Slow start sinks Thunderbirds against Cougars in Prince George

If you wanted to gauge how Friday night’s game against the Prince George Cougars was going to go for the Thunderbirds, you just needed to watch the first 41 seconds.

That’s how long it took for the Cougars to find the net.

Josh Maser would beat Cole Schwebius off the rush to open the scoring and things did not improve for the Thunderbirds after that. Seattle gave up three more first-period goals on the way to a disappointing 4-1 loss in Prince George.

“We didn’t get off to a good start,” Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette said after. “A couple mistakes early, took some penalties to zap any momentum that we could have gotten. Pretty disappointing start when you’ve got the young kid in net and that’s how you respond for him, it’s unacceptable.”

It would be the third loss in four games for a Seattle (7-5-2-0) team that found ways to struggle managing the puck. That resulted in too much time spent in the Thunderbirds end and they were only able to get 22 shots on goalie Isaiah DiLaura.

The Cougars set the tone early by laying a couple of big hits on Seattle players.

“We’ve got a little bit of an identity crisis,” O’Dette said of his club’s response. “A team that wouldn’t allow one of our guys to get violently hit, we used to respond when that happens. Now, there hasn’t been any response the last couple times it’s happened. That’s not our team, that’s not our identity. They set the tone early there and it had an impact on the game.”

That tone put the Thunderbirds on their heels early and often.

By chasing the game, the Thunderbirds also took a number of penalties and gave Prince George (6-7-1-2) seven power-play chances on the night. The Cougars, who came into the game with the 21^st rated power-play unit, would score twice with the man advantage.

“(We’re) taking a lot of stick penalties and stuff like that,” O’Dette said. “We’ll kill the aggressive penalties but there are a lot of stick penalties when we’re chasing the game. Careless stick penalties, that’s a telltale sign that you’re not up to speed in the game.”

Maser’s goal opened the scoring and came on the first shot of the night for Prince George.

The Cougars would add to the lead at the 9:17 mark of the first when Joel Lakusta would score a power-play goal on a shot from the point. Prince George’s leading scorer, Vladislav Mikhalchuk, would then be allowed to skate around the Thunderbirds zone seven minutes later to score his third of the year on a back hand.

With just over a minute left in the period, Schwebius would make a save while killing a penalty but Prince George’s Tyson Upper was there to lift his second marker of the season over the prone goalie.

That would be all the offense the Cougars would need as Seattle was not able to muster much of an offensive attack the rest of the way. Seattle had three power-play chances on the evening but was not able to cash in on any of them.

“When you get into their end you’ve got to win some battles,” O’Dette said of the Thunderbirds offensive struggles. “They can’t just take the puck off you as easily as they do. We’ve got to support better down there.”

Samuel Huo would keep the Thunderbirds from getting shut out as he put back a rebound late in the game for his second of the season.

The Thunderbirds will get a chance to erase the memories of Friday’s loss quickly as they will be back at the CN Centre Saturday night for a rematch with the Cougars.

“Obviously we want to redeem ourselves and get back on the horse,” O’Dette said. “That’s the benefit of having back-to-back games against the same team. We get to go out and rectify the situation.”

Notes

• Schwebius ended up with 29 stops on the night and kept the score from looking worse with a couple of spectacular saves in the third period.

• Friday night saw the debut of Brecon Wood for Seattle. The forward was acquired earlier in the week from the Moose Jaw Warriors. He didn’t figure in the scoring but did record one shot on goal.

• O’Dette shuffled his lines up a bit Friday. Zack Andrusiak moved up to the top line with Nolan Volcan and Matthew Wedman while Andrej Kukuca slid into the line with Dillon Hamaliuk and Noah Philp.

• The Cougars snapped a four-game losing streak with the win.

Follow @AndyEide