12 |
| Score, last 10 games | 37-35 (+2) | 35-31 (+4) | 39-30 |
| Score, last 20 games | 75-72 (+3) | 70-54 (+16) | 80-56 |
| Total WHL games | 2788 | 3254 | 3518 |
| WHL drafted top 60 | 6 | 9 | 11 |
| NHL drafted | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| NHL drafted top 80 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Players 6’2 or over | 6 | 4 | 7 |
| Players 5’10 or under | 9 | 13 | 7 |