Portland Winterhawks
This week: vs. Seattle, 7 p.m. Saturday (Moda Center); vs. Spokane, 7 p.m. Wednesday (Moda Center); at Kelowna, 7 p.m. Oct. 4 and Oct. 5.
Last week: Beat Prince George 9-2, lost at Seattle 4-3 (SO), lost to Tri-City 6-2.
Where they stand: With a win, a loss and one shootout loss, the Winterhawks are third in the U.S. Division with three points. Spokane (3-0) leads the division.
Injury update: Forward Paul Bittner suffered a broken finger in the season opener and is expected to miss four to six weeks. Centers Shane McColgan and Dominic Turgeon are about two weeks away from being recovered from preseason injuries.
Roster update: Defenseman Derrick Pouliot (Pittsburgh) is the only Winterhawks player still at a NHL training camp. Brendan Leipsic returned this week and played in Tuesday’s loss to Tri-City. … Portland traded 19-year-old forward Joe Mahon to his hometown of Calgary this week for two future bantam draft picks.
Shared scoring: Through three games, 10 Winterhawks have goals and 13 players have assists. Last seasons second line of Chase De Leo (3 goals, 1 assist), Oliver Bjorkstrand (2 goals, 5 assists) and Taylor Leier (1, goal, 4 assists) is back together. WHL scoring champions Nic Petan and Brendan Leipsic are back together. Keegan Iverson was with that top line on Tuesday.
Defensive learning curve: With new defensive pairings come growing pains. Head coach Mike Johnston said that is part of the reason Seattle and Tri-City put a combined 81 shots on goal in the last two games.
“We have to reduce our shots against,” Johnston said.
Fort Vancouver Vipers
This week: at West Sound (Bremerton) 7:35 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Home opener: Tri-Cities Outlaws at Vancouver, 7:35 p.m. on Oct. 5 at Mountain View Ice Arena.
