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

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

When: Wednesday, November 23, 7pm.

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

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 have been flying with 8 straight wins and a 7 point lead at the top of their conference. But they’ve now been hit by the injury bug. Kyle Chyzowski and Luke Schelter this weekend joined Diego Buttazzoni with week-to-week injuries. That put the Winterhawks down to 10 healthy forwards. To pick up the slack they’ve called up 16-year-olds Cole Cairns and Hudson Darby. They’ll get thrown into it with 3 road games in 5 days, in Everett, Seattle, and Vancouver.

The good news is that goalie Dante Giannuzzi has been on a good run, culminating in him being named WHL Goaltender of the Week. They’re also looking to continue their streak of outshooting the opposition; they’ve done it in all 19 games so far.

Both Cairns and Darby are listed as right wings. Cairns is 5-11, a 4th round pick out of Winnipeg; Darby is 6-0, a 5th round pick out of Swift Current.

On Saturday, O’Brien and Litke increased their point streaks to 8, Fromm-Delorme to 6, Nguyen to 3. O’Brien set up the winner in overtime Saturday with a great play.

They’ll need more from Klassen and Stefan, who have been scoreless in their last 3 and 4 games, respectively.

Leading forwards: Fromm-Delorme (30 points/19 games), Klassen (20/15), O’Brien (20/19), Stefan (19/17), Chyzowski (18/18).

Ryder Thompson, who had his first goal of the season Friday against Everett, plays his 100th game.

Leading defensemen: Cagnoni (19/19), McCleary (11/17), Sotheran (10/19).

For Giannuzzi, it’s 3 straight games and 4 of his last 5 allowing only 1 goal. He’ll likely get Wednesday and Friday against Everett and Seattle, with Špunar getting the Sunday game against Vancouver.

Save percentages: Giannuzzi .898, Špunar .889.

The Silvertips don’t have much sympathy for the Winterhawks’ injury troubles as theirs are a lot worse. They’ve missed their best offensive player, Jackson Berezowski, two top-4 defensemen, one of their Euro forwards, and four depth players. Luckily, a lot of the are listed as day-to-day, so they’ll be back soon if not in this game.

After losing to Portland on Friday, they played a good game against Seattle, leading 1-0 after 2 periods, but ended up losing in overtime. They haven’t had an easy time holding leads. They’ve led 14 times and been tied twice after 2 periods, but only have 12 wins.

Roest had a decent game against Portland but went scoreless; he then went scoreless against the Thunderbirds, the first time he’s been scoreless in back-to-back games.

Maze is two weeks away from actually turning 15.

The other forwards who have been out besides Berezowski are Rymon, Shtrom, and Petruk, day-to-day; and Courtney, week-to-week.

Leading forwards: Roest (30/20), Berezowski (21/15), Hofer (19/19), Hemmerling (17/19), Heslop (14/18).

Carnage on defense: Sutter, Gibson, and Whittle have all missed games. Zellweger, on a 3-game point streak, will be happy to get some support back.

Leading defensemen: Zellweger (21/17), Sutter (11/15), Gibson (6/18).

The Silvertips have the 3rd-worst save percentage in the league, behind only really bad teams Spokane and Victoria. But they were worst, so that’s getting better.

Save percentages: Holt .882, Metzger .833.

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