The Clackamas print., November 16, 2016, Page 7, Image 7

Winterhawks end nine-game skid
CODY GLASS HAS A NATURAL HAT TRICK IN WIN OVER THE CALGARY HITMEN
BY TRAVIS DAVID V WHITTAKER
photo by Austin Boltz
W ith a thorn in their side o f a nine game
lo s in g streak , on Saturday n ig h t the
Portland W interhawks ended that streak
by thum ping a Central Division foe, the
Calgary H itm en w ith a final score o f 9 -2.
Entering the game, the Winterhawks sat
in fourth place in the U .S . Division with
16 points and an overall record of 8-12-
0. The H itm en made the trip to Portland
looking to g et another win on their U .S .
Division swing. They entered the game at
7-5-2 with 16 points overall and in fourth
place in the Central Division.
Head Coach, General Manager and Vice
President o f the Portland W interhawks,
M ike Jo h n sto n knew th a t th e H aw ks’
u su a l style o f p lay w ould give th e m
success.
“ I f we w ant to play our gam e at the
highest level then it’ s going to be hard
for team s beat us on a regular b a sis ,” ,
Johnston said.
* Only a few minutes in , Calgary took the
|ead with the first goal of the game from
fig h t w inger Tyler M rkonjic. It was his
fourth goal of the season.
2 W interhaw ks fa n s ’ eyes rolled w ith
i n “ Oh great here we go again” look in
their eyes, but not so fast. Winterhawks,
Centreman and leading scorer on the team
w ith 25 points entering the night, Cody
Glass quickly erased that one goal deficit
w ith a natural hat trick—scoring three
goals in a span of just under eight minutes
in the first period.
G lass, a 17 year-old and prospect for
the upcom ing NH L draft this June, came
into the season only scoring a total o f 10
goals all last season as a rookie w ith 65
gam es played. He now has a total o f 10
th is season after scoring his natural hat
|rick on Saturday, Nov. 12, in just 21 games
jjlayed so far this season.
i A fter the gam e, I was able to catch up
W ith Glass and talk about how it felt to
score the natural hat trick and his second
tally o f the night.
“ It w as an aw esom e fe e lin g . Skylar
[McKenzie] and Keegs [Iverson] were a
huge part o f it ,” Glass said. “ It was just
the right spot, right tim e. Skylar made a
Calgary Hitmen right winger Tyler Mrkonjic (white) faces off against Portland Winterhawk left winger Skyler McKenzie
(hlack) at the Moda Center on Nov. 12.
great pass and putting it over the shoulder
o f Calgary goalie Cody Porter.”
G lass fin ish ed the gam e w ith three
goals and two assists for a total o f five
points on the night, and was thè gam e’ s
number one star.
D u rin g tjie 'secohd p e rio d , th e
Winterhawks exploded for five goals to
b ust the gam e wide open. Four of the
five goals came via the special teams. The
Hawks even forced the H itm en to yank
starting goaltender Porter who gave up
five goals on 21 Portland shots.
Portland scored two power play goals
by defencem an Caleb Jones and forward
Ryan Hughes. Forward Skylar McKenzie
and defenceman Brenden De Jong scored
shorthanded goals only 19 seconds apart.
D uring the n in e-gam e losing streak
the W interhaw ks had som e problem s
w ith the penalty kill. For the season the
Hawks have been shorthanded 98 tim es
seconds later by centreman Mark Kastelic.
and allowing 18 goals w hile a m an short.
Portland ended up o u tsh o o tin g the
W in te r h a w k s d e fe n c e m a n an d
H itm en 43-36. Portland netm inder Cole
E d m o n to n O ile r s p r o s p e c t, Jo n e s
Kehler liked the way that the defencemen
com mented on the penalty kill.
played in front o f h im .’
“ W e had a great p re-seb u t on the
“ T h irty-six shots m ight seem like a
system that coach Oliver David told us
exactly w hat they were going to do and lo t/ ’ said K ehler. “ But w hen th e guys
piay like they didirt front of me, you know
we were able to shut it down, ” said Jones.
“ We still took too many penalties tonight: boxing out, letting me see shots from the
It’s a certain area we need to keep working point just really m aking it easy on me.
on— maybe three a game max. That’s too Out of the 36 shots I probably saw all 36
o f them . It was a really good night from
many and unacceptable.”
The Winterhawks finished the game 2 that standpoint.”
McKenzie and Joiies each added four
out of 5 on the power play and killed all
points on the night. Hughes, Iverson, and
five of the penalties that they took.
W ith the W interhawksup 8-1 entering Blichfeld added two points each.
The Winterhawks will be back in action^
the third and fin a l period they added
anoth er goal fro m D anish le ft w inger Nov. 18, when they host their Interstate
Joachim Blichfeld, who sniped one past 5 rival, the Seattle Thunderbirds, at the
H itm en goalie Kyle Dumba stick-side to Veterans Memorial Coliseum . The puck
’ is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m .
make the score 9-1.
The H itm en added anoth er goal 25
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