SASKATOON, Sask. – The Portland Winterhawks are in an unfamiliar territory, needing a win to avoid falling in a deep hole that could be insurmountable.
The Western Hockey League champions lost their first game of the MasterCard Memorial Cup 7-4 to the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday. Now they’re the tournament’s only winless team and at risk of falling into a hole with which only one team has ever been able to overcome by starting 0-2.
“Are our guys going to be hungry?” asked Winterhawks head coach Travis Green. “They’re hungry every night. You don’t get to this point in a season without being a hungry, competitive group.”
The Winterhawks were preaching the same approach they’ve touted throughout the season and playoffs: that they’re an even keeled, confident group.
“We don’t really get too excited when we win and we don’t get too down when we lose,” Green said.
The London Knights won their first game of the MasterCard Memorial Cup 3-2 over the host Saskatoon Blades. A win for them would put the Knights in the driver’s seat to reach the bye to Sunday’s final.
The Knights are expecting a desperate, hungry opponent, much like the Blades were in Sunday’s game against the Mooseheads.
“Every game is like a game seven and they’re going to be playing like they’re on the line,” Knights forward Max Domi said. “They have to come out and play good and so do we. It’s going to be a good hockey game and we’re expecting their best effort and we’re going to give our best effort as well.”
“Good teams, they don’t take losing lightly,” Knights captain Scott Harrington said. “Our team would be the same way if we lost our game on Friday. We’d be hungry and we’ll have to kind of put ourselves in their shoes so that we’re ready for the game.”
HOW WILL THE WINTERHAWKS AND MAC CARRUTH RESPOND?
Portland overcame a mountain of adversity this season, most notably in the sanctions for violating player recruitment and benefit policies. Since then, they set out on a mission to win championships as a means of getting back at the league for what they felt was unfair punishment.
The term “adversityhawks” is one they’ve used and even printed on t-shirts. This type of scenario shouldn’t faze them.
“Our team’s a team that’s going to take any negatives and turn it into a positive, as fuel and things like that,” goaltender Mac Carruth said. “This is no different.”
Carruth was candid about his performance in Saturday’s loss after allowing seven goals on 35 shots.
“Other goalies know how it feels,” he said. “Things just seem to not go your way, it kind of snowballs on you.”
“He’s been a big part of our team for a long time,” Green said. “He’s been our guy for a while. He’s done a lot of great things for our organization. He’s a huge part of our team and he didn’t have his best game but he’ll rebound.”
CAN THE KNIGHTS RIDE THE CYCLE TO VICTORY?
The Knights are such a strong team on the cycle, which helps create scoring chances. They’re a patient team and their patience generally pays dividends.
“It can really get the momentum swing back in our direction,” Domi said of the cycle. “We have a lot of skill up front and we work hard as well. We’re trying to get to every puck we can and we’re always there supporting each other on the ice. That’s the biggest thing when it comes to cycling is supporting each other on the ice and being there for one another and we do that pretty well.”
“I think we just have to keep doing it as much as we can,” teammate Bo Horvat said. “If it’s been working all year, we have to keep trying it on different teams and stuff like that. I think we’ve been doing a really good job of it and we have to keep doing it throughout the tournament.”
HOW WILL THE WINTERHAWKS DEAL WITH THE TRAP?
One of the Knights’ signatures is their ability to patiently wait for their chances by causing turnovers in the neutral zone and using their speed to transition. Horvat set up Seth Griffith for his team’s second goal in Friday’s win over Saskatoon as a result of a turnover.
“We have a really good trap that we’ve worked on all year,” Horvat said. “We’ve been kind of using that to our advantage, kind of sitting back and waiting for our opportunities to go on the offence. I always said good defence leads to great offence.”
It’s nothing new to the Winterhawks, who have encountered many trapping teams trying to prevent their skilled group of forwards from using their speed.
“They’re an aggressive team when they can be aggressive and they play a neutral zone trap when they can’t get pressure,” Green said. “We’ve done well against trap teams. We’ve had a good season. We’ve done well against different style teams so I don’t think London’s just going to sit back and set the trap the whole game, but if they do, we’ll have to adjust.”
“Every team is so good at transition and they’ll really hurt you if you don’t manage the puck well,” Portland defenceman Tyler Wotherspoon said. “We’re a really quick transition team. We like to play with a lot of speed and I think if we manage the puck well and not try to do too much and just make the simple play, we can break that trap and use our speed against their defencemen.”
