T-Birds push past Kelowna; face toughest test yet in Regina

Seattle’s six-game series victory over the Kelowna Rockets didn’t come without its speed bumps along the way.

While some may argue that penalties played a huge part in the series – and they’d be correct – it’d be unfair to Carl Stankowski to start anywhere other than him when attempting to explain why Seattle is advancing to the WHL Championship and Kelowna is not.

The Calgary, Alta. native’s story has been told over and over again here and elsewhere, but another chapter was added to what has already become a pretty lengthy narrative.

The numbers aren’t groundbreaking, necessarily, though they are still very good – a record of 4-1-1 in the series, a 2.80 goals-against-average, and a .912 save percentage. What’s been most remarkable about Stankowski during the playoffs and Seattle’s Western Conference Championship series has been the timing of his saves. It’s something that can’t really be measured in box scores, but if you’ve watched even one of the T-Birds’ games, you’ve probably thought to yourself at least once during each contest, “If he didn’t make that save, this would be a very different game.”

Stankowski’s incredible performance ties directly back to the question about special teams in this series. He was, without a doubt, Seattle’s best and most important penalty killer, as you need your goalie to be. He received quite a bit of help from a defense that performed very well against an elite offensive team – more on them later.

The Rockets were 10-for-42 on the power play during the series, averaging seven advantages per game. Seattle, on the other hand, had 24 power plays – an average of four per night – of which they converted on eight. The T-Birds outscored Kelowna 20-17 during the series and, with one shorthanded goal apiece, had an 11-6 advantage in even-strength goals, showing once again how good they can be when they stay out of the penalty box.

Was every penalty called against Seattle justified? Maybe not. Did Seattle deserve more power plays than they were awarded? Perhaps. But the bottom line is that for the majority of this series, the Rockets outplayed the T-Birds, and when you’re being outplayed, you tend to take more penalties.

In the six games, Seattle was penalized for 18 stick infractions – in this case, tripping, hooking and slashing – to Kelowna’s 11. Stick infractions against are usually a good indicator of which team is catching up with the play rather than controlling it.

So how did Seattle win if Kelowna outplayed them for the majority of the series? It goes back to Stankowski. The Rockets outshot the T-Birds 193-147 during the series and held the shot advantage in four of the six games. In Games 3 and 5, the shot gap was pronounced, with the Rockets outshooting the T-Birds 35-14 and 40-24, respectively. Seattle was able to win both of those games, in large part due to Stankowski, despite also surrendering 17 combined power play chances to the Rockets in the two contests.

The just-turned-17-year-old goaltender wasn’t the only bright spot for Seattle during the series. Mathew Barzal, Ryan Gropp and Sami Moilanen all averaged at least a point per game with Barzal leading the charge with one goal and nine assists. You can essentially add Keegan Kolesar as a point per game player as well since he had three goals and two assists in five games before being ejected in the first period of Game 6.

Turner Ottenbreit was heroic on the backend, shouldering even more of the load when Ethan Bear went down with injury in Game 3. Austin Strand, Aaron Hyman, Reece Harsch and Jarret Tyszka also deserve accolades for the way they stepped up when Seattle lost the Western Conference nominee for Defenseman of the Year.

One of the most impressive things the defensive unit did was keep Reid Gardiner in check following Games 1 and 2, when Gardiner had five points, including three goals. In Games 3 through 6, the 20-year-old forward who leads the WHL in playoff scoring was held to just one assist and was a minus-four. That’s not just the defensemen holding Gardiner at bay, either. Scott Eansor, Nolan Volcan, Donovan Neuls, Moilanen and the rest of the forwards deserve credit for shadowing him during the latter part of the series when it looked like he might take over.

Now, Seattle turns their attention to the Regina Pats, the WHL’s best offensive team that, like Seattle, also features their conference’s nominees for both Player of the Year and Defenseman of the Year in Sam Steel and Connor Hobbs, respectively. Steel led the WHL in points during the regular season with 131, followed closely by his teammate, Adam Brooks, who had 130. Hobbs led all defensemen with 85 points on 31 goals and 54 assists.

Unfortunately for Seattle, Bear’s status remains unclear headed into the Championship series, which could be a huge blow to the Seattle blue line. Adam Brooks, who was hobbled in Regina’s second-round series against Swift Current, appears to be nearly 100 percent after registering eight points in the final three games of the Eastern Conference Championship series versus Lethbridge.

The Pats are deep, too. Dawson Leedahl will be a name familiar to Thunderbirds fans as he spent the first four years of his career with the Everett Silvertips. After leaving Everett, Leedahl exploded for 89 points this year, almost as many as he had accumulated during his four seasons with the ‘Tips. Nick Henry, Austin Wagner, Filip Ahl and Wyatt Sloboshan give the Pats three lines that they can run consistently. On the back end, Hobbs is joined by Josh Mahura, Chase Harrison, Sergey Zborovskiy and Jonathan Smart.

Their goaltender, Tyler Brown, has had a fantastic postseason as well. He’s 12-2-3 during the playoffs with a .926 save percentage and 2.13 goals against average.

The Kelowna series was tough, but the contest with Regina – the matchup many were expecting before the season began – figures to be an even bigger hill for Seattle to climb. Fortunately for the T-Birds, their best effort of round three came in Game 6, momentum they should hope to carry into the championship series.