(Victoria, British Columbia) The 2nd-seeded Portland Winterhawks defeated the 7th-seeded Victoria Royals in four games to sweep the first-round matchup. On Wednesday night, while on the road, they emerged victorious 4-1.
In the opening 20 minutes, it was the visitors who came out on the front foot, scoring twice before the game was eight minutes old.
18-year-old forward Josh Zakreski lit the lamp on both occasions.
His first goal of the post-season came off a perfect, three-way passing play that started with Detroit Red Wings 9th overall selection Nate Danielson forcing a turnover near the Victoria blue line. Showing poise, he spotted Seattle Kraken prospect Tyson Jugnuath, who was deep in the zone from his defensive position. With his head up, the 19-year-old put the puck right on the tape of Zakreski for a backdoor tap-in.
“I couldn’t see the puck, but (Jugnauth) passed it, and my stick was in the right place and time,” Zakreski said postgame via a phone call.
A common theme in the 1st period was the Winterhawks forcing the Royals into turnovers in their own zone. After a faceoff loss, Portland was able to win the puck back and get it to the front of 20-year-old Braden Holt’s crease. The rebound went right to Zakreski, who was able to bank it in off the Bozeman, Montana native’s right pad.
“It was a good puck rim by (Carter) Sotheran, then (Kyle) Chyzowski got it, and it crawled up the wall, and he passed it out front blindly. I was again in the right place and the right time there. I banked it off (Holt’s) pad, and it went in, which was really lucky. I’m glad I was able to score two tonight,” Zakreski said.
Zakreski mentioned how he felt his game had leveled off a little bit earlier in the series but was proud of how his line played in Game 4.
“Our line really helped contribute to the game tonight; that was really key for us. We need our line going, and when we get into round 2, our line needs to be buzzing,” he said.
Following the goal, James Patrick, Victoria’s head coach, elected to use his only timeout to try to calm down his team.
Courtesy of the Victoria Royals sending post-game audio, Patrick said, “I just felt we had so little time and space getting pucks in deep. The start of the game, they came at us, and after the first ten minutes, we were on our heels. (Portland) is a good team and skates so well. They have the most mobile defense in the league, and they stretch the ice out. It just forced us into a lot of turnovers. As the game went on, we spent a lot of time in our zone and not much in their zone.”
The decision paid dividends as the Royals battled back and earned a pair of back-to-back power plays.
Three seconds after killing off a James Stefan slashing penalty, Luca Cagnoni received a minor for cross-checking.
Justin Kipkie took a no-look, backhand pass from former Winterhawk forward Dawson Pasternak and moved it quickly over to Cole Reschny. The 16-year-old star, taken with the third overall selection in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft, elected to fire a wrist shot to the blocker side of Portland’s Jan Špunar. The Czechia netminder got a piece of the shot, but not enough as he battled a screen from Tyson Laventure.
The goal was Reschny’s first career playoff marker after putting up a remarkable 21 goals and 38 assists in his first full season in the WHL.
After 20 minutes, Portland held a 19-7 shot advantage.
During the middle frame, it was more of the same for the Winterhawks as they outshot the Royals by nine.
As play moved along in the second period, Victoria started to spend a little more time in the offensive zone, including once against the top line for Portland. Kipkie had a solid 2nd period after registering an assist in the 1st. A draft selection of the Arizona Coyotes, the best chance for the 7th-seeded Royals came when his point shot got through traffic and hit the post.
Later in the period, Mike Johnston, Portland’s president, general manager, and head coach switched up his forward lines and had Josh Davies on a line with Danielson and Marcus Nguyen instead of Jack O’Brien.
Following two shots by the always-steady Ryder Thompson that were gloved down by Holt, his third attempt was deflected in by Davies, who had parked himself 5-10 feet beyond the crease.
Davies’ third goal of his first postseason restored the Portland two-goal lead heading into the 2nd intermission.
The Royals entered the final frame with 1:48 of power-play time to work with, but the Winterhawks penalty killers were able to get the job done.
“That was the most crucial part of the game,” Zakreski said of the penalty kill to start the 3rd. “When we killed that off, we knew that we had the momentum going. Our line went out there and managed to score, which ultimately killed any kind of energy they had going into the period and the rest of the game.”
Feeding off the momentum of their second successful penalty kill, Portland was right back on the attack with its third line.
Kyle Chyzowski got to the front of the net, won a battle, and was rewarded with his first goal of the series on a backhanded shot from the blue paint. Zakreski was given credit for the secondary assist for his third point of the evening, concluding the scoring.
“I thought (the third line) was our best line in the last three weeks of the regular season, to be honest,” Johnston said over the phone on Wednesday night. “Then, they haven’t been very good to start the playoffs. We really needed them to be good tonight because Stefan can only score so much. We needed our depth to come through, and they did tonight.”
As the third period progressed, Portland’s veteran group showcased their poise in closing out a game by only allowing nine shots in the final 20 minutes, while Victoria pushed to get back into the game.
When the final horn sounded, and a hard-fought series came to an end, the Winterhawks celebrated in their zone with Špunar while the Royals gave hugs to Pasternak, Laventure, and Holt, who all played their final WHL game.
Johnston felt the difference in the series was timely goal scoring, saying, “The first half of Game 1 and the first half of Game 3 were big moments in the series. I thought we weren’t as good, but then the other parts of the games, we just had guys who could make big plays in big moments. The timely goals from big-game players like Cagnoni to (Gabe) Klassen last night, along with Stefan’s (hat trick). I really liked what we were doing in those situations.”
Portland is off to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs, but its opponent is still to be determined, so there will be several days between games.
“As the series with Victoria was a 2-3-2 format, we knew coming in here it would be a big advantage if we could finish the series in four. We didn’t want to drag it into another game, and then you never know what can happen,” Johnston said.
Zakreski said he and his teammates are going to celebrate the series win. “We need to enjoy it right now. It was a big, big win, and good to sweep them so we can enjoy it for the next couple of days off. When it is time to get back to the rink and have to get locked in again and get prepared for round 2, we will. This is just the beginning, though. We’ve been here before, as we won round 1 last year. The big challenge is round 2 as the last couple of years we haven’t been able to make it past that mark. That is where we are looking and what the task ahead is for us right now.”
The Royals only had a select number of players with playoff experience, so despite the series loss, the four games will pay dividends down the road.
“I think you learn from a team like (Portland) with how hard they are on pucks,” Patrick said. “They definitely play the right way and are quick in transition, but their skilled, fast forwards are very heavy on pucks. They battle, their stick battles, and their two-handed stick battles is impressive. Those are things we can learn from.”
Since the WHL reseeds after the first round based on regular reason points and does not utilize a bracket format, the Winterhawks will need to wait a little longer.
The Everett Silvertips are currently leading their series with the Vancouver Giants 2-1. If they win the series, they will be the opponent. If the Giants get the upset, Portland will face the winner of the Kelowna Rockets and Wenatchee Wild series, which the Rockets lead 3-1.
In the meantime, the Winterhawks will depart Victoria via ferry on Thursday and make their way back to the Rose City.
“We are fortunate to have some time now, so we can rest some guys who are banged up a little bit. We will then get some quality practice time and get ready for what’s next,” Johnston concluded.
