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Ross thriving in Portland |
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Written by Dale Woodard
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Thursday, 22 October 2009 |
It was the end of the 2008-09 Western Hockey League season and Bradley Ross and his Portland Winterhawks found themselves where no team wants to be: anchored near the bottom of the standings.
As the Lethbridge product and his 19-48-3-2 Winterhawks teammates took on a spectator’s role in the WHL playoffs, the consensus was clear in Portland.
Things had to change.
Now, thanks to a 10-5-0-0 early season record that has the Winterhawks sitting atop the U.S. Division standings, it’s become clear Ross and his teammates are intent on making good on their outhouse-to-penthouse objective.
On Wednesday night, the hometown boy was able to make good, notching an assist and helping his Portland squad to a 4-3 overtime victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
“At the start of the year we said ‘enough’s enough,’ losing for three years. So we’ve stepped it up and we’ve been off to a really good start,” said the 17-year-old left winger who is scoring at a point-a-game clip with 15 points in his first 15 games thanks to seven goals and eight assists.
Those totals have put Ross in the top five in team scoring.
More importantly, it has vaulted Portland to the top of the standings in the early going of the season.
“We have a great chemistry. Everybody likes each other. We’ll do anything for each other. So it’s pretty good,” said Ross.
“I think it’s just the coaching staff and good guys. We all have really good chemistry, we put it together and we win games.”
Winterhawks head coach Mike Johnston said it’s still early, but he likes what he sees so far from his team, which has scored 66 goals in its first 15 games.
“We’ve got a competitive team and we can play with anybody on any given night and we’ve shown that in the league,” said Johnston.
“So that’s the most important thing. When we came in last year we said we wanted to get our franchise to the point where we’re going to be competitive with everybody, because it was three years of tough times.
“What we tried to do in the summer was recruit some players that were on our list and we added some players to our list and we recruited them. We were lucky to get a few of these guys in. So we added some 17-year-old guys to our roster so we don’t have to wait for all the 15-year-olds to develop.”
And Ross has become an integral part of the Winterhawks turnaround.
“The number one thing with Ross is he’s a really competitive kid. He competes every night. He plays hard and plays the game honest,” said Johnston of Ross, who’s already more than halfway to eclipsing the 26 points he put up in 61 games last year.
“This year he’s played with more confidence with the puck. I think he’s done a lot more with the puck than he did last year. He’s making more plays. Last year I thought he was mainly a bit of a physical force, but this year he’s a combination. He’s a power forward who doesn’t have a power forward body, but he has that power forward mentality. He plays a hard, honest game and he’s difficult to play against for anybody.”
Ask Ross’ linemates, Nino Niederreiter and Ryan Johansen, and they’d probably tell you he’s easy to play alongside as well.
Ross drew an assist on Johansen’s first-period goal that handed Portland a 2-1 lead before Niederreiter buried the overtime winner on the power play with under a minute left in the five-minute session.
“I’ve played with those guys the whole season,” said Ross of his linemates. “We’re all 17-years-old and hopefully getting drafted this year. Nino is a great guy from the Swiss. We communicate well and Johansen finds us in the slot, so it’s pretty good.”
That trio was put together in training camp, said Johnston.
“I really liked the look of the line. Part way through training camp I broke them up and I think they were disappointed about that.”
Now reunited, Ross and his linemates have been giving opponents fits ever since.
“I really think there’s a good chemistry on the line,” said Johnston. “It’s a good mix of players. Johansen is a puck distributor as a centre iceman. Niederreiter is a power guy on the wing whose got good speed and right now Ross is skating and making plays, but he’s also big and physical.”
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