THUNDERBIRDS

Carl Stankowski shines for T-Birds in Game 1 win

Mar 25, 2017, 12:41 AM

Seattle goalie Carl Stankowski makes one of his 33 saves as the T-Birds won Game 1 (Brian Liesse/T-...

Seattle goalie Carl Stankowski makes one of his 33 saves as the T-Birds won Game 1 (Brian Liesse/T-Birds)

(Brian Liesse/T-Birds)

KENT – Making his first career playoff start, 16-year-old goalie Carl Stankowski found himself in the cross hairs Friday night.

With the T-Birds clinging to a 3-2, third period lead, the Tri City Americans’ Morgan Geekie had been awarded a penalty shot after he was hooked on a short-handed breakaway. Geekie notched 35 goals this season and is one of the league’s top snipers.

Stankowski showed no fear as Geekie made his way down the ice. As Geekie moved in on the rookie goalie, he tried to slide the puck through the five-hole but Stankowski was ready for it. He got his stick down and stopped the shot to preserve the lead. The T-Birds would then add a goal late to win Game 1 of their best-of-seven first round series with the Americans 4-2.

“I knew he’s a really good player and I just tried to stop the puck,” Stankowski said nonchalantly afterwards.

It was part of a sequence where Stankowski had to face four short-handed breakaway chances by the Americans as the Thunderbirds got sloppy with the puck. He stopped all but one and ended the night making 33 saves for his first career playoff win.

“He was unbelievable,” Keegan Kolesar said. “Our 20-year-old goalie couldn’t start tonight and we had our 16-year-old goalie ready to go. It was huge game for him and that’s what we need.”

The 20-year-old goalie, Rylan Toth, was not able to go after injuring himself two weeks ago. Stankowski found out he was going to start earlier in the day and took it in stride.

“It was pretty cool,” Stankowski said. “My team played really well in front of me and limited the chances and kept it outside. The ones that came in were good chances that I just tried to do my best.”

Seattle, playing again without Mathew Barzal, relied on two goals from Kolesar and a penalty kill that shut out a good Americans’ unit on all seven of their attempts.

“PK was real big, no doubt about it,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “Too many penalties. We’ve got to crack down a little bit and Carl was good.”

The game got off to an odd start as it appeared that Seattle scored 20 seconds into it. Ethan Bear flung a shot from the point that Kolesar tipped in. With the ShoWare Center crowd going crazy, the officials were waiving the goal off. They claimed that Kolesar had made incidental contact with goalie Rylan Parenteau.

“We thought it was an offside they were going to call on Bearsy there,” Kolesar said. “I haven’t seen the replay yet but I don’t think I touched the goalie.”

Kolesar would get his revenge five minutes later when he picked up a rebound at the side of the net and quickly flung it at the net and past Parenteau. This one counted and the T-Birds took the early lead.

They would extend that lead on the power play on a Ryan Gropp wrist shot from the circle to make it 2-0.

“It was just a lot of ups and down there,” Kolesar said. “After that first one, I was kind of upset on what happened there. We just went back at them there and were able to get two quick ones.”

The Americans would cut the lead midway through the period when Jordan Topping was able to get his own rebound through the legs of Stankowski.

After a scoreless second period the T-Birds appeared to be back in control when Austin Strand scored off the rush to make it 3-1.

That’s when the breakaways happened.

Seattle went on back-to-back power plays but on each they coughed the puck up at their own blue line. Each time it led to a Tri City breakaway. Stankowski stopped Parker AuCoin twice and then Geekie’s penalty shot.

The one he couldn’t get came off the stick of Austyn Playfair who beat Stankowski with an elevated back-handed shot.

Tri City went on two more late power plays with a chance to tie the game but the Seattle penalty kill came up big. Kolesar scored his second of the night after coming out of the penalty box and snapped a quick shot to make it 4-2.

“I just wanted to get a good shot on net,” Kolesar said. “Luckily it found a way into the back of the net.”

So the Thunderbirds will take their one-game lead in the series and get ready for another challenge on Saturday night as the two teams will meet for Game 2.

“We still want to improve on things,” Konowalchuk said. “They’re going to be better, we want to be better.”

Notes

• Not only was it Stankowski’s first career playoff start, it was also the first time that he had started in back-to-back games. He picked up the win against Vancouver in the T-Birds last regular season game this past Sunday. When asked if he was playing again on Saturday, the rookie shrugged and said, “I have no clue.”

• The last time the Thunderbirds had a 16-year-old goalie win a playoff game was during the 2009 playoffs when Calvin Pickard made 33 saves to beat the Spokane Chiefs 2-1. Pickard is currently playing in the NHL with the Colorado Avalanche.

• With the playoffs comes an information black out from WHL teams so there was no word as to the injury status of both Toth and Barzal.

• Stankowski was at his best in the third period when he stopped 18 of the 19 shots he faced. Tri City out shot Seattle 35-31 on the evening.

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