The Hawks’ Nest

We’re taking one last look at the 2009-10 season before tomorrow’s bantam draft serves as the unofficial start to the 2010-11 season (at least for most of the WHL, as the playoffs are ongoing). To put a bow on the season I’m looking back at the team’s top-five wins of the season. Today I look at what I consider the best win of the season. For #2 click here, for #3 go here, for #4 and #5 click here, and for the honorable mentions, follow this link.

On to the winner:

#1: March 31: 5-4 win in Game 7 @ Spokane. When the Winterhawks lost Game 6 of their first round series against Spokane to force a Game 7, a few co-workers and I kicked around the idea of driving up to Spokane to watch the game. Ultimately, the prospect of a long overnight drive back nixed that idea, and when it was announced it would be televised, that sealed it.

That night, when Spokane went up 3-0 3:31 into the second period, the decision seemed sound.

How wrong I was.

Because the Winterhawks just needed some time to get warmed up.

Just under four minutes after the Chiefs took their 3-0 lead in the second period, the Hawks got on the board on a goal by Nino Niederreiter. Ten minutes after that, Ryan Johansen made it a one-goal game heading into the third period.

But that momentum seemed short-lived when Kyle Beach, who’d terrorized Portland throughout the series, scored 6:50 into the third to make it 4-2 for Spokane. Overcoming a two-goal deficit with 13 minutes to go is a tall order, but the Hawks were game.

From that point on they carried the play, outshooting Spokane 14-6 in the third period. They put Spokane on their heels and wouldn’t let up. They cut the deficit to one when Riley Boychuk scored in a goalmouth scramble three minutes after Beach’s goal to make it 4-3. Then incredibly, they tied the game four minutes after that on another scramble, with Luke Walker finding the back of the net.

Having overcome deficits of 3-0 and 4-2, momentum was clearly on Portland’s side heading into overtime.

In the extra frame, the Hawks kept up the pressure, outshooting Spokane 12-5. Finally, with under three minutes to go in OT, Taylor Aronson collected the puck and brought it through the neutral zone. Rather than dump it in and go off for a line change, he recognized that the Chiefs players had been out on the ice on a long shift and were getting tired. Aronson skated by one defender in the neutral zone who waved at him with his stick, and drew two Chiefs with him beneath the goal line. Finally, he spotted Ty Rattie, who’d snuck into the slot untouched. Aronson put a perfect pass on Rattie’s stick, and Rattie fired it past Spokane netminder James Reid.

A Game 7 overtime winner. You can’t beat that.

We’re taking one last look at the 2009-10 season before Thursday’s bantam draft serves as the unofficial start to the 2010-11 season (at least for most of the WHL, as the playoffs are ongoing). To put a bow on the season I’m looking back at the team’s top-five wins of the season. Today I look at #2. For #3 go here, for #4 and #5 click here, and for the honorable mentions, follow this link.

#2: November 7: 4-3 win vs. Seattle. 2.9 seconds isn’t a long time. It’s enough time to realize Jersey Shore is awful, but that’s about it. But on November 7 against Seattle 2.9 seconds was just enough time to pull off a miracle.

The Winterhawks were hosting the Seattle Thunderbirds in front of a raucous Rose Garden crowd on Dash For Cash night. The T-Birds had a 3-1 lead heading into the third period with Calvin Pickard standing on his head in net. Chris Francis scored his second of the night 7:18 into the period to make it 3-2, but Pickard kept turning away the Hawks.

Seattle was hanging on by their fingernails as Portland kept applying pressure trying to get the tying goal. Finally, with 2.9 seconds left, the teams lined up for a faceoff in the Seattle zone, with Spencer Bennett taking the draw for the Hawks. The linesman dropped the puck, and Bennett and Seattle center Lindsay Nielsen tied each other up. The puck eventually bounced off Nielsen’s skate onto the stick of Chris Francis. And from there, well, check out the video.

Francis fired a seeing-eye shot that found its way through a forest of players and past Pickard just before time expired to tie the game at 3-3 and force overtime, while also giving him his first career hat trick.

The extra frame didn’t settle anything, so the game went to a shootout. Seattle went up 1-0 after the first round, and Jacob Berglund took the puck for Portland in the second round. He came down the ice and faked Pickard into the third row and put it past him to make it 1-1. Sena Acolatse missed his second round attempt, keeping the tie intact in the final round.

Naturally, with the game on the line, it came down to Francis to play hero once more. He took Pickard one direction, forced the goaltender to commit, then reached around and slid the puck past Pickard on his right.

Chris Francis scores the game-winner in the shootout.

When Kurtis Mucha stopped Charles Wells on Seattle’s last attempt, the team and the crowd went crazy.

When Chris Francis looks back on his WHL career, this promises to be one night he’ll never forget: a hat trick, the game-tying goal off a faceoff with under a second to go, and the shootout winner. Not bad for a night’s work.

We’re taking one last look at the 2009-10 season before next week’s bantam draft serves as the unofficial start to the 2010-11 season (at least for most of the WHL, as the playoffs are ongoing). To put a bow on the season I’m looking back at the team’s top-five wins of the season. Today I look at #3. For #4 and #5 click here, and for the honorable mentions, follow this link.

#3: December 4: 5-3 win vs. Everett. There were a lot outstanding individual performances by Winterhawks players this season, but there was likely no greater game by an entire line than the virtuoso performance put on by the Ryan Johansen-Nino Niederreiter-Brad Ross trio in the third period of Portland’s 5-3 win over Everett on December 4.

The Winterhawks scored four third period goals to get the win, with the scoring lines on the goals looking like this:

Niederreiter-Ross-Johansen

Ross-Niederreiter-Johansen

Eric Doyle-Ross-Johansen

Johansen-Niederreiter-Mac Carruth

That line was in on every goal in the final frame, and totaled 10 points. Again, this was in just the third period. It also bears mentioning that as Portland was scoring four goals in the third period, Everett managed just five shots. Oh, and the Hawks didn’t take a single penalty while the Silvertips took three.

But getting back to the Johansen-Nino-Ross line, their third period heroics were a salvo to the rest of the league, and kickstarted an incredible run for all three players: Ross had 20 points in December and was named the league’s Player of the Month, while Johansen was right behind him with 18 points. Nino, meanwhile, had 11 points in seven games before taking off to represent Switzerland at the world juniors, and we all know how he did there.

All three players had been having good seasons to that point, but that night they elevated their game to a new level.

We’re taking one last look at the 2009-10 season before next week’s bantam draft serves as the unofficial start to the 2010-11 season (at least for most of the WHL, as the playoffs are ongoing). To put a bow on the season I’m looking back at the team’s top-five wins of the season, starting today with #5 and #4. Check back next week for the top three.

Drumroll please…

#5: April 7: 3-2 win @ Vancouver in Game 3. After knocking off Spokane in the first round, the Winterhawks held home ice advantage against the Vancouver Giants in the Western Conference semifinals. However, it’s fair to say things didn’t go quite as planned in the opening two games of the series, as the Giants combined for 16 goals and 99 shots in Games 1 and 2 to grab a 2-0 lead heading back to the Pacific Coliseum.

The Giants’ top line had been particularly dominant in those matchups, as Craig Cunningham, Brendan Gallagher and Lance Bouma combined for an amazing 17 points in the two games. But any ideas the Giants or their fans might have had about an easy series went out the window in Game 3.

The Winterhawks turned in an incredible defensive performance in that Game 3, beginning in the first period by doing something they hadn’t done in the first two games: keep Vancouver off the scoresheet. After the Giants had scored goals in all six periods of Games 1 and 2, the Winterhawks kept the Giants scoreless after one, and held the lead after an early power play goal by Spencer Bennett.

It was a sign of things to come in the game, as after their repeated strikes earlier in the series, the Cunningham-Gallagher-Bouma line was held without a single point in the game. Just as important, the Winterhawks limited Vancouver’s shots, as the Giants had just 31 for the game.

Portland finished with a 3-2 win to get on the board, and would take two of three games at the Pacific Coliseum to get back into the series.

#4: September 19: 5-0 win @ Seattle. It’s hard to believe that after three straight losing seasons, the Winterhawks actually came into the season with high expectations. They boasted a cast of highly-touted new faces, young players with a year of experience under their belts, and were coming off a dominating 5-1 preseason.

It could have led to an early letdown, but instead the Winterhawks opened the 2009-10 season with a statement game in Seattle, earning a 5-0 win. While the Winterhawks earned a convincing victory, no one could have predicted it would set the tone for a season series in which Portland would go an astonishing 12-0 against their I-5 rivals, as the Hawks ascended to the upper echelon of the conference while the young Thunderbirds would struggle throughout the season.

There was any number of storylines at play in this game, beginning with newly-minted starter Ian Curtis getting his first career WHL shutout. The Hawks also showed their newfound defensive prowess, holding the T-Birds to just three first period shots and 24 for the game.

The season-opener also served as a coming-out party for Nino Niederreiter. In his first career game the Swiss star announced his arrival by tallying three points with a goal and two assists. Defenseman Troy Rutkowski also had three points, and the Chris Francis-Luke Walker duo kept last year’s chemistry rolling with a goal as well.

The 2009-10 season was a storybook one, and it all got started on this night.

As mentioned yesterday, I’ve started an offseason gimmick ranking the top wins of the season, an idea stolen from a team that shall not be named. I thought I’d have a top-five and a couple of honorable mentions, but in looking at the schedule there were so many big wins I ended up with 12 (!) honorable mentions.

As such, I split them out and will begin the top 5 tomorrow. In the meantime, here are the runner-ups, in chronological order:

-October 23: 5-1 win @ Kootenay. This win capped a 4-2 Eastern road swing, a trip that Mike Johnston would later say was a big turning point as a confidence booster for the young Hawks.

-October 27: 5-4 win vs. Brandon in a shootout. In their first game back after the long road trip, the Hawks built a big lead against one of the league’s elite teams, allowed them to tie it, but showed resiliency by prevailing in a shootout. Another big step for the team.

-November 28: 5-3 win vs. Seattle. Teddy Bear Toss night, and Spencer Bennett took care of the honors just 2:52 into the game, triggering 16,321 bears onto the Rose Garden ice.

-December 29: 4-3 win vs. Spokane. It was the night of the infamous surprise snowstorm that gripped Portland, forcing a delay of nearly two hours as players, referees and fans all struggled to get to the arena. A memorable night (for better or for worse) for everyone involved.

-December 31: 6-0 win vs. Seattle. Not just a 6-0 win over Seattle in front of a packed house, but also the culmination of Brad Ross’s incredible December. He had three points on the night and finished with 20 points in 11 games in the month, an amazing run that earned him the league’s Player of the Month honors.

-January 24: 3-1 win vs. Vancouver. Although he posted three shutouts this season, Ian Curtis had perhaps his best game as a Winterhawk on this night, stopping 51 of 52 Vancouver shots as the Winterhawks downed the Giants.

-February 6: 6-3 win @ Seattle. The Hawks showed their depth on this night by getting six goals from six different scorers, with 15 players getting points.

–February 10: 5-3 win vs. Tri-Cities. Portland clinched their first playoff berth in four years with this win, which also snapped a six-game losing streak to the Americans, who’d stymied Portland all season to that point. Another balanced effort with five different goal scorers and nine players accounting for 10 points.

-February 28: 3-2 win vs. Prince George: With Winterhawks alumnus and NHL Hall of Famer Cam Neely looking on, Ian Curtis again made 50+ saves, allowing the Hawks to escape with a victory. Nearly made the top-5 as it was the same day Canada beat the U.S. in overtime to win Olympic gold.

-March 9: 3-0 win vs. Everett. Mac Carruth likely earned his status as playoff starter with his first career shutout against an Everett team that had been dominant through the second half of the season.

-March 13: 3-1 win @ Seattle. A double whammy on this night as it was not only the final regular season game of an unforgettable season, but gave the Hawks a perfect 12-0 record against their archrivals this season.

-March 27: 4-3 win @ Spokane in Game 5. After dropping the first two games at home, the Hawks rebounded with three in a row in Spokane, to grab hold of the series. They built a big lead in this one, and withstood a furious Spokane rally to give them the edge coming home for Game 6. There stands a decent chance a later game from this series will land in the top five.

It’s been a week since the season ended in heartbreaking fashion with the team’s Game 6 loss to Vancouver. Since then the coaches have held their exit interviews with the players, who have now dispersed for the summer, and we’ve moved our offices around in the Coliseum.

On the personal front (since I know you’re all wondering) I’ve made a trip to Vancouver for a few days, have lost sleep at night cursing the Canucks’ impotent penalty kill, and spent more time than I’d care to admit wishing the Mariners hadn’t brought back washed-up team mascot beloved legend Ken Griffey Jr. for another farewell tour.

Also in that time, my blog readership has plummeted. As such, it’s time for a gimmick to boost the readership numbers! And not even an original one! Another WHL team who shall not be named is currently running an article on their website listing their top victories of the season. I liked the idea, so I’m stealing it.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll count down the top-5 Winterhawks’ victories of the 2009-10 season. Where will the team’s 6-5 win over Prince George in the preseason rank? There’s only one way to find out.

Check back tomorrow for the start of the countdown with #5.

Update: In going through the various wins this season, I was expecting a top-five with 3-4 honorable mentions. Instead I came up with 12 honorable mentions. Between the top-five and now 12 honorable mentions, that will account for 17 of the team’s 50 combined regular season/playoff wins. But I stand by my list.

So the honorable mentions will be tomorrow, and the top-five will start Thursday instead.