Some Wednesday West Coast notes

PORTLAND, OR - Greetings from sunny Portland (the Oregon one), where the Winterhawks are rolling.

The Winterhawks improved to 14-1-1-1 following a 4-1 victory over the Calgary Hitmen Tuesday night at the historic Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Portland sits first in the Western Hockey League's Western Conference, five points up on the Seattle Thunderbirds who are loading up for a big run.

The Winnipeg Ice still sit first in the WHL standings with an impressive 18-1-0-0 record.

Some other news and notes...

• The Veterans Memorial Coliseum is quite a building. Really cool that a CHL team is the arena's main tenant. There was a small crowd on Tuesday (announced attendance was 2,220) with the NBA's Trail Blazers playing next door, which is presumably less than ideal for the Winterhawks.
• Went to a Seattle Thunderbirds game on Saturday and was really impressed with the atmosphere. One of the better regular season junior games I've seen in a long time. The Hitmen won 2-1 in overtime in what was Luke Prokop's first home game as a Thunderbird.
• The Quebec Remparts continue to sit first in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League standings with a 17-1-0-1 record. They'll face their biggest challenge of the season this week, facing the second-place Sherbrooke Phoenix on Wednesday and Sunday.
• This week on The Hockey News On The Q podcast, we're joined by Victoriaville Tigres head coach Carl Mallette; we take a look at the Los Angeles Kings' QMJHL prospects; Moncton's Etienne Morin is in the 2023 NHL Draft spotlight; and we run through some league news.
• The Drummondville Voltigeurs have fired head coach Steve Hartley. General manager Philippe Boucher will be the team's head coach on an interim basis. The Volts are 10-9-0-0 this season, which included a 4-1 loss in Saint John on Saturday.
• The Sea Dogs return to action on Friday, visiting the Halifax Mooseheads. The Sea Dogs and Mooseheads meet again on Saturday afternoon at Scotiabank Centre. Note that Saturday's game is a 2 p.m. start.
• Former Sea Dogs forward Josh Lawrence has been named to the QMJHL's Team of the Week. After being held pointless in his first six games with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, Lawrence has been held without a point just twice. He has goals in four straight games, scoring a total of nine times in that stretch.