Game 2 between the Prince George Cougars and Portland Winterhawks featured only defensemen scoring and Tyler Brennan turning in an impressive performance.
Portland’s blue liners outscored Prince George’s 2-1, Brennan turned aside 44-of-46 shots, and the Winterhawks held serve at home taking a 2-0 series lead.
Overage defenseman Clay Hanus and 18-year-old forward Aidan Litke were both out of the lineup for Portland after getting on the scoresheet in Game 1.
Hanus plays on Portland’s top power-play unit while Litke is net front on the second. Luca Cagnoni filled the void left by Hanus while McCleary slotted into Cagnoni’s spot, and rookie Kyle Chyzowski earned time on the man advantage.
Following Game 1, Cougars general manager and head coach Mark Lamb wanted his team to stay out of the penalty box and play a more disciplined game.
While Prince George took five penalties again, its penalty kill was perfect.
Both Winterhawks special teams groups had a quality look at the net but Tyler Brennan kept the puck out.
“We took too many penalties again,” Lamb said postgame. “The only difference tonight was they didn’t score on them and we kept ourselves in the game.”
Former Winterhawks defenseman Jonas Brøndberg credited his netminder for keeping the Winterhawks off the board on the man advantage. “Our goalie was super good (Saturday); we have to give him a lot of credit. We then sacrificed for each other shorthanded. Sometimes the PK clicks and sometimes it doesn’t. (Friday) it didn’t click but (Saturday) it did.”
13:09 into the game Kurtis Smythe opened the scoring with a slap shot from the point with traffic in front of Brennan.
Portland’s lone 19-year-old defenseman scored only once in 62 regular season games, but playoffs bring out unexpected heroes.
Without the spectacular play by NHL Central Scouting’s top-rated North American goalie, the score easily could have been lopsided. Brennan turned aside 15 of the 16 shots sent his way in the opening 20 minutes.
In the second period the teams traded goals from their defensemen.
Cagnoni netted his first of the series just under 14 minutes into the middle frame.
“Robbie (Fromm-Delorme) gave me a nice breakout pass,” the Burnaby, British Columbia, native said describing his goal. “I kicked it out to (Tyson) Kozak, and saw a lane and decided to drive in. He made a nice saucer pass to me, and I picked a corner and it went in.”
The Cougars got on the board less than three minutes later when Brøndberg found the back of the net.
Similar to Smythe, the overage defenseman from Denmark, Brøndberg only scored once during the regular season.
“The first pass I got was great, but my shot hit a stick,” Brøndberg said. The broken stick belonged to Jaydon Dureau.
There are often two schools of thought when a stick breaks. The first is to stay in your zone and play without a stick. The other is to vacate the zone quickly, retrieve a new stick from the bench or make a line change, and get back into the play. Both options have their downfalls. On Saturday, Dureau elected to take the later option and go for a line change. Doing so created additional time and space for Brøndberg who had his stick in the air calling for a pass.
“The puck popped out to Koehn (Ziemmer) and he gave me the exact same pass to try again. My shot must have hit something on the way in, but I was super happy,” Brøndberg said.
The 6-foot-4 rear guard appeared in 90 games for Portland before being included in the trade which sent goaltender Taylor Gauthier to the Winterhawks.
What happened next was a shock to Brøndberg.
Portland’s crowd of 4,678 cheered when Brøndberg’s name was announced as the goal scorer over the speakers.
“It was amazing to score against my former team. Before (Saturday) though I’ve never been cheered in an away building for scoring a goal. It was a special moment for me. The fans cheering for me touched me personally. A moment I will never forget,” Brøndberg concluded.
Lamb said, “Jonas scoring was a great for the team, and the goal he scored was outstanding, but his overall game is unbelievable. Simply, he’s been outstanding for us. Sure he scored the goal, but he had to log a lot of ice time as we’ve lost a couple of guys back there. He was really good tonight. Right when he walked in his leadership was evident. He has real class, like a pro, a really likable guy, and a great player.”
With the Winterhawks holding a 2-1 advantage heading into the third period, Portland’s senior vice president, general manager, and head coach Mike Johnston was hoping to see his team preserve the lead.
The Winterhawks elected not to sit back and defend their lead, but rather looked to extend their advantage. In the final 20 minutes the hosts outshot Prince George 19-8.
Despite the shot advantage, Brennan kept everything the Winterhawks threw at him out of the net.
“Our goaltender was outstanding tonight,” Lamb said. “He is that type of goalie when he gets feeling like he did (Saturday), you just have that comfort that he isn’t going to get scored on. Nothing else matters, when he is on his game, that is what he is for us.”
“We just kept playing our game,” Cagnoni said. “We didn’t hold back or start to trap. We did what we do best, which is puck possession and making plays.”
Johnston thought his team executed the game plan perfectly in the third period.
“The way we got shots, the way we pushed the pace, I think that is important for how we want to play,” he said. “I don’t like teams that sit on their heels and give the other team an opportunity to start to come at you. I thought we did a good job in the third period of managing the puck.”
With Hanus out of the lineup, Portland’s already young defense was relied upon even more.
Smythe is 19, Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Ryan McCleary is 18, and the remaining four rear guards who played on Saturday are 17 years old.
“You realize when you look at the lineup that we have four 17-year-old defensemen which is probably the youngest of anybody in the playoffs. They moved the puck well, exited our zone well, and we weren’t back on our heels very much. Guys like Josh Mroi was excellent alongside (Marek) Alscher,” Johnston said.
Cagnoni gave credit to getting opportunities in the regular season to experience an increased role when the game was on the line.
“He (Johnston) trusts us to do the right thing every shift. Obviously sometimes you have to step up if someone is in the box or someone is hurt, and I think we did a really good job of that. We have great depth and are able to roll four lines and three pairs, but we are all prepared,” Cagnoni said.
Fromm-Delorme said, “Mike has prepared us really well even though we are a young team without that playoff experience. That has been important for us and all the guys are playing their roles which is all that matters. It is important to play your role, and play to your ability to help the team win games.”
The Cougars pulled Brennan for an extra attacker with 1:16 left in the game, had one small opportunity on Gauthier, but he froze the puck and Portland ran out the rest of the clock.
Game 3 is on Tuesday in Prince George which is hosting a playoff game for the first time in five years.
“It is exciting to be playing playoff hockey at home again. It was too bad we couldn’t get a goal at the end there and get it to overtime and possibly earn a split,” Lamb said.
For Brøndberg it is all about “Home advantage” and feels his team is right there with Portland. “Obviously going into this series we came in as underdogs, but the last two games we really showed we can play with these guys. It is just a little bit more luck to our side and we could get a few more goals and get that win.”
The Cougars will now have the opportunity to make the last line change and get the matchups they want. However, Lamb downplayed the importance, “It will help us a little bit as we can slow the play down, but who are you going to match on that team though?”
Johnston is not worried about having to decide on the lines first. “We feel our guys can play against anybody. We will see what type of matchups they will want. A lot of time it is what is their fourth line going to do? Are they going to play against our fourth line or are they going to try to get a mismatch in their favor? We will see and read what happens.”
Fromm-Delorme is excited about the opportunity to possibly end the series in four games. “I think the first two games of a series are really important. With us getting the two wins at home, we can there and possibly end it. I think we know that when we get to PG we have the right mindset and maybe have them losing some hope. Mike said it really well, ‘Once the game is over, it is over. If you had a good game or a bad game, get over it and focus on the next one.’ We have a long drive ahead of us to prepare but is is important for us to focus on the next game at hand now.”
