Medicine Hat Tigers at Portland Winterhawks: Preview, updates, chat, how to listen and watch the stream

What: The Portland Winterhawks (3-0) take on the Medicine Hat Tigers (2-2) in the Western Hockey League.

When: Saturday, October 8, 6 p.m.

Where: memorial coliseum.

Watch: You can stream the game via CHL TV’s pay-per-view program (US$6.10 for a game).

Listen: Winterhawks and Tigers audio.

Consequences:

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

We don’t yet know exactly how good the Portland Winterhawks are. They had three tests and passed all of them, but it’s not clear how difficult those tests were. The Kamloops Blazers were missing their two top lines, the Kelowna Rockets were OK but we don’t know how good they are either, and the Tri-City Americans were a tired team with lots of holes. The tests were closer to your clickbait online quizzes on whether William Shatner was in the Mod Squad than to a bar exam.

she could be a little better this weekend, with Medicine Hat clinching an upset win in Everett and Portland going to Spokane on Sunday getting the schedule disadvantage. They should still be favorites in every game, and if they’re thinking about being an elite team, they really should go 6-0 into next Saturday’s home game with a much stronger Kamloops.

Klassen still leads the league with 7 goals despite only playing 3 games. He and Fromm-Delorme each have points in all 3 games.

Nguyen missed Saturday’s game, breaking a streak of 81 straight games. Litke has not played a game all season due to injury.

Lead forward: Klassen (7 points/3 games), Fromm-Delorme (4/3), O’Brien (3/3), Stefan (2/1), Nguyen (2/2), Chyzowski (2/3), Schelter ( 2/3).

I’m a little surprised they haven’t reduced the list yet

Leading Defenders: Cagnoni (4/3), Sotheran (3/3), Ryder Thompson (2/3).

You’d think they’d get a game each this weekend, but who gets which?

Save percent: Giannuzzi .917, Špunar .913.

How bad were the Medicine Hat Tigers last season? They traded Lukas Svejkovsky to Seattle over the Christmas break and he still ended up being their top scorer. They were 11-53-3-1, had the worst record in the league with 18 points and scored 25 fewer goals than any other team.

Things are looking a lot better this season. They have split 4 games so far but they have scored 5.3 goals per game, a 134% increase from last season. One of their losses was against undefeated league favorites Winnipeg, which is no shame, but even in that game they topped the ice. And they didn’t really flip the list; It was by and large players who took their nuggets last season when they played well.

They started their journey west with an upset win over Everett on Friday. 16-year-old Cayden Lindstrom had the first 2 points of his WHL career, along with 20-year-old Dallon Melin and Alex Drover, a former first-round pick in the QMJHL. Andrew Basha’s goal in the last minute of game 2 proved to be the game winner, earning him 8 points in 4 games after scoring 14 in 48 last season.

They’re trying to back this game in Portland because they’re the first team in the Eastern Conference to play the Winterhawks since February 16, 2020. They have not played the Winterhawks since October 8, 2019, and have not been to Portland since February 10, 2019, and have not been to the Coliseum since December 4, 2016.

This is actually Drover’s 200th CHL game, having played in 195 games for Cape Breton, Saint John and Rimouski.

Lee is formerly from Everett and MacNeil is formerly from Spokane.

Lead forward: Basha (8/4), Wiesblatt (5/4), MacKenzie (4/4), Lee (3/4), Drover (3/4), MacNeil (3/4), Shtrom (3/4).

A key reason for their offensive upsurge is that they get points from defense. They also have the NHL draft cancer.

Leading Defenders: Hodass (6/4), Parsons (5/4), Andresen (5/4).

Could the Winterhawks get the opponent’s backup goalie again? McCallum is yet to make his WHL debut. If Langkow plays on Friday, this could be the day. He’s a second-round pick, so he might be tougher than some of the backups Portland have faced.

Save percent: Langkow .884.

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