PORTLAND 2
VICTORIA 1
The Portland Winterhawks prevailed 2-1 on Saturday night in a Western Hockey League game highlighted by outstanding crease play.
Shane Farkas made 35 saves in goal for the victory while Griffen Outhouse blocked 36 shots for Victoria as the Winterhawks, 7-3 winners on Friday night, swept the two-game set.
Portland went into the weekend on a three-game losing streak and is now 9-6-1. Victoria is ranked No. 7 in the Canadian Hockey League national top-10 poll, but is now likely to tumble out of that heady company at 9-5.
Winterhawks forward Cody Glass, selected by the Las Vegas Golden Knights as the sixth-overall selection in the 2017 NHL draft, assisted on both Portland goals Saturday in the second period by Joachim Blichfield and Cross Hanas, to add to Glass鈥檚 four-point night against Victoria on Friday.
Royals defenceman Scott Walford, a third-round selection by the Montreal Canadiens in 2017, will join Glass on the WHL team which plays the Russian junior team Monday in Kamloops and Tuesday in Langley.
The goal by San Jose Sharks draft-pick Blichfield was on the power play Saturday for Portland. Dino Kambeitz scored for Victoria on the power play in the third period but the pressing Royals could not find the equalizer against Farkas.
The weekend set featured a couple of Winterhawks blueliners with Island connections. Jared Freadrich played last season for the Royals and sixth-round Carolina Hurricanes draft-pick Brendan De Jong is a graduate of the Juan de Fuca minor hockey program.
The Royals return home Friday and next Saturday to take on the Spokane Chiefs.
ICE CHIPS: Former Royals captain Matthew Phillips, eligible to return to Victoria as a 20-year-old, has been held without a point in seven games with the Calgary Flames' AHL affiliate in Stockton, California, with a minus-four rating and has been a roster scratch on three occasions. Let the speculation begin.
