The WHL Playoffs second round began on Friday night in the Rose City as the second-seeded Portland Winterhawks welcomed the third-seeded Everett Silvertips to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
In a battle of special teams, Portland scored the game’s first three goals en route to a 8-2 victory in Game 1.
Portland went 3-for-5 on the power play and 7-for-8 on the penalty kill.
“Special teams are huge in playoffs. It’s gonna flip momentum easily,” Winterhawks forward Kyle Chyzowski said. “I thought our power play got big goals in the second (period) to extend the lead. The penalty kill was great that first period, we got hit with a lot of tests, and we found a way to kill them, I think that brought momentum onto our side.”
Dennis Williams, Everett’s general manager and head coach, was not at all pleased with how his team performed on the power play or penalty kill, saying, “Our special teams have to be better. They are good and how fast they are. They have good goaltending and good-skating players. We have to do a much better job of getting to the inside. On our power play, we were all on the perimeter. Any good team is going to let you stay to the outside. We had one shot but there was only one guy net-front to their four. We need to find a way to want to get and compete to the inside. Otherwise, Špunar is going to stop all those. It is like playing catch with him.”
Despite not playing a game in nine days, the Winterhawks shook off any rust early as they scored the game’s first three goals.
It took only 2:38 for “T.N.T” to play as Tyson Jugnauth, a Seattle Kraken prospect, went on a dynamic coast-to-coast power-play rush and beat Silvertips starting goalie Tyler Palmer up high.
“I saw that first forward cheat the drop a little bit, so I kept skating, and as I kept skating, I saw the defenseman flat-footed a little bit and that I could beat him. Once I had a step on him I flipped it up high and hoped it went in. I got lucky with that one,” Jugnauth said, describing his first career playoff goal at any level.
After scoring on an Everett penalty 1:41 into the game, Portland’s penalties started to pile up over the final 17 minutes of the opening frame.
The Winterhawks got two successful penalty kills and used the momentum generated to find the back of the net again.
The fourth line of Kyle McDonough, Ryan Miller, and Tyson Yaremko rewarded Mike Johnston, Portland’s president, general manager, and head coach, with a hard-working shift and a goal as well.
The trio converged near their offensive blue line and won a puck battle to keep the puck in the zone. Yaremko, who came over in the Josh Davies and Ryan McCleary trade before the season, scored his first goal of the playoffs when he beat Palmer up high.
“We talked to them a lot about positive shifts,” Johnston said postgame when asked about his fourth line’s contribution on Friday. “They know early in the game they are going to get more of an opportunity. Later in the game, they are probably going to get less. If they have positive shifts in the first period, it gives us more confidence in them as a coaching staff. We are still learning a lot about our first-year athletes even though it is late in the year, and you are learning what they are going to do in big games and what they are going to do in big moments. I thought (Friday) they looked more comfortable than they have in the first few games of the playoffs.”
33 seconds later, Davies took a pass from Carter Sotheran, which led to a 2-on-1 rush with only Eric Jamieson back defending. Davies tried to slide the puck across the ice, but it took a favorable Winterhawks’ bounce off Jamieson’s skate and went in.
With the VMC rocking, Everett’s first-round pick in the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft, Tarin Smith, took it upon himself to make a zone entry up the middle of the ice. He was able to drive to the top of the circles before unleashing a shot. Smith’s first career playoff goal settled the visitors down while also getting them on the board just 23 seconds after Davies’ 4th of the playoffs.
The penalty trouble continued for Portland as James Stefan was called for two penalties in the final 6:02 of the opening frame. The Winterhawks successfully killed off both, but it took them out of their offensive rhythm.
“I thought we took way too many penalties,” Johnston said. “We have to control our discipline. We got anxious and got uptight when we were taking penalties, and we just have to relax and understand the penalties will swing one way and then swing the other way. It is never going to be even. It was one of those nights with a lot of close calls. That is just the way it was tonight.”
Following the end of the first period, Winterhawks captain Gabe Klassen stayed on the ice to speak with one of the officials.
“I saw Gabe talking to the official, but it wasn’t any direction from us to talk to him. We regrouped after the period, took a look at some of the calls, and realized that we just have to be careful. A lot of those were penalties. It was just called probably a little bit tighter than it would be for a playoff game,” Johnston said.
In the second period, it was more of the same as both teams continued to be penalized.
With Klassen in the penalty box for cross-checking Jessie Heslop, who had to be helped to the locker room and did not return to the game, Jugnauth scored his second of the evening.
James Stefan led the shorthanded rush and sent a perfect cross-ice pass for the 19-year-old defender to chip home.
Then, it was Everett who was in the box, putting the Portland power-play unit back onto the ice.
Jugnauth again factored on a scoring play as he quarterbacked the second unit. He distributed the puck across to Diego Buttazzoni, who was on the flank setup for a one-timer. Palmer made a strong push from his right to left and denied the 17-year-old NHL Draft eligible prospect. However, the puck snuck through into the blue paint for Kyle Chyzowski to sweep across the line.
About two minutes later, Stefan picked up his third penalty of the game when he caught a Silvertip with a high stick in the defensive zone.
After a clean faceoff win by Julius Miettinen, overage defenseman Parker Berge walked to the middle of the ice and wired one by Špunar for his 4th of the postseason.
On a night where special teams goals were the name of the game, the deadly Winterhawks’ power play went on the ice for the third time.
Tensions had boiled over after Špunar turned aside a Cade Zaplitny point-blank chance. The Winterhawks defenders felt he took an extra poke after the whistle, which brought all ten skaters together.
Zaplitny and Buttazzoni each received 12 minutes of penalties, and Ben Hemmerlling was given the extra two minutes for cross-checking.
Luca Cagnoni, fresh off a 7 point performance in round 1, set up Chyzowski to make a clean zone entry. The 19-year-old from Surrey, British Columbia, drove wide and elected to test Palmer with a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot. The puck went far side and in, for Chyzowski’s second of the period.
Everett then successfully killed off two penalties in the final 7:32 of the middle frame.
Silvertips general manager and head coach Dennis Williams cited special teams as a key factor in Game 1, saying, “If you look at the difference of the game, they have three power-play goals, one shorthanded goal, and we were 0-for-5 on the power play at one point. You can’t have that this time of year. Credit to them, they looked good, and they looked fast.”
The third period was much calmer. Only two infractions were called during the 20 minutes, and one penalty was given out at the 20-minute mark.
Ethan Chadwick relieved Palmer after 40 minutes and played the third period for the Silvertips.
Already up 6-2, the Winterhawks kept their foot on the gas and got goals from Nate Danielson and Jack O’Brien 23 seconds apart to round out the scoring.
Williams was not pleased with his team’s performance in Game 1. “The good thing is whether we lose 3-2, 10-2, or 15-2, I really don’t care. Playoffs, short-term competition mindset. We have a lot of soul-searching. We need a lot of guys to pick up their games from an individual standpoint. We have to hit a reset button. It is a hard one. We started the last series kind of the same. We got beat pretty good at home 6-4. We just have to park it and move on. That’s what playoffs are all about,” he said.
Johnston cited his team’s readiness to play as a key reason for its win. “We talked about our start to the game, and we knew with home-ice advantage, it was important to engage the fans. Certainly, our first period, I would say the best part of it was our energy at the start and how we played the game. Getting that first goal was important,” he said.
From Chyzowski’s perspective, “I think we shut down guys quickly. We didn’t give them second chances, a lot of one and done’s tonight. Obviously, they got a couple of looks, but we did well to box out; let Špunar handle that first shot and clear space for him.”
During the game, Winterhawks forward Josh Zakreski took a puck to the face and left the ice under his own power but was bleeding as he went down the tunnel.
“You never want to see a guy go through that, getting hit with the puck in the face,” Jugnauth said. “It’s important to know he’s doing ok now, and both of us (Chyzowski and Jugnauth) have gone through stuff with our faces, so we know what that’s like, so we feel for him.”
Game 2 starts at 6:00 on Saturday before the series shifts to Everett for Game 3, 4, and 5 (if necessary).
