Saturday evening marked the second game of a back-to-back series between the visiting Everett Silvertips (6-0-0-0) and Portland Winterhawks (3-4-0-1).
A low-scoring contest, with not a lot of quality chances for either side, was decided by a lone goal from Jonny Lambos. The Silvertips left Portland with a 1-0 win, all four points on the weekend, and remained perfect to start the 2021-2022 season.
Dennis Williams, Everett’s general manager and head coach, and his squad have now won eight of the last nine matchups with the Winterhawks.
On October 8, the last time Braden Holt faced Portland, he earned a 23-save shutout. Saturday was rinse and repeat for the Bozeman, Montana native stopping 22 Winterhawks shots.
“I’m just seeing the puck really well and the guys are playing good in front of me,” he said. “They did a really good job boxing out, didn’t really have to worry about any rebounds, and they were able to pick up sticks for me. I was able to cover all the pucks. They are pushing out traffic for me as well so I can see the puck clearly. It is a whole-group effort.”
Through the game’s first 13 minutes the teams had combined for three total shots.
“Neither team was able to get their footing early,” Williams shared postgame. “At one point I think we were headed for a record for a combined least amount of shots in a period. I think the first period was one that wasn’t very entertaining to watch.”
Portland’s general manager and head coach Mike Johnston, who missed Friday’s game due to a recruiting/scouting trip, wanted his team to treat Saturday’s contest as if it was the playoffs.
“I tried to really stress that we are going to have certain matchups, we were going to play it like a playoff game, you have to finish your checks, it could be one bounce that decides the game. Unfortunately it wasn’t in our favor,” Johnston said. “I thought it was a playoff-like battle which is right where I wanted it, and we needed that experience, it will make us a better team.”
Despite a total of nine shots in the first 20 minutes, the Silvertips went to the locker room with a 1-0 lead.
Ronan Seeley sent a pass across the zone to Lambos (incorrectly listed on the game sheet, the primary assist belongs to Seeley). With his head up, the overage defenseman from Winnipeg, Manitoba got a wrist shot through traffic in front of Lochlan Gordon.
“Jonny has been a great addition to us, just a real honest hockey player,” Williams said. “I wouldn’t say there is anything flashy about his game, but very valuable to your team’s success out there. He does a lot of things that when people come to watch games they probably don’t appreciate as much as his coaches and teammates do. Just a great kid and leader, he’s just scratching the surface on where he can go in terms of potential.”
The game was tight-checking and plenty of hard hits were thrown by both sides.
“Everybody in this division competes hard,” Winterhawks defenseman Kade Nolan said. “I thought we battled back after a slower start. We played physical which showed how we can play in the end.”
Portland is more known for being a fast-paced, highly-skilled team, so Saturday was a different viewing experience for the 2,873 fans in attendance.
“People view us as a skill team, and they are going to play us hard. Everett has a little bit of both, they have skill and hardness. We are missing some guys right now, missing some forward depth that can really carry the play. I thought it was a dead even game. It may have been a 1-1 or 0-0 game. We will be fine if we keep playing like we did tonight,” Johnston said.
Towards the end of the second period and into the start of the third, Portland started to find a little life in front of Holt.
A tripping penalty on the Winterhawks gave the Silvertips a power play. Everett poured everything they had at the net, but Gordon kept Portland within one.
The momentum in the game shifted towards the visitors.
“We call that positive possession,” Holt said about the power play. “We talked about grinding them down and making them tired. Especially in a 1-0 game, having the puck in their zone is really huge for us. Not giving them life to come down to my end of the ice is huge for our power play and our game plan. We hemmed them in for the whole two minutes.”
Williams agreed with his goaltender saying, “You want (the power play) to be a momentum shift out there. I said sometimes you don’t get to score on those, we say it all the time. We were able to tilt the ice, and had three or four good looks that were right around the crease. I did think from the power play on it gave us a little boost.”
Portland pulled Gordon for the extra attacker with 2:16 left in the game. James Stefan had the best opportunity at the equalizer, but Holt once again had the answer.
While Holt was the star of the game, he gave credit to the team’s leadership group.
“I think it is really big for those two guys (Alex Swetlikoff and Jonny Lambos), they are new faces to our team, and they fit right into our systems. They are both amazing guys off the ice as well. There is no secret as to why they are having success,” Holt said.
Everett is off until Friday when they will face Portland for the third straight game.
The Silvertips headed home via a happy bus, “We always talk about it before the third (period) that we want a happy bus. Safe to say we are going to have a happy bus after four points, we are pumped,” Holt said.
Meanwhile, for Portland, a game against rival Seattle is upcoming on Wednesday evening.
“Preparing for Seattle is about getting rest here (on Friday) and then getting back to the hard practices,” Nolan said.
Notes and Quotes:
– Jonas Brøndberg returned to the Portland lineup after missing the first seven games of the season. “He hasn’t played since March and got hurt the first day he arrived here,” Johnston said. “I told him because of our lack of forwards that I was going to play him up front so I could get him on the ice. As he got going then maybe Don would reel him in on the back end. Thought he looked good, he adds some size, poise, and veteran leadership to our lineup.”
– Kade Nolan has been wearing an “A” on his sweater to start the season. Portland has yet to announce its formal leadership group. When asked to describe how he leads, Nolan shared, “I want to lead by example, talk to them in the right times, I don’t want to be the guy that is talking all the time and being annoying. At the same time, I don’t want to not say anything either though. Mostly it just starts with my play on the ice and demonstrate that way.’
– Through the first eight games of the season, Portland is averaging only 2.25 goals-per-game compared to last season’s 4.0 per game. There is some concern about the lack of scoring, but Nolan remains optimistic, “It isn’t really going our way right now offensively, but I think it will turn around here pretty quick. If we keep doing the right things, keep shooting, keep getting guys to the net, we will be fine.”
– Many have commented on the ice conditions at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Johnston shared his opinion as the ice is impacting the quality of play, “Our ice conditions with the humidity here has been horrible. It is really hard playing at home right now. We want to get those (scoring) chances, but you saw (Saturday) with both sides, scoring chances were taken away by bad ice.”
– Are potential roster moves coming for Portland? I asked Johnston about possibly making a trade or recalling one of their 16-year-olds to provide an outside spark. The answer was, “No, not yet, still a little too early to do that I think. We sent those 16-year-olds home for a reason. We could easily bring one of those guys back right now to help us in the short term, but if we are looking long term, it’s about what’s better for them. They are playing midget hockey, playing a lot, what happens if we bring them in and we get guys back from injury? We just didn’t expect Robbie (Fromm-Delorme) and the other issues we’ve had from injuries so far. We are going to get healthy, we are going to be fine, we just have to get more experiences like we had tonight.”
– Johnston missed Friday’s game due to attending the WHL Cup being played in Red Deer, Alberta. His feedback on how the trip went, “We have the December draft this year. I got to see the top 80 players from Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Alberta, and Mantioba which was really good. I think the other important thing was I had time to spend time with our scouts. I haven’t had a lot of time with our scouts, so we got to work on our draft list, where we are at, what they think of players, I then got to look at those same guys, and hear what our scouts were thinking. I hate to be away from the team, but I have to do that every once in a while. Doesn’t hurt to have a guy like Don be able to step in. I hear he’s a pretty good coach.”
