THUNDERBIRDS

Thunderbirds make it nine straight over Victoria with 5-4 win

Feb 8, 2017, 10:44 PM | Updated: 10:44 pm

The Thunderbirds relied on some big performances from their top players Wednesday night as they beat the Victoria Royals for the ninth straight time.

They had to work to earn win number nine as the Royals stormed back from a second period, 4-1 deficit to tie the game in the third. Seattle would answer however as Ethan Bear fired a slap shot on the power play to give Seattle a 5-4 lead that they would hold on to.

“Good job by our guys sticking with it,” Seattle coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “They were ready at the start. We lost a little bit of our composure in the second period but in the third period we just kept playing and got the win.”

The T-Birds scored three goals in the first period in front of a small crowd at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena. The Victoria area was buried in snow during the day on Wednesday which caused many fans to stay home. Despite an empty barn, the T-Birds found a way to get motivated early.

“Our guys have been pretty prepared to start most games of late,” Konowalchuk said. “I don’t think they’re worried about the crowd, they’re focused on what they have to do and are tuning out any distractions.”

With the win Seattle moves to one point behind the Everett Silvertips for first place in the U.S. Division and have won 15 of it’s last 17 games.

As they have been since the start of the calendar year, Seattle’s top line was spectacular. Ryan Gropp scored a goal and added three assists, Mathew Barzal notched four assists and Keegan Kolesar scored twice in the win. It was the second night in a row that a player from that line figured in every one of Seattle’s goals.

The power play was also a big factor for the T-Birds.

They have been looking for consistency with the man advantage and found in on Wednesday night as they ended up 3-for-5. The biggest of the night was Bear’s in the third period, a big slap shot from the point, that beat Victoria goalie Griffen Outhouse with some traffic in front. It was Bear’s 19th goal of the season.

“It feels like we’ve been generating chances for the most part on the power play of late,” Konowalchuk said of his special teams. “Sometimes on the power play they come in bunches. I think you see that line on five-on-five being pretty confident offensively and then they can add another step on the power play.”

Seattle used the power play to open the scoring early on in the first period as Kolesar notched his first of the night. Three minutes after that goal, the T-Birds extended the lead to 2-1 as Gropp and Barzal combined to set up Austin Strand for his sixth goal of the year.

The Royals would cut that lead on a goal by Ralph Jarratt but Seattle would strike again before the first period ended. Again, on the power play, they worked the puck around to Gropp who flung a deadly wrist shot from the faceoff circle that Outhouse could not get a piece of.

The goal was Gropp’s 19th and he extended his point streak to 10 straight games. Coming off a hat trick the night before, Gropp has six goals in his last four games.

Up 3-1 in the second period the T-Birds weren’t done.

They added another goal when Gropp made a nice pass from the half-boards to a net-crashing Kolesar. The big winger banged home his 14th of the season and it looked like the Thunderbirds were in control.

Victoria would use the power play themselves to get back into it.

Tyler Soy and Matthew Phillips would score back-to-back power-play goals mid-way through the second period to cut the lead to one. Jared Dmytriw would then get the game even with a goal just after an early power play ended to start the third period.

“Nobody was frustrated,” Konowalchuk said about his team’s mood after the second period. “Obviously you hate to give up the lead but you have to take a step back and realize that going into the third we’re still up a goal and if you go and have a good period, you’ll come up with a win.”

Seattle wasn’t deterred by the comeback and would take the lead back on Bear’s marker. After surrendering two power-play goals in the game, their penalty kill came to life late. The T-Birds killed off a power play in the middle of the period and then a late 6-on-4 chance over the last minute of play.

“In the end there, (Turner) Ottenbreit is usually out there but he was in the box so other guys had to step up,” Konowalchuk said about the kill at the end of the game. “Huge timely kills for sure.”

The T-Birds were once again playing short-handed as the injuries have been mounting of late. Nolan Volcan was in the lineup Wednesday but played limited minutes as he is nursing an injury suffered last Saturday in Portland. Elijah Brown, who was banged up on Tuesday, was back on Wednesday night which helped the T-Birds maintain some semblance of normal lines.

With the win under its belt, Seattle will get back on the ferry to head home for a pair of home games this weekend, starting Friday night against Tri City. After trailing Everett for most of the year, Seattle has a chance to take over first place this weekend, but with a lot of hockey still to play, that isn’t the main focus.

“I brought it up to the guys a little bit about where we were and I’m sure they knew it themselves,” Konowalchuk said. “That being said, we’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves. We’re just worried about one game a time and where we end up, we end up. It’s a tight race from top to bottom.”

Notes

• Gropp continues to play impressive hockey. Over his ten-game scoring streak he has amassed eight goals and 20 points.

• Barzal notched four assists for the sixth time in his WHL career and has a remarkable 38 assists in 27 games this year.

• Konowalchuk said that Volcan could not finish the game and is still day-to-day. “He didn’t finish the game but I don’t think it’s a long term thing,” the coach said. “He’s day-to-day. It’s something we want to be careful with too, he’s a real important player.”

• Jarret Tyszka was a scratch again on Wednesday but Konowalchuk felt he could be close to returning but cautioned that the defenseman was still day-to-day. Seattle’s 2016 first round pick Jake Lee played in his second WHL game after making his debut on Tuesday.

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