08-09 Season

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Mucha and Jordan Made an Impression · Saturday November 8, 2008

The Portland Winter Hawks scored 2 second period goals in 12 seconds to beat the Spokane Chiefs 2-1 in Spokane Arena.

How did they do it?

With great goal tending by Kurtis Mucha, goal scoring (Taylor Jordan (1), Brock Cornish (2)), and a little help from referee Steve Papp or Colby Smith who didn’t blow their whistle on a shot in the mesh that setup Cornish’s goal.

The Hawks gave Mucha a two goal lead and he didn’t disappoint making save after save stopping 39 of 40 shots some at point blank range.

Another young Hawk player has impressed. In his short time back Taylor Jordan seems to have added another inch to his 6’6” frame and is starting to put it together. As a 16 year old he looked awkward; not in control of his body. Seeing him for the first time in the Oil King game I noticed his improved skating and strong effective floor-checking. He proved last year he could mix it up with the big boys. This year he is working well with his equally young huge line mates Kiley Boychuk and Taylor Peters and the group is starting to produce some scoring.

The new era starts with a two road win streak.

Come on boyz let’s win some games for the home crowd this weekend.

— S. Blanchard

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Hawks Start New Era with a Win · Saturday November 1, 2008

The Portland Winter Hawks (3-12-0-0, 6 pts) start the Gallacher era with a 4-1 win over the Tri-City Americans.

New Hawk coach Mike Johnston must be asking himself “what’s the big deal?” we just go out play sound fundamental hockey, add good goaltending (Kurtis Mucha 31 saves) and the puck finds its way into the net. once in awhile (Francis, Reddin, Boychuk, Valchar) .

I guess Mike didn’t know that we hadn’t won in the Toyota Center the last 9 times, and that last year we only had 3 road wins and we hadn’t beaten anyone by three goals since 10/5/07 (3-0 against the Everett Silvertips). It is best to forget these facts as quick as possible and move on to the New Era.

Summary

Three Stars

Mucha (POR), Reese (TRI), Boychuk (POR)

— S. Blanchard

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08-09 Hawks Season Review (Offensive Production) · Thursday September 11, 2008

Will the Hawks offensive show up this season?

You would think so. The Hawks only scored 132 goals last year; fewest in WHL history.

But that was the same story, the year before when the Hawks scored 146 goals.

An offensive improvement should be a slam dunk, until you look closer at the roster.

The team comes into the season losing 4 players and 33% of the team’s offensive production:

Jacob Dietrich 16 goals, 6 assists, 22 pts
Tyler Swystun 12 goals, 22 assists, 34 pts
Keith Voytechek 6 goals, 10 assists, 16 pts
Tristan King 9 goals, 16 assists, 25 pts

Total 43 goals, 54 assists, 97 pts

So who is going to produce the offense?

The new young talent the Hawks have been acquiring and drafting will get that chance.

In pre-season,

Killian Hutt acquired in a trade for Tristan King has shown some real offensive ability. Ken Hodge, Winter Hawks general manager, had this to say about Killian, “He is an offensive player who loves to score. He sees the ice very well, plays with a lot of energy and a great hockey sense. Killian loves to compete and we believe that he will be able to score at this level.”

Brad Ross (16) a number 1 pick has played well in pre-season, but will take time to figure out the league and his team mates.

Riley Boychuk (17) the previous year number 1 pick has been injured most of 07-08 and hasn’t had a chance to show what he can do.

Last year, the fans got a chance to see 15 year old Taylor Peters (16) play and he didn’t disappoint, scoring 2 goals in the 5 games played. He showed on-ice poise, a physical presence and some scoring ability. I am looking forward to seeing more of him this year.

This is a good group that will give the Hawks a future, but not be ready to carry the team’s offensive load.

That will depend on the improved play of Chris Francis (19), Matt Schmermund (20), Radim Valchar (19) and Luke Walker (18).

Chris Francis 10 goals, 13 assists, 23 pts
Matt Schmermund 8 goals, 12 assists, 23 pts
Radim Valchar 9 goals, 15 assists, 24 pts
Luke Walker 9 goals, 12 assists, 21 pts

Totals 37 goals, 52 assists, 89 pts

Excluding Chris Francis playing some defense last year, this group played major minutes with little offensive results.

As a comparison last year,

Kelowna’s Colin Long (19) provided 31 goals, 69 assists, 100 pts out pointed our 4 top returning forwards.

On the plus side, for the last 23 games we acquired Colin Redding (18) from US Hockey who totaled 3 goals, 3 assists, 6 pts. He has played well in pre-season.

Could we find some offense on defense. Defencemen Travis Ehrhardt and Travis Bobbee were brought here specifically to improve the power play and score some goals. Last year,

Travis Ehrhardt 7 goals, 22 assists, 29 pts on 54 games
Travis Bobbee 5 goals, 6 assists, 11 pts on 47 games

Both have offensive upside.

Defenceman Brock Cornish (19) was also brought in for offense, but season ending shoulder injury keep him out of the 07-08 season. The good news is he is back and could add some goals from the backline. As a 17 year old with Tri -Cities he totaled 3 goals, 7 assists, 10 pts on 31 games.

As the exhibition season nears the end, it looks like more of the same this year.

For the first 6 exhibition games, the Hawks have scored 13 goals and gave up 27.

Looking at the last 6 games of the 07-08 season, the Hawks scored 14 goals and gave up 26.

Yesterday, coach Rich Kromm states in the Portland Tribune article, “I think we can compete with any team.”

Rich, when you start stating, we can compete with any team in the league, I will have little more confidence that we are moving off the bottom.

— S. Blanchard

Comment

Rockets vs. Hawks - Game 22 · Monday November 19, 2007

The Kelowna Rockets outworked the Portland Winter Hawks for 2 of the 3 periods employing a relentless fore-check. After Long’s (9) goal late in the first period to take a 2-1 lead, the Rockets intensified the fore-check even more and by the 3rd period the Hawks didn’t seemed to have much fight left.

For the Rockets, Jamie Benn and Colin Long each had 1 goal and 2 assists and Lucas Bloodoff and Luke Schenn tallied single markers.

For the Hawks, Tyler Swystun took an end-board pass from Keith Voytechek and beat Rocket goaltender Torrie Jung to the stick side to tie the score at 1-1.

The Hawks could have tied it after Luke Walker was hauled down on a shorthanded breakaway. Walker tried to back hand the shot but missed the penalty wide to the right.

This game is one step back from Saturday’s game effort. The new guys Jacob Dietrich (no show), Ryan Kerr (didn’t notice that he was even there), Travis Ehrhardt (postive backend play), Keith Voytechek (nice pass to Swystun for the only goal of the game), Jason Grecica (must of lost his edge at least five time in that game), Riley Boychuk looked slow (it is now reported that he may have re-injured his groin).

For the Hawks, Jordan White put on an outstanding performance in goal making multiple first class saves in the game stopping 34 of 38 shots. Of the goals allowed only the Schenn goal he had any chance to save. It look like his view of the shot was blocked.

Next up Tuesday the Regina, Pats here for the only appears of the season.

Attendance: 3953
Memorial Colisiem

Game Description
Game Summary

Kemper’s Three Stars

Benn (KEL), Long (KEL), Schenn (KEL)

Fight Card

No fights tonight

— S. Blanchard

NHL 100 (US Division) · Monday June 25, 2007

Kudos to the WHL. This year they placed 19 of the top 100 in the NHL entry level draft, better than the 13 in 2006, and 18 in 2005. In that three year span Portland placed 2 (Michael Sauer, Brendan Mikkelson), Everett 5, Seattle 3, Spokane 2, Tri-City 1, and the Memorial Cup champion Vancouver Giants 8.

The WHL as a whole is amazingly accurate in its assessment of hockey talent evaluating players at the age of 14-15 years old. 8 of the top ten 2004 bantam picks are in the top 125 picks of the 2007 NHL entry draft. The top talent does rise to the front even at a young age.

Vancouver not only can turn top draft picks on the scouting lists into productive players, but can find NHL talent not on other team’s radar (i.e. Jonathon Blum, 134th as a bantam pick, Michal Repik, 21st in the Import draft, Spencer Machacek not selected in the draft, and their highest draft pick (14th), low in the top 100 (91st), Tyson Sexsmith).

The top teams know how to evaluate and develop talent. New Hawk’s management has an up hill climb to recover from a poor 2003 bantam draft and have not yet been able to develop any gems from the lower rounds.

For Portland to become an elite team again, it will have to come from the Bantam drafts starting with the class of 2005 (Thomas Frazee, Ty Ariss, Colin Reddin), 2006 (Riley Boychuk, Brett Ponich, Cole Grbavac), 2007 (Bradley Ross, Kyzen Loo, Joe Morrow) and with all Championship teams a few guys that nobody knew existed at draft time. Guys that developed later in life and are determined to make their hockey dreams come true. Time will tell if this group of picks will step out and show that they are worthy of the next generaion of NHL 100.

WHL Players in the Top 100

— S. Blanchard

US Divisional News · Friday January 18, 2008

— S. Blanchard

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