Heavy hearts for the Hawks with season-ending loss to Chiefs
Portland right wing Alex Weiermair (88) finished the season on a high note with two goals and an assist (courtesy Keith Dwiggins/Winterhawks)
Updated 5/3/2025 11:33 AM
The Winterhawks didn’t want it all to end Thursday night at Memorial Coliseum.
Down 3-0 to Spokane in the best-of-seven WHL Western Division finals, they wanted desperately to win and force a Game 5 Saturday night at the MC.
For 54 minutes, it looked like it might happen.
Then the Chiefs struck for three goals, the final one on an empty net, to pull out a 6-4 victory and close the series on a sweep.
When it was over, those who remained from the crowd of 4,558 stood and gave the Portland players a long ovation. The finale had featured effort and energy from the Hawks, as had a season when they shed their underdog status and overachieved.
“Guys played with spirit and left it all out there,” said center Kyle Chyzowski, who with fellow overage players Tyson Jugnauth and Ryder Thompson provided outstanding leadership all season.
An emotional Kyle Chyzowski (right) exchanges a post-game hug with teammate Lachlan Tetarenko after the Winterhawks were eliminated from the playoffs with a 6-4 loss to the Spokane Chiefs (courtesy Keith Dwiggins/Winterhawks)
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from this group,” first-year head coach Kyle Gustafson said. “They emptied the tank. That is what we asked for. We wanted a high-character game, and that is what we got.”
Only the onslaught in the closing minutes pushed Spokane ahead in shots on goal, 45-43. With six minutes remaining, Portland led 4-3. There were a couple of great chances to go ahead 5-3. Early in the third period, Chyzowski missed an open wide-angle shot by inches. Midway through the period, Hudson Darby got stoned on a breakaway by Spokane goaltender Dawson Cowan. The lead held until Spokane’s Rasmus Ekstrom scored the equalizer with 5:47 remaining. Two and a half minutes later, Owen Martin lit the lamp to pull the Chiefs ahead at 5-4. An empty-net goal with 1:33 on the clock iced the verdict.
Portland lost the series opener 10-4 but played the Chiefs close in each of the last three games. Spokane general manager Matt Bardsley, recently honored as WHL Executive of the Year, paid the Hawks their due.
“They are a good team,” said Bardsley, who spent 18 years with the Hawks organization, as scout, director of player personnel and assistant GM from 1999-2017. “They have a little bit of that championship DNA with what they have been able to do over the years. We knew they would be a tough out for us. The series was 4-nothing, but even tonight you saw how hard they competed. It is an impressive group.”
Portland suffered a crippling blow in the first period when center Diego Buttazzoni, the Hawks’ leading goal-scorer in the playoffs with 14 in 18 games, was ejected after retaliation from a hit by a Chief. Buttazzoni was whistled for a five-minute major and 10-minute and game misconducts. The Hawks were fortunate that the Chiefs managed only one goal on their five-minute power play to go into the second period ahead 2-1.
“It was the right call,” Gustafson said. “It was a penalty. We certainly don’t want it to happen, especially at that point.”
Gustafson moved Alex Weiermair into Buttazzoni’s spot on the first line alongside Chyzowski and Josh Zakreski. Weiermair, acquired from the University of Denver in December, had a pair of goals and an assist and was all over the ice for the Hawks.
“It was an easy move for me,” Gustafson said. “Kyle and Alex have had chemistry since we picked up Alex. We sacrificed some depth to get them together. That line was terrific tonight. Alex had an unbelievable game.”
NEW: The Dean of Portland Sports is now on BlueSky.
Ondrej Stebetak, Portland’s rookie goalie, was terrific for much of the game. The 17-year-old from Czechia registered 39 saves — two of them on breakaways — and mostly repelled Spokane’s potent attack until the closing minutes. The Chiefs — who will face Medicine Hat in the WHL Finals — are relentless, though, and weren’t to be denied at the end. In four games, they scored 30 goals, a 7.5-goal-per-game average that is unusually high in a playoff series.
“They are a high-class team with several (NHL) draft picks,” Chyzowski said. “It is a perfect junior team. They have depth and they have scoring. Give them a chance and they are going to score. We definitely got outskilled (in the series).”
After losing several key pieces of the 2023-24 team that reached the WHL Finals, Portland appeared to be facing a rebuilding year. The Hawks entered the playoffs as the No. 5 seed in the West, yielding home-ice advantage to first No. 4 seed Prince George and then Everett, the latter the recipient of the Scotty Munro Trophy as the WHL’s regular-season champion. The Hawks won a pair of Game 7s on the road to advance to the West finals.
“We were happy to make the playoffs,” Chyzowski said. “No doubt we exceeded expectations. In my five years (with the Hawks), it is the first time I have seen a middle seed knock off top teams like that. We had 14 rookies, a younger team with some new guys we added. We surprised a lot of people and definitely put our name out there.”
Said Gustafson: “I am really proud of this group. We proved a lot of people wrong. Nobody had us in the West finals. And I am proud of the individual accomplishments.”
Chyzowski, who scored 41 goals during the regular season and another dozen in the playoffs, is a finalist for WHL Player of the Year. Jugnauth, who leads WHL playoff scoring for defensemen by a wide margin (four goals, 28 assists), is a finalist for WHL Defenseman of the Year. Both made the Western Conference first all-star team.
“Buttazzoni and Zakreski had career years,” Gustafson said. “And I am proud of our young guys. They were pulling from the same rope all year. The effort was there all year. Everything we asked them to do, they did.
“We were fortunate to have the leadership from our 20-year-olds (Chyzowski, Jugnauth and Thompson). They left their mark on the younger guys. It was special for me to have that my first year (as head coach). Our younger guys and the organization are better because of it.”
As a 16-year-old rookie, Chyzowski scored five goals in 20 games during the 2020-21 season. He increased his scoring total every season, to 35 points in 68 games in 2021-22 (13 goals, 22 assists) to 35 points in 54 games in 2022-23 (14 goals, 21 assists), to 50 points in 65 games in 2023-24 (17 goals, 33 assists), to 105 points this season (41 goals, 64 assists). Over the last two seasons, Chyzowski tallied 21 goals and 22 assists in 36 playoff games. He added his name to the list of great players in the Hawks’ 49-year history.
“I am going to remember the people I became brothers with,” said Chyzowski, his voice choking with emotion. “The experience I have had in this arena… all the stuff I have overcome … to see myself grow as a player… I never saw myself reaching this level. I am at a point where I have connections I never thought I would, whether it is the staff or players or guys who have moved on that I am still best friends with.
“It is going to be a new chapter in my life after this. I don’t know how to comprehend that I am never going to put the jersey on again, knowing that this is my last time playing for the Winterhawks. It is hard. I have seen guys go through it. For me to do it, it is going to take awhile to process. But I couldn’t be more proud.”
Chyzowski will move on, either to the University of Denver or the professional ranks. Jugnauth and Thompson won’t be back, either. But most of the other players could return. Weiermair, Zakreski, center Joel Plante and defenseman Carter Sotheran would be the most logical candidates for the three overage spots. Chyzowski believes the returnees will benefit from the experience of 18 games in this year’s postseason.
“What made us special this season is the experience we had last season,” Chyzowski said. “Ryder and I both have 50-plus playoff games in our career. Having that veteran status in the room to calm guys down is important. The young guys from this year’s team will have that in their back pocket next year. It is something a lot of teams don’t have.”
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