Canucks prospect Virtanen blanked so far in WHL playoffs

CALGARY — Jake Virtanen has been put on Ice, so to speak, so far in the Western Hockey League playoffs.

The sixth overall pick of the Vancouver Canucks in 2014 has yet to hit the scoresheet in the first two games of the first-round battle between his Calgary Hitmen and the Kootenay Ice.

“It’s definitely a little frustrating,” said Virtanen, who was also blanked in the final three games of the regular season, including two in a row against the Ice. “I’m just not getting the same opportunities. They’re doing a good job shutting our top guys down and we’re doing the same.”

The 18-year-old forward from Abbotsford is hoping to hit his stride Tuesday and Wednesday when the series resumes in Cranbrook.

“I definitely want to help the team produce, obviously,” said Virtanen, who scored 21 goals and added 31 assists in 50 games during the regular season. “I’ve played a lot of playoff games (28) and I want to help the team. If I can’t do that, I’ve just got to find ways to contribute — obviously banging bodies out there and just working on the simple things.”

Virtanen started the series playing on right wing next to centre Adam Tambellini and left winger Connor Rankin before coach Mark French switched things Sunday, moving him onto a line with Kenton Helgesen and Chase Lang.

“We’ve got a lot of lines juggling around and stuff like that,” Virtanen said. “It’ll come. I’ve just got to keep playing my game and things will happen.”

French remains optimistic that Virtanen will be able to find the scoring touch that led to him notching 45 goals in 71 games during his sophomore season in 2013-14.

“When the series is all said and done, he needs to have an impact on it,” said French, whose lineup tinkering resulted in a 3-2 overtime win for the Hitmen Sunday to even the series 1-1. “Scoring has been tough. Not only the first two games of the series, but if you look at the last two regular season games, there’s not much scoring going on.”