Rylan Toth, Alexander True lead T-Birds to 3-1 win over Victoria

KENT – Rylan Toth’s first couple of starts with the Thunderbirds didn’t go as the goalie had planned but Friday night against the Victoria Royals he showed why Seattle traded for him.

After allowing 10 goals in his first two starts, Toth made 28 saves in his third start to lead Seattle to a 3-1 win over the Royals at the ShoWare Center.

“Big game, I think he’ll sleep better tonight,” Seattle head coach Steve Konowalchuk said afterwards.

While Toth was stopping the puck, Alexander True was scoring it. The big Dane scored twice in the win to extend his goal-scoring streak to three straight games. After struggling with the penalty kill in its first three games, Seattle’s special teams were strong in killing off five of Victoria’s six power plays.

Seattle put its penalty kill to the test early by taking three penalties in the first period. Toth was at his best killing those power plays off and made the save of the night early when he sprawled out to get a glove on a back-door attempt.

“The PK and power play is something we worked on a lot in practice this week,” Toth said. “I think there was a noticeable difference in the confidence with the whole group.”

Some of that confidence came from Toth’s play. The numbers were not pretty early for the 20 year old but he says his confidence was never really shaken.

“I wasn’t too worried about it,” he said. “It’s hockey and sometimes things don’t go your way. I’ve been in the league long enough that I understand that and it didn’t happen overnight. It takes some time but I have learned how to bounce back.”

He bounced back to make ten saves in the first period to keep the game scoreless and he missed picking up the shutout late when Victoria scored after Seattle had built a 3-0 lead. Buoyed by surviving the early penalty kill test, the T-Birds got to work early in the second period.

True would score his first of the night after Sami Moilanen carried the puck behind the Royals net and drew in the defenders. That left True wide open in the slot where Moilanen found him for a wrist shot that beat Victoria goalie Dylan Myskiw.

It was True’s third straight game with a goal but he wasn’t done.

Seattle got their first power play of the night four minutes later and finally broke their 0 for 11 slump. It was a play nearly identical to the first True goal as Moilanen drew in the defenders down low and found True alone in the slot again to build a 2-0 lead.

The T-Birds ended the night 1 for 4 with the power play but even on the chances they didn’t score, looked better.

“We were moving our feet, moving the puck and creating chances,” Konowalchuk said. “I thought we could have had another one there, but we got one.”

True played on a line with Moilanen and Cavin Leth. The three combined for two goals and four assists on the night and there seems to be a great deal of chemistry between them. True and Leth played together last season and are still learning Moilanen’s game which so far, has looked good.

“He has really good vision,” True said of his new line mate. “He’s really quick and he draws a lot of guys to him when he has the puck and he’s good down low.”

Victoria’s top line of Jack Walker, Tyler Soy and Matthew Phillips combined to score 119 goals last year and Konowalchuk matched them up with the Scott Eansor, Donovan Neuls and Nolan Volcan line. Both lines possess a ton of speed but the T-Birds three forwards were up to the task.

They kept the Royals’ big guns quiet for the most part and even managed an insurance goal of their own in the third period. Eansor rang a shot off the crossbar and Volcan was there to pot the rebound to give the T-Birds a commanding 3-0 lead.

“I think when there’s a good top line, it motivates them a little bit,” Konowalchuk said of the Eansor line.

Toth would lose his shutout bid late in the third period when Chaz Reddekop potted a rebound on a late Victoria power play. It was Toth’s first win of the season and he enjoyed playing in front of what is becoming a traditionally loud home crowd.

He had experienced the ShoWare Center crowd before, but as a member of the Red Deer Rebels.

“Its awesome,” he said of the atmosphere. “I only played here once before when I was 18 and they didn’t like me very much. Hopefully they do a bit more now.”

If he keeps winning games, they certainly will.

Notes

• After the game the T-Birds announced that they had acquired goalie Matt Berlin from the Spokane Chiefs in exchange for a conditional 2018 draft pick. Berlin has only appeared in seven WHL games and will be called on to serve as Toth’s back up in the event that Carl Stankowski will be heading off to play in the U17 Challenge later in the season.

• Moilanen may have been Seattle’s best player on Friday night. He was flying all over the ice and won a lot of puck battles along the boards. The two assists are the first two points the Finn has tallied in his WHL career.

• Victoria is the reigning Scotty Munro Trophy winners as last year they ended the regular season with the league’s best record. They are expected to have another strong campaign this year but don’t tell that to the T-Birds, who have won five straight against the Royals.

• Seattle is still at the bottom of the WHL’s penalty kill rankings but with one good night its percentage rose from a woeful 40 percent to an improving 58.8 percent.

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