Thunderbirds end preseason with a 3-2 loss to the Silvertips

EVERETT – The Thunderbirds headed up I-5 Saturday night for their final dress rehearsal of the preseason.

Seattle came out strong but would fade in the third period at The Angel of the Winds Arena and eventually drop the preseason finale 3-2 to the Silvertips. Nolan Volcan scored twice in the loss for the Thunderbirds while goalie Cole Schwebius made 25 saves.

The Thunderbirds out shot Everett 25-16 over the game’s first 40-minutes but would get outshot 11-2 in the third. Tied at two in the third, Everett would get the game-winning score on a short-handed breakaway from Gage Gonvalves.

“The third was terrible,” Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette said. “They cranked it up a notch and we had no push back.”

Despite the loss, Volcan looked ready to go for the season.

His two goals were scored in nearly identical fashion, and both would get Seattle tied. After Akash Bains gave the Silvertips a 1-0 lead early in the first, Volcan would strip an Everett defender and beat goalie Dustin Wolf. Later, with time running out in the second and Seattle down 2-1, Volcan did it again.

Both goals were unassisted and not something Volcan says he’s done in a game before.

“Guys were kind of joking in between,” Volcan said about the goals. “Usually you only get one of those all year and I hope I didn’t waste them. It’s nice to put a couple in the back of the net and get that confidence up.”

Early in the game, Volcan was gelling with his linemates Matthew Wedman and Andrej Kukuca. They moved the puck well and creating scoring chances.

But, the winger wasn’t happy with how the game finished.

“That last 20, for whatever reason we took our foot off the gas,” Volcan said. “Give them credit, they had eight forwards and out competed us, we can’t let that happen. We’ll have a good week of practice and get ready for Portland.”

There were good moments for Volcan and his line however. He played with Wedman a great deal last season and it appears that Kukuca is fitting in to the role vacated by the departed Sami Moilanen.

“Andrej is a great player, same was Weds,” Volcan said. “They’re easy to play with and I think we just go out there and don’t over think it…hopefully we can carry it into the season.”

Volcan’s second goal tied the game at two but Seattle would cough up the puck while on a third-period power play and it would prove costly. Goncalves would intercept a pass and speed off to the races alone. He made a move on Schwebius to slide the puck in the net for the clinching goal.

“You’ve got to be able to sustain what we did in the first,” O’Dette added. “We’ve been playing short on the back end for a while and we had six D tonight, finally. Pretty early we were down five again with a couple guys coming off illness who haven’t been practicing too much. I think we wore down as the game went on and guys need to learn how to manage the game and play smart.”

Seattle will now take a week of practice before opening the season at home against the Portland Winterhawks Saturday at the accesso ShoWare Center.

Notes

• The Thunderbirds end the preseason with a 4-3-0-0 record. O’Dette stated beforehand that he was looking to make progress over the seven-game schedule. “I think we have,” the coach said. “We spread out the ice time quite a bit throughout the preseason. It will be a little different going into the regular season. We’ll play the guys who are going and reward guys for playing hard.”

• Schwebius played well in the loss as he and Eric Ward are still competing for the backup job to Liam Hughes. “He was good,” O’Dette said of his goalie. “He made big saves when he needed to. He kept us in the game there. They’re guy was good we just didn’t test him enough down the stretch.”

• O’Dette said that he’s been in contact with injured Jarret Tyszka. The defenseman was hurt while playing with the Montreal Canadiens in a rookie game last week. He is still in Montreal and O’Dette said that the Thunderbirds were monitoring the situation but had no further updates.

• Reece Harsch missed Saturday’s game and has not played at all in the preseason, nor training camp. O’Dette said that Harsch was just starting to get back on the ice and that there was a chance that he could be ready for Saturday’s opener but it was till too early to tell.

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