The Portland Winterhawks will be short a couple of players for Game 3 of the Western Hockey League finals. But they shouldn’t be short of confidence.
Forwards Brad Ross and Tayler Jordan have been suspended by the Western Hockey League for penalties committed during Game 2 of the WHL finals.
Both will miss today’s Game 3 against the Kootenay Ice in Cranbrook, B.C.
Jordan can return for Wednesday’s Game 4. The length of Ross’ suspension is to be determined.
Portland’s Riley Boychuk, who also received a major penalty during the second period of Game 2, was not suspended.
Portland head coach and general manager Mike Johnston said that he believes the length of Ross’ suspension will be tied to the status of Kootenay forward Matt Fraser. Fraser and Ross both left with leg injuries after colliding early in the second period of Saturday’s game at the Rose Garden. Neither player returned to the game.
Ross hurt his knee on the play. Johnston said Ross participated in “part of” Monday’s practice.
A delayed penalty had already been called against Ross before he appeared to try to make a hit on Fraser away from the puck. The leg-on-leg collision sent both players sprawling to the ice.
The collision started a parade to the penalty box for Portland. Jordan was cited 33 seconds later for checking Kootenay’s Steele Boomer from behind. Boomer went sliding head first into the boards, and Jordan drew a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct.
Penalties to Pearce Eviston, Troy Rutkowski and Boychuk followed as Kootenay scored four power-play goals to take a 6-1 lead. The major penalty for elbowing against Boychuk, who collided with Hayden Rintoul behind the net, was disputed by Johnston, who said following Saturday’s game he thought Boychuk made a clean play.
The second period penalties aside, Johnston said Monday that he has been pleased with his team’s discipline through two games.
“Our discipline was great,” Johnston said. “We’ve played six periods, and five of the periods were fine” in terms of discipline.
The third period on Saturday was, in fact, spectacular.
The Winterhawks scored three quick goals to pull within 6-5 with more than 11 minutes left, and kept pressing for the equalizer until Kevin King’s empty-net goal with 10 seconds left.
It was the first time this season that Portland has lost when scoring more than four goals. But Johnston believes his team gains momentum and confidence from Saturday’s third period, when the Winterhawks outshot the Ice 27-8.
“Our puck movement was good. Our intensity was good and we were really quick to loose pucks,” Johnston said.
There are other reasons for the Winterhawks to carry high hopes into the games today and Wednesday at the 4,600-seat Cranbrook Rec Plex. Among them:
• Portland hasn’t lost consecutive games since mid-January.
• Away from home, the Winterhawks are 7-1 in these playoffs, and 13-2 over the past two playoff years. Portland was 24-11-0-1 on the road in the regular season.
• Goalie Mac Carruth has been solid throughout the playoffs. He was pulled after the sixth Kootenay goal on Saturday. Johnston said he made the switch so that Carruth wouldn’t become more frustrated under difficult circumstances.
Notes
• Johnston said defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon, who missed Game 2 with an undisclosed injury, is “day to day.”
• Team captain Brett Ponich, who has not played since January, is “looking better” in practice Johnston said. But the coach said the defenseman is unlikely to play in Games 3 or 4 at Kootenay.
• Forward Sven Bartschi was named the WHL Player of the Week on Monday. The 17-year-old rookie from Langenthal, Switzerland, had five goals and two assists to go with a plus-2 rating in three games over the last week. He scored two goals in each of the first two games of the WHL finals.
