Calgary Hitmen at Portland Winterhawks: Preview, updates, chat, how to listen and watch

What: The Portland Winterhawks (8-7-2) take on the Calgary Hitmen (7-7-3-1) in Western Hockey League action.

When: Wednesday, November 13, 7pm PST.

Where: Memorial Coliseum.

For tonight only, you can stream the game via the WHL's YouTube channel or CHL TV (with registration).

Listen: Winterhawks and Hitmen audio.

Follow:

The box score.

Get updates and chat before, during, and after the game.

Portland Winterhawks The Portland Winterhawks return home after turning things around with two straight road wins. They beat the Wenatchee Wild 6-3 on Saturday behind 4 points from Kyle Chyzowski, goal+assist games from Josh Zakreski, Kyle McDonough, and Tyson Jugnauth, and a 37-out-of-40 performance from Ondrej Štěbeták. They went 2 for 3 on the power play and scored a shorthanded goal.

The two wins were against teams out of the playoffs, so it remains to be seen whether their game can hold up against good or middle-of-the-pack teams. The Calgary Hitmen are, like Portland, 8th in their conference, so it will be a good test. The Winterhawks would like a win to put some distance between them and the teams immediately below them in the standings, the Seattle Thunderbirds and the Kelowna Rockets. At best they'll have to settle for distance with one of them, as Seattle and Kelowna play each other Wednesday.

Zakreski has a 4-game point streak, with 3 goals and 3 assists.

Miller missed Saturday's game with an upper-body injury; he's listed as day-to-day.

With two more power play points, Jugnauth continues his league lead in power play points with 14. Ryder Thompson leads the team in even-strength points with 4.

Three straight good games for Portland goalies, after a really rough stretch.

If it's Štěbeták, it will be strong evidence that Portland again considers him to be their unquestioned number one.

Calgary Hitmen The Calgary Hitmen lost a 2-goal lead and then a late 1-goal lead, and then lost in overtime 6-5 to the Tri-City Americans. They've played 3 games on their trip to the US, going 1-1-1 against Seattle, Everett, and Tri-City.

They missed the playoffs last season, and in the last nine seasons have won one playoff series and haven't finished higher than 3rd in their division. Late in 2023 they hired Garry Davidson, who gets a good credit for building the Winterhawks championship teams of the mid-2010s, as GM. So it's a good bet they'll be on the way up.

They're a team with some talent. They have four NHL draft picks, including 7th-overall Senators draft pick Carter Yakemchuk. They also have 5 players rated by Central Scouting. They're one of the top teams in the league at outshooting their opponents, but they've lost more than they've won because their shooting and save percentages are bottom-5 in the league.

Kindel is a Central Scouting B-rated player, and he has a 3-game point streak. Their other rated forwards are Gorzynski (C), Mayes (W), and Svancara (W), who hasn't played a game and is out indefinitely with an upper body injury.

Wetsch is a 3rd round pick of the Sharks. Hvidston was a 5th round pick of Ducks although he didn't sign and is a free agent.

Yakemchuk has 10 points on the power play.

Hurtig is a 7th round pick of the Flames. Hamilton is B-rated by Central Scouting.

You won't see this often: the only goalie with any WHL experience is a 16-year-old. They released 20-year-old goalie Ethan Buenaventura and Tu has played every minute of the last 6 games. And they haven't filled the 20-year-old spot. Tu wearing down has to be a concern, and it surely will be a concern by the last game of the road trip on Saturday. Maybe Garry Davidson is the original source of Portland's "goalies don't get tired" philosophy?

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