Updated 2/16/2022 11:30 PM

On Saturday, Mike Johnston will celebrate a birthday — the Big Six-Five — when the Winterhawks play host to Seattle at Memorial Coliseum.

Johnston doesn’t intend for his first day as a senior citizen to be a festive occasion.

“I stopped counting birthdays,” says the Winterhawks’ president, general manager and head coach. “You’re only as old as you feel.”

Johnston has been feeling mighty young in recent weeks as his Hawks have been the scourge of the Western Hockey League’s Western Conference. After Tuesday’s 4-2 win over the Chiefs in Spokane, Portland (30-12-3-2, 65 points) has won 18 of 20 games. Since December 5, the Hawks have dropped only three of 25 outings, with one of the losses by one goal and another in a shootout. The Chiefs’ 3-2 win in Spokane last Saturday ended an 11-game win streak for the Hawks and was their first regulation loss since December 17, a 4-1 setback at Spokane.

The Hawks are still behind Everett (33-7-2-4, 72 points) and just ahead of Seattle (28-11-4-1, 61 points) in the U.S. Division, but they’re on a hell of a run.

“It’s interesting in sports how sometimes when you’re in a streak, you don’t even realize you’re in it,” says Johnston, in his 12th year as Portland’s head coach. “That’s the way it has been the last couple of months. I like the consistency and the development of our young guys. That’s what led us to being where we are right now. Some of our young guys have taken some nice steps. That’s been the key to our success.”

Tuesday’s game was Portland’s fifth in a row against Spokane in a bit of scheduling that has this long-time observer of major junior hockey — I covered the first Winterhawks team for The Oregon Journal in 1976-77 — scratching his head. The Hawks bombarded the Chiefs by a collective 24-4 in the first three meetings. Spokane came back last Saturday to claim a 3-2 victory over their nemesis.

“It’s not great (to play an opponent so many times in a row), but it’s good in that you can simulate a playoff series,” Johnston says. “We have only four players on our roster with any playoff experience, so playing in buildings where there are good crowds … this is good for us.

“Not that we took our foot off the gas Saturday. We played well enough to win the game, but we weren’t sharp. We didn’t have the zip we normally do.”

Overall scheduling in the WHL has been thrown out of whack the last two seasons because of COVID. The 2020-21 campaign was abbreviated to no more than 24 games, with no fans in the arenas and no playoffs. This season — partly due to COVID, but I have to believe also partially to save money — fans have returned, but there is no inter-conference, and limited inter-division, play. Portland will face each B.C. Division foe only four times, meaning the bulk of the contests are against U.S. Division rivals Everett, Seattle, Spokane and Tri-City.

Over the past 2 1/2 months, the Hawks’ results have been as good as any team in the WHL, despite losing Seth Jarvis to the NHL. Johnston expected to have him back this season, but the 19-year-old center made the Carolina Hurricanes and has eight goals and 10 assists in his first 37 games in the bigs.

“He would have been our top offensive player,” Johnston says “When I look at the streak we’re on, I think, ‘What if we’d had Seth?’ Being without him put guys in different roles, forcing ownership on the leaders on our team to see if they could handle it.”

It’s a fairly young group, with only four 19-year-olds to go with the three overage players. It’s a small team, too. It might be the only team in major junior history whose only player weighing 200 pounds or more is a goaltender — 6-2 Taylor Gauthier, who is listed at 208. By contrast, the 1976-77 Hawks roster featured seven players at 200 pounds or more, and another five over 190.

“It’s a different game now — faster and more up-tempo,” Johnston says with a chuckle. “That’s been the style of our play since we started. We don’t worry about size; it’s how you play the game.”

Two of the 19’s — 6-1, 175-pound winger Cross Hanas (18 goals, 37 assists, 55 assists in 42 games) and 5-11, 165-pound center Tyson Kozak (24-29-53 in 47 games) — have been the leading scorers.

“Cross has played well, and Tyson has become a really good player, a real leader,” Johnston says.

Overage defenseman Clay Hanus (5-10, 170) and Jaydon Dureau (5-11, 170) have been stalwarts on the back line, and Luca Cagnoni (5-10, 170) — who turned 17 on December 21 — leads WHL rookie defensemen in scoring (6 goals, 23 assists, 29 points in 42 games).

“Some nights, he is our best defenseman,” Johnston says. “Luca is going to be a really good player for us the next three years.”

As big as anything was the December 27 acquisition of Gauthier in a trade with Prince George for defenseman Jonas Bronberg and three future draft picks. In the summer, Portland had made a trade with Moose Jaw for the rights to Swedish goalie Jesper Wallstedt, who would be taken by the Minnesota Wild with the 20th overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft. Johnston was hoping whichever team that drafted Wallstedt would allow him to play in the WHL this season. Wallstedt chose to return to Sweden, however, leaving the Hawks with only 19-year-old Dante Giannuzzi in goal.

Johnston and his staff decided if the Hawks were in title contention at Christmastime, they would seek to trade for another goalie. They zeroed in on Gauthier, who turned 21 on Monday and is in his fifth WHL season. The Calgary native represented Canada in the U17 and U18 World Championships and won a silver medal with Hockey Canada at the U20 World Juniors last season.

With Portland, Gauthier is 10-0 with a sterling 1.29 goals-against average. He posted three straight shutouts between January 30 and February 9 and held opponents scoreless for more than 251 minutes, a franchise record and the second-longest streak in WHL history.

“It’s quite incredible,” Johnston says. “He has been excellent.”

Gauthier is left-handed, a rarity among goalies in the WHL. Johnston had never before coached a southpaw.

“(Using a right-handed glove) presents a different look for shooters,” Johnston says. Beyond that, “Taylor is calm in the net, he has size, and his best asset is his rebound control. He doesn’t let many rebounds out. He sucks in the puck and keeps it close or holds it.”

Johnston’s chief assistant, associate coach Don Hay, is a former head coach of the NHL Phoenix Coyotes who won 750 games and three Memorial Cups during a Hall of Fame career coaching in the WHL. Now in his fourth season as Johnston’s right-hand man, Hay focused on coaching defense and the penalty kill. The Hawks rank first in the WHL in the latter category.

“Don deserves a lot of credit for what we’ve done this year,” Johnston says.

If there has been a disappointment for the Hawks this season, it has been at the gate. Average attendance at the MC — they are playing all their home games there after dividing between the MC and Moda Center the previous 26 seasons — is 2,855. During the Johnston era, the Hawks have never averaged less than 5,000 a game. In 2019-20, they averaged 5,440. In 2013-14, the average was 7,902.

“I knew coming into this season we would have a hurdle to overcome,” Johnston says. “Traditionally, February and March have been really good attendance months for us. I would hope that holds true during the final games of the (regular) season and into the playoffs.”

Johnston, 448-231-50 during the regular season in his 12 years, coached the Hawks to the WHL Finals four straight seasons, winning a championship and a Memorial Cup berth in 2012-13. Portland hasn’t been to the Finals since 2014.

In 2019-20, the Hawks owned the best record in the league (45-11-3-4) heading into the final week of the regular season when play was halted due to the onset of COVID. It’s too early to know whether they are a true title contender this season, but they have a chance.

There are five legitimate threats in the West — Everett, Portland and Seattle in the U.S. Division and Kamloops (33-12-1-0, 67 points) and Kelowna (26-11-1-3, 56 points) in the B.C. Division. In the East, the best teams are Edmonton (34-11-2-1, 71 points) and Winnipeg (31-6-2-1, 65 points).

Portland has 21 regular-season games left, including five against Seattle, four with Everett and one with Kamloops. The Hawks are 4-0 against Kelowna and 1-2 vs. Kamloops this season.

The regular-season champions of the U.S. and B.C. divisions will be seeded 1-2 in the West playoffs and the top eight teams will be included, with No. 1 playing No. 8, No. 2 playing No. 7 and so on. The Hawks would like to be at least among the top four in order to game home-ice advantage in the first round.

“Kamloops dominated us the first time we played them (7-1), but we played well in the other two,” Johnston says. “It’s going to be interesting (in the West). A lot will depend on the teams’ health entering the playoffs.

“We’ll have to keep playing consistent hockey. I like that we have scoring depth, that we don’t count on one or two players to do the bulk of it. I like that we have two experienced goalies. I like that our young defense keeps getting better. They might be the key to our team moving forward, how quickly they progress.”

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