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

What: The Portland Winterhawks (14-1-1-1) take on the Everett Silvertips (12-6) in Western Hockey League action.

When: Friday, November 18, 7pm.

Where: Memorial Coliseum.

Watch: You can stream the game via the CHL TV pay per view (US$6.10 for one game).

Listen: Winterhawks and Silvertips audio.

Follow:

• The box score.
• Get updates and chat before, during, and after the game.

The Winterhawks are coming off an impressive 4-1 win over the Calgary Hitmen. Portland’s offense put up 4 goals in a team that was 2nd-best in preventing goals. Kyle Chyzowski led the way with 2 goals, and Dante Giannuzzi stopped 33 of 34 shots. And they didn’t require an out-of-this-world power play to get the job done.

Now they play the Everett Silvertips as part of a 12-day stretch where they play the top three other teams in the conference 5 times. They have a rematch against the Silvertips next Wednesday.

An 0-for-3 power play dropped the Winterhawks all the way down to 36.4%, still 9.2 percentage points above 2nd place. The difference between the Winterhawks and 2nd is still greater than the difference between 2nd and 17th. And Portland has outshot their opponents in all 17 games this season. Everett is good at that, too, so this may be in some jeopardy.

Point streaks: Litke 6, Chyzowski 6, O’Brien 6, Fromm-Delorme 4. O’Brien continues to have an underrated season.

Leading forwards: Fromm-Delorme (27 points/17 games), Klassen (20/13), Stefan (19/15), O’Brien (18/17), Chyzowski (17/17).

Leading defensemen: Cagnoni (17/17), McCleary (10/15), Sotheran (10/17).

After a rough start, Giannuzzi has a .950 or above save percentage in 3 of his last 4 games.

Save percentages: Giannuzzi .892, Špunar .878.

The Silvertips gave up 4 goals in the 3rd period Sunday to lose at home to the Hitmen. That snapped a 4-game winning streak, all on the road, 3 of them on their Eastern trip in which they went 4-2. That streak recovered them from a 1-3 stretch where they were outscored 14-24, including an 11-3 loss to Seattle which has fiddled with some of their numbers. They have a rematch with the Thunderbirds in Kent on Saturday, so this is a tough weekend.

Even without that Seattle game, they’ve put up average at best numbers in preventing goals. Their .868 goalie save percentage as a team is currently the worst in the league, which is stunning if you know their history of goalies. It’s hurt them in the 3rd period. Their record after each of the 1st and 2nd periods is actually better than Portland’s, but they’ve lost all their ground in the 3rd.

They’ve also been hit with injuries lately, to the point where they have 28 players on the roster. Top veteran Jackson Berezowski has missed 3 straight, defensemen Aidan Sutter and Dexter Whittle have each missed 2 straight, and import pick Dominik Rymon has missed 7 straight. Defenseman Ty Gibson hasn’t missed any games, but is listed as having an injury. The good news is that all those injuries are listed as day-to-day so they might get some of them back for a difficult weekend.

A huge start to the season for Roest, who is 2 points away from his career high in about 40 fewer games.

Hemmerling and Hofer are both 6th-round NHL picks, Hemmerling of the Knights, Hofer of the Caps.

Maze is their 1st-round bantam pick.

Leading forwards: Roest (30/18), Berezowski (21/15), Hofer (19/17), Hemmerling (17/17), Heslop (14/16).

Zellweger for the season is -4; his numbers are probably hurt by the goaltending struggles. You’d still consider the 2nd-round NHL pick (Ducks) to be their best player. It could be carnage depending on who they get back from injury.

Leading defensemen: Zellweger (19/15), Sutter (11/15), Gibson (6/18).

Metzger, import goalie from Switzerland, is C-rated by Central Scouting, but that hasn’t shown up in his play yet. Holt could get both games or either Friday or Saturday.

Save percentages: Holt .878, Metzger .833.

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