A new low for the Winterhawks Friday night in Everett, as they embarrassed themselves 10-3 against the Silvertips and quit in the middle of allowing 6 goals in the middle of the 2nd period. It’s Portland’s 8th straight loss, and they picked up 1 point out of 14 on in their 7 straight games on the road. Portland’s defense was worse than it had been in a long, long time. They had been keeping the lid on goals allowed in this losing streak, some because of the play of Dante Giannuzzi in goal. But in this one he was just a poor if not worse than the rest of his teammates. And a penalty kill which had been keeping them in games only went 2 for 6. Amazingly, their streak has not greatly affected their place in the standings. They went into it as the Western Conference’s 3rd seed, and they are still the 3rd seed. They probably only need a couple of wins to cement that 3rd seed for the playoffs, but that we’re even talking about needing this was unthinkable a couple of weeks ago. Generally, their season now comes down to whether they can win a round in the playoffs. Portland trying to stop their freefall, after a respectable game in Seattle, with Jack O’Brien coming back in the lineup. The Winterhawks didn’t start well and it took them 8 minutes to get their first shot on goal, at which point they were down 2-0. Gabe Klassen pulled one back and Portland played their only decent 5 minutes of the game when it was competitive, but gave a goal back anyway to trail 3-1. Everett got the early goal, Matthew Paszkiewicz’s first in the WHL, and then it snowballed from there. Portland completely quit playing any type of defense, then they started taking bad penalties and the Silvertips went bang-bang-bang on their power play. It was 8-1 and then they scored again. The Winterhawks’ worst period in the last 10 years. All garbage time. Everett won all three by a long margin as Portland most of the game just wasn’t competitive. Yes. Jack O’Brien returned after missing a game with an upper body injury, but had no effect on the game. The two losses to Spokane colored the perception of the rest of the losing streak, and this Everett loss now colors them even more. Which is fair, because they are worrying performances. The level at which they quit Friday is disturbing. They have 10 games left to solve their issues. Eye on the prize: the first round of the playoffs is what defines their season. Can they be caught for 3rd? Prince George is 13 points back with 10 games left, same as Portland. Everett is 14 back with 11 games left. Portland’s magic number over PG is 7, maybe 8; over Everett it is 8 or 9. Everett will have to get points off Seattle and Kamloops to have a chance, which is problematic. PG has two game with Kamloops at the end of the season, which might not mean anything to Kamloops. They have an easier schedule otherwise, so they’re capable of going on a big streak. They were 18-18-1 when they sold at the trade deadline. Since then they’re 12-6-1-1. They probably deserve more credit than they’ve gotten. Saturday vs. Tri-City, 6pm Sunday vs. Everett, 5pm Friday at Spokane, 7pm next Saturday at Tri-City, 6pm Friday 3/17 at Seattle, 7pm.