Seattle, WA
Winterhawks bounce back against Seattle, end losing streak
A tired Portland Winterhawks team plays a solid 3rd game in 3 nights, bouncing back from some poor performances to beat the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-3 and end a 4-game losing streak.
Portland’s top players, Alex Weiermair and Ryan Miller, each had 3 points, while Seattle’s more impressive top stars were shut out. Some of Seattle’s other players had big nights, and kept the game close, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Thunderbirds’ second straight loss after winning five in a row.
After 3 points out of 6 possible for the weekend, the Winterhawks remain in 7th, now 4 points above the playoff line.
| 1st 12:41 POR (PP) Alex Weiermair (Jordan Duguay) 1-0 |
| 2nd 1:51 POR (PP) Nathan Free (Will McLaughlin, Ryan Miller) 2-0 |
| 2nd 3:54 SEA (PP) Brock England (Joe Gramer, Noah Kosick) 2-1 |
| 2nd 13:44 POR Griffin Darby (Alex Weiermair, Ryan Miller) 3-1 |
| 2nd 15:51 POR (SH) Alex Weiermair (Ryan Miller) 4-1 |
| 2nd 18:42 SEA Ethan Bibeau (Brock England, Grayson Tash) 4-2 |
| 3rd 13:16 SEA (PP) Noah Kosick (Simon Lovsin, Brock England) 4-3 |
| Portland leads by 2+ | 21:35 |
| Portland leads by 1 | 25:44 |
| Tied | 12:41 |
| Portland trails by 1 | 0:00 |
| Portland trails by 2+ | 0:00 |
Pregame: Portland looking to break their losing streak after a bleak 3rd period on overtime Friday against the Thunderbirds and a shoddy most-of-the-game against the Vancouver Giants on Saturday. Seattle also had a 3-in-3, but had a lot easier travel than Portland’s Seattle-to-Vancouver-to-Portland weekend.
Seattle had a shakeup in goal. Grayson Malinoski, who played well against Portland on Friday, likely would have started, but Marek Sklenicka got hurt in the 1st period of their Saturday game with the Everett Silvertips, and Malinoski had to play an extra 40-plus minutes (and got torched). Sklenicka apparently got a clean bill of health, so they went with the more rested goalie.
1st period: Tone set with a Thunderbirds penalty in the 1st minute. Then Brayden Holberton reacted to a hit by Kyle McDonough by getting him in a one-man fight. He got McDonough pretty good and ended his night, but he also got a game misconduct and 5-minute major, which Portland scored on.
2nd period: The Winterhawks, who have had some stretches of cratering lately, almost had another after going up 2-0. They were outhshot 8-1 and gave up a goal. But they turned it around and extended the lead to 4-1 before Seattle got one back near the end.
3rd period: A solid period for Portland, made tighter on a late Thunderbirds goal. But a penalty by Coster Dunn near the end proved costly. Portland was able to run a lot of time off during the delayed penalty (and passed up the chance to run off more) and then were able to keep the puck and keep the Thunderbirds from pulling the goalie until well into the last minute. The Thunderbirds got a couple of good looks but couldn’t tie it.
| Top 10 | Stat line | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Weiermair | POR | 2 goals, 1 assist | Continues to hang around 10th in league scoring, which is where is currently is. |
| Ryan Miller | POR | 3 assists | He may have extended his point streak to 9, depending on if he gets a late scoring change from Saturday’s game. |
| Brock England | SEA | 1 goal, 2 assists | Broke out of a 4-game slump with a really productive game, keeping the TBirds in it. |
| Noah Kosick | SEA | 1 goal, 1 assist | Planted a rebound to get Seattle within 4-3 in the 3rd. |
| Griffin Darby | POR | 1 goal | First WHL goal was off his skate, so this was the first off his stick. With 6 points and a +4, this is the best month of his career. |
| Ondrej Štěbeták | POR | 26 saves-29 shots | Played a reasonably good game. |
| Nathan Free | POR | 1 goal | The 2-0 goal when the Thunderbirds were looking like threatening. |
| Max Pšenička | POR | A decent game after some really rough ones. No points, so he has a 3-game scoreless streak, but he was fine. | |
| Jordan Duguay | POR | 1 assist | |
| Ethan Bibeau | SEA | 1 goal | Ended a 7-game scoreless streak with a deflection off an England shot. |
| Other notables | Stat line | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron Schmidt | SEA | The placeholder for Schmidt, Matthew Gard, Antonio Martorana, Coster Dunn, and Matej Pekar, all top players for Seattle who went scoreless in a big key to the game. | |
| Brayden Holberton | SEA | Kicked out early in the 1st for a 1-man fight, giving Portland a power play they scored on, and likely earning a suspension. It’s surprising he hasn’t been suspended before but this will be his first if everything is normal. | |
| Nathan Brown | POR | 3-game scoreless streak. | |
| Reed Brown | POR | 4-game scoreless streak. There are a few of these, as Portland’s main offense has been from the top line. | |
| Kyle McDonough | POR | He got hurt by Holberton and didn’t return. So he might be out afor a while. | |
| Radim Mrtka | SEA | 4-game scoreless streak. The NHL 1st-round is really struggling. | |
| Marek Sklenicka | SEA | 27 saves-31 shots | Seattle’s strange goalie shuffle seemingly benefitted Portland, some bad luck to the Thunderbirds. |
| POR | SEA | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Record | 26-25-5-1 (.509) | 23-25-4-3 (.482) | 7th-place Portland extends their lead over 10th-place Seattle to 5 points. |
| Score | 4 | 3 | |
| Shots | 31 | 29 | The Winterhawks outshoot the opposition for the first time in 8 games. Surprising and encouraging that they did, given how long they were defending a lead. |
| Shoot % | .129 | .103 | Portland simultaneously has the 7th-worst shooting percentage in the league, and the best shooting percentage in the US Division. Do the math on that. |
| Power play | 2 / 5 | 2 / 3 | Seattle took a penalty at almost every key time in the game. Gave the Winterhawks two power play goals plus momentum, and hurt Seattle late by interfering with their goalie pull. |
| Even strength | 1 | 1 | Low scoring at even strength. |
| Shorthanded | 1 | 0 | Weiermair’s shorthanded goal ends up the winner. |
Portland Winterhawks
3 out of 6 for the weekend, and if they’d played just a little better it could have been 6 out of 6. It’s a hard team to figure out sometimes.
Seattle Thunderbirds
An emotional win on Friday was followed by a blowout loss and then a struggle in the rematch. A 5-game winning streak put them into playoff contention. Now with 2 games in Central BC they’re in danger of falling right back out of it.
Friday 2/27 at Victoria, 7pm PST
Saturday 2/28 at Victoria, 4pm PST
Next home game: Saturday 3/7 vs. Everett, 6pm PST
Looking ahead: Sunday 3/8 vs. Tri-City, 4pm PDT
Next game versus Seattle: Saturday 3/14 at Seattle, 6pm PDT
With the tax deadline just past, you might have old paper documents you’re ready to shred and recycle. Just announced – a chance to do that for free this Wednesday (April 22), 1-4 pm!
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Village Green West Seattle (WSB sponsor) is at 2615 SW Barton.
Thanks to Carrie Brown for the westward view of our Saturday night sunset. The high today hit 68 at the airport – eight degrees above normal – but nowhere near the record for this date, which was 89 degrees back in 2016. The forecast suggests two more days of partly sunny, almost-70-degree weather, before the chance of rain returns.
CHICAGO (AP) — The struggling New York Mets placed former Seattle Mariners second baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco on the 10-day injured list on Saturday with a right wrist contusion.
Mariners Injury Update: Latest on Robles, Vargas and more
The move was made retroactive to Wednesday, a day after Polanco went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a 2-1 loss at the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 32-year-old Polanco is batting .179 (10 for 56) with a homer and two RBIs in his first season with New York, which has lost nine straight.
“When doctors first took a look at him, it looked like he got hit by a pitch when he didn’t,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “In talking to him, it was just a couple of swings that he took that night. … He didn’t think much of it, but just got worse the following day.
“So you just got to let it calm down a little bit and then we’ll go from there. But we don’t have a timetable for how long this is going to last.”
Polanco, who signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Mets in December, also has been dealing with an ankle issue.
“He was trending in the right direction,” Mendoza said of the ankle injury. “It’s definitely going to help, obviously now with him being shut down. But the biggest thing now is that we’ve got to take care of that wrist.”
Polanco spent the previous two seasons with the Mariners, who acquired him in a February 2024 trade with the Minnesota Twins.
Polanco struggled during his first season with Seattle in 2024, hitting just .213 with 16 homers in 118 games while playing through a knee injury that didn’t become public knowledge until after the season.
But after the Mariners somewhat surprisingly brought him back for a one-year contract in 2025, Polanco rebounded to hit .265 with 26 homers and an .821 OPS in 138 games last season. He then added three homers during Seattle’s playoff run, along with a 15th-inning walkoff single in Game 5 of the American League Division Series that sent the Mariners to their first ALCS in 24 years.
Seattle Sports staff made additions to this post.
Mariners RHP Bryce Miller to begin rehab assignment
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