Portland Winterhawks at Everett Silvertips: Preview, updates, chat, how to listen and watch

What: The Portland Winterhawks (2-0) take on the Everett Silvertips (0-1) in Western Hockey League action.

When: Saturday, September 28, 6pm PDT.

Where: Angel of the Winds Arena, Everett, Washington.

You can stream the game via the CHL TV pay per view (about US$7.50 for one game).

Listen: Winterhawks and Silvertips audio.

Follow:

The box score.

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

Portland Winterhawks For the Portland Winterhawks it goes from Preseason-plus to The Revenge Tour. Portland took advantage of the weekend with many of the league's best players away at pro camps, winning in Kamloops and then Kelowna. Kamloops had injuries as well as missing their players (as well as being the league's worst team last season). But they really took advantage of Kelowna, as they went from heavy underdogs to 50-50 with the Rockets' best players gone. They prevailed in both games through opportunistic offense (a 2nd-best in the league .159 shooting percentage) and the goaltending of rookie Ondrej Štěbeták.

Now, their NHL-drafted defensemen, Tyson Jugnauth and Carter Sotheran, as well as forward Josh Zakreski, have returned from camps, and Portland is at full strength. None of the three played any of the preseason games, either. The Winterhawks have been outshot in all four preseason games and the first two regular season games, where their game plan historically is to overwhelm the opposition in shots. It isn't a big surprise that didn't happen without Jugnauth and Sotheran. Now we'll see if they can outshoot the opposition with them back.

With everyone back it's now The Revenge Tour. Portland's next five games are against the teams they beat in last season's playoffs: Everett, whom they swept in the 2nd round; the Victoria Royals, whom they swept in the 1st round, in next week's home opener; and then three games against the Prince George Cougars, whom they beat in 6 games in the Western Conference Finals.

Zakreski adds last season's 49 points in 68 games to Portland's offense. He comes back after scoring in the last three games of last year's regular season. Chyzowski has a 5-game regular season point streak including last season.

Jugnauth had 41 points in 41 games after being acquired mid-season. Sotheran had 40 in 66. With them back, Portland can finally organize their power play, after running with a makeshift unit last weekend.

A very good first two games for Štěbeták against two offensively-challenged lineups. This will be a better test.

Everett Silvertips After finishing 3rd in the conference last season, winning a playoff round, and then getting swept by Portland in round 2, the Everett Silvertips are looking to contend. Their biggest strength is their defense, with three NHL-drafted defensemen, and, of course, the 15-year-old 1st overall draft pick and exceptional status player, Landon DuPont. Their offense looks solid, led by imports Julius Miettinen and Dominik Rymon. They have to figure out goaltending.

They have a new coach, Steve Hamilton, formerly of the Oil Kings and Hitmen, after Dennis Williams moved to the NCAA.

Still missing players, they lost their one game last weekend, 4-3 to the Vancouver Giants, despite outshooting them 40-25. They were second only to Portland last season in outshooting opponents, so that's their game. Everyone is back this weekend.

Rymon had 81 points in 57 games last season; Miettinen (Kraken 2nd-round pick) had 67 in 66. Bear and Heslop were just a few points short of a point per game.

Maze and Wilke are 1st-round picks. Maze had a decent 16-year-old season and had 2 points in the opener.

DuPont in his first game had an assist, was +2, and led defensemen in shots. He'll get help with the return of Smith (3rd-round pick of the Ducks), Hammell (5th-round pick of the Kraken), and Jamieson (6th-round pick of the Flames). They also have Liske, last season's 1st-round pick.

After Tyler Palmer graduated, they acquired Sanche from Kamloops, where he took his lumps behind a last-place team as the backup. He didn't have a great first game. During the week they picked up Garrett, Calgary's backup last season under Hamilton. They'll need a lot of improvement here to contend.

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