Thunderbirds beat Chiefs to make it five straight
Jan 15, 2017, 8:46 PM | Updated: 9:49 pm
(Brian Liesse/T-Birds)
KENT – Coming into Sunday’s game with Spokane the Seattle Thunderbirds’ power play had been in a major slump.
They had only one goal in 32 attempts but on Sunday night in front of 5,003 ShoWare Center fans, they found their power play again.
The T-Birds were a perfect 3-for-3 with the man advantage and it keyed Seattle to a 6-4 win over the Spokane Chiefs. With the victory the T-Birds have now won five straight as they try to work their way back up the U.S. Division standings.
“We’ve got the personnel back that was good for us last year,” Seattle head coach Steve Konowalchuk said of the resurgent power play. “Keegan (Kolesar) is back to speed and it’s nice to see them working on some down low plays.”
Alexander True scored two goals and Ethan Bear chipped in three assists to lead the Seattle offensive attack.
Austin Strand got the T-Birds going with a power-play goal early in the first period when he beat Chiefs’ goalie Jayden Sittler with a point shot. It was Strand’s first as a T-Bird and it helped set the tone for the night.
The T-Birds would make it 2-0 a few minutes later on Jarret Tyszka’s fifth goal of the season.
Getting the early lead was big as the Chiefs were playing their third game in as many nights.
“It’s hard to chase when you’ve played a lot of hockey,” Konowalchuk said about getting the lead. “They won the last game so they had some life but they lost a lot of games, and it takes a lot of energy out of you. When you can jump on a team like that it helps.”
With a two-goal lead the T-Birds didn’t let their foot off the pedal to start the second. They kept the pressure up and would extend their lead to 3-0 when Nolan Volcan made a nice cross-ice pass that Sami Moilanen banged home for his 13th goal of the year.
Moilanen added an assist on Seattle’s first goal and the two points were the first for the Finnish import in six games.
“I think he’s been playing good all along, he was just not getting on the scoresheet,” Konowalchuk said. “That kid plays hard every day. Sometimes you get the points, but the big thing is that if you’re not getting the points you can’t let it affect your energy level.”
Down three goals the Chiefs mounted a comeback in the second period.
Hayden Ostir would start it with a goal from the high slot and then Kailer Yamamoto would score his 27th goal of the year on a Chiefs power play to cut the lead to 3-2.
The T-Birds responded with a strong shift by the Mathew Barzal line and ended up drawing a penalty. On the ensuing power play, True would tip an Bear slap shot past Sitter to make it 4-2 heading into the third period.
“On the bench, we were just trying to stay on top of things and trying to make sure we were sticking to the game plan,” Gropp said. “Nothing was changing for us and it was good to get those goals back.”
Gropp would open the scoring in the third period to give Seattle a commanding 5-2 lead. He crashed the goal and banged a loose puck into the open Spokane net. It was his 11th goal of the year and extended his point streak to four games.
The New York Rangers prospect has been playing some good hockey over the past month but has been snake bitten when it comes to finding the net.
“I think they’re going to start coming,” Gropp said. “All I can do is continue to play my game and work away from the puck and I think it’s going to come. I think I’ve been playing some good hockey of late and I’m just going to continue that and hopefully they’ll go in.”
With the big lead the T-Birds would add another power-play goal from True to make it 6-2 and more importantly, give Seattle a perfect night on the power play.
Up four goals, Konowalchuk rested some of his top lines which allowed the Chiefs to score two late, cosmetic goals to make it 6-4.
The T-Birds are in a stretch that sees them play four more games over the next week so getting wins is a big momentum boost.
“You can kind of see what we can do when we have our full team,” Volcan said. “Until now we’ve been missing pieces but having everyone in, we’re a good team and starting to show it.”
Seattle has Monday off but will be back in action on Tuesday with another big game against the division leading Everett Silvertips at the ShoWare Center.
“We’re talking about trying to climb the ladder,” Konowalchuk said. “Let’s look above us a little bit. Win percentage wise we’re right there with a bunch of teams. Let’s climb the ladder and see where we can get to.”
Notes
• Turner Ottenbreit had an assist Sunday to give him 17 points on the season, which is a new career high for the defenseman.
• True’s first goal was a tip in from a Bear shot. There is a possibility of a scoring change that will give the goal to Bear. Either way Bear had a three-point night which gives him seven points in his last three games.
• With six goals there were 12 T-Birds who registered at least one point in the win.
• Spokane’s Kailer Yamamoto scored twice Sunday to give him 28 goals on the year. He is now ninth in the WHL scoring race.