What: In Western Hockey League action, Portland (17-12-2) plays at Spokane (22-10).
When: 7 p.m. PST on Tuesday, December 17.
Memorial Coliseum is the location.
Watch: The game is available to stream on the CLH TV pay-per-view service, which costs roughly US$7.50 each game.
Check out Portland and Spokane audio.
Do the following:
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The box score.
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Get updates and chat before, during, and after the game.
Portland
Portland’s final game before Christmas break wraps up a strong first half. Even though they didn’t play their best in the latter two periods against Seattle on Saturday, they still won 5-2. They’ve won three in a row. They were 6-7-2 when they fell in Spokane on November 1st, and their underlying statistics indicated they weren’t performing all that well. Their underlying numbers have significantly improved since then, and they are currently 11-5. They are essentially at the very high end of their season predictions with 17 victories in 31 games.
[Later revisions may be made to the statistics]
| Forwards | (Career games – season points/games) |
|---|---|
| 20 | 19-Kyle Chyzowski (276 – 45/31) |
| 19 |
8-Braeden Jockims (75 – 1/30) 15-Joel Plante (2 – 1/2) 28-Josh Zakreski (207 – 33/29) 39-Tyson Yaremko (108 – 24/31) 88-Alex Weiermair (5 – 6/5) |
| 18 |
17-Carsyn Dyck (34 – 13/31) 29-Hudson Darby (97 – 10/24) 61-Brodie Hankel (21 – 0/21) |
| 17 |
18-Kyle McDonough (90 – 18/27) 23-Ryan Miller (81 – 12/17) 37-David Hoy (25 – 3/25) |
| 16 |
9-Jordan Duguay (31 – 14/31) 11-Owen Chapman (3 – 0/3) 72-Reed Brown (31 – 8/31) |
Buttazzoni leads the forwards with four goals and five assists during a six-game point streak.
Weiermair, Yaremko, and Zakreski are all on three-game streaks.
Chyzowski leads the forwards in power play points and is tied for ninth place in scoring.
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 20 |
27-Tyson Jugnauth (88 – 40/29) 43-Ryder Thompson (265 – 13/31) |
| 19 | 59-Carter Sotheran (186 – 15/29) |
| 18 | 12-Cole Slobodian (36 – 2/31) |
| 17 | 7-Kayd Ruedig (32 – 9/30) |
| 16 |
22-Griffin Darby (27 – 3/27) 93-Aaron Zulinick (3 – 1/3) |
Jugnauth’s impressive run is still going strong; he has 14 assists and 6 points in a row. He is now the leading scorer among defenseman and leads all players in power play points. However, none of his five assists from last week came on a power play.
| Goalies | (Career games – season save%/games) |
|---|---|
| 18 | 74-Marek Schlenker (14 – .897/14) |
| 17 | 1-Ondrej t bet k (20 – .896/20) |
Portland s goalie tandem is collectively on a good run. They ve pulled Portland from the lower rankings up to average in save percentage.
Spokane
Spokane s 10-game winning streak was snapped at home Saturday against Prince George. Prince George was coming overnight from Portland, Spokane was coming overnight from Seattle, so neither team was at full energy and it turned out to be a low scoring 3-1 game.
They are of course missing Kraken 1st-rounder, team captain, and best player Berkly Catton, playing for Team Canada at the World Juniors. He had 7 points in 3 games against Portland so far, so Portland won t be missing him.
Spokane s power play and penalty kill percentage are both better than Portland s, but Portland s goal difference on special teams is a league-best +23, while Spokane s is +10. Portland draws a lot more power plays, but more importantly, Spokane has given up 9 shorthanded goals to Portland s 1.
The 6-game season series had the first 3 games in Spokane, in which Spokane won them all; this game starts the stretch of the final 3 games in Portland.
| Forwards | |
|---|---|
| 20 |
13-Rasmus Ekstr m (67 – 26/29) |
| 19 |
12-Matthew Edwards (112 – 1/15) 55-Sam Oremba (263 – 17/29) |
| 18 |
8-Coco Armstrong (59 – 3/13) 16-Smyth Rebman (138 – 22/31) 27-Berkly Catton (176 – 47/28) 28-Asanali Sarkenov (21 – 15/21) 37-Cameron Parr (141 – 5/30) |
| 17 |
10-Dane Pyatt (1 – 1/1) 21-Owen Martin (78 – 13/19) 22-Hayden Paupanekis (98 – 19/32) 26-Chase Harrington (100 – 23/32) |
| 16 |
11-Cohen Harris (27 – 6/27) 17-Brody Gillespie (31 – 3/28) 96-Mathis Preston (34 – 21/26) |
Van Olm has 1 assist in 2 games with Catton gone in the last week, and 2 assists in 4 games total without Catton for the season. Van Olm is their only point per game player left without Catton. Ekstr m was over a point per game, but he s had a 4-game scoreless streak.
Rebman is the only Spokane player with a point streak of note; it s at 3 games.
| Defensemen | |
|---|---|
| 20 | 3-Brayden Crampton (219 – 29/32) |
| 19 | 44-Saige Weinstein (221 – 8/29) |
| 18 |
5-Nathan Mayes (98 – 9/20) 18-Will McIsaac (172 – 8/30) |
| 17 | 7-Owen Schoettler (101 – 12/32) |
| 16 |
6-Kaden Allan (25 – 3/23) 47-Rhett Sather (25 – 3/25) |
They still have a good defense on paper with Crampton; Weinstein, who s having a slightly down year on offense; and NHL draft picks Mayes and McIsaac.
| Goalies | |
|---|---|
| 19 | 73-Dawson Cowan (104 – .904/25) |
| 16 | 30-Carter Esler (7 – .888/7) |
Esler is listed a 5-foot-9-and-a-half, unheard of for a goalie these days.
In 3 games against Portland Cowan has stopped 73 of 80, a .912 save percentage.
Tale of the tape
| Portland | Spokane | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record | 17-12-2 (.581) | 22-10 (.688) | .550 |
| Goals/game | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| Goals allowed/game | 3.9 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| Team shooting % | .113 | .110 | .111 |
| Team save % | .889 | .897 | .889 |
| Power play | 28.1% | 28.6% | 22.8% |
| Penalty kill | 81.5% | 83.2% | 77.2% |
| Power plays for/game | 4.4 | 3.7 | 3.8 |
| Power plays against/game | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.8 |
| Outshooting opponents | 11-19-1 | 20-10-2 | 15-15-1 |
| After 1 period | 9-12-10 | 12-9-11 | 11-11-9 |
| After 2 periods | 11-15-5 | 19-8-5 | 12-12-6 |
| Score, last 10 games | 43-37 (+6) | 44-22 (+22) | 36-35 |
| Score, last 20 games | 78-74 (+4) | 79-63 (+16) | 73-74 |
| Total WHL games | 1935 | 2571 | 2451 |
| WHL drafted top 60 | 7 | 12 | 10 |
| NHL drafted | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| NHL drafted top 80 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Players 6 2 or over | 4 | 7 | 8 |
| Players 5 10 or under | 10 | 6 | 6 |
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