Thunderbirds earn healthy win in Tri-City

What a difference having a full roster makes. For the first time all season, the Seattle Thunderbirds had a healthy lineup as they took on the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick.

Seattle took advantage, controlled the play Saturday night, while throwing 43 shots at Americans goalie Beck Warm. In one of the most complete games they’ve played all year, the Thunderbirds skated out of the Toyota Center with a 4-1 win over the Americans.

“Really good game from start to finish,” Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette said after. “I thought we controlled the play for the most part. It’s obviously nice to have the lineup back to full strength. (Jarret) Tyszka was a big factor, he played well tonight.”

Seattle (10-13-3-0) picked up goals from four different scores as rookie goaltender Cole Schwebius kicked out 21 shots to pick up his first WHL victory. Defenseman Jarret Tyszka was back for his first game of the season and was joined by the returns of Reece Harsch and forward Payton Mount.

The additions were noticeable.

O’Dette paired Harsch and Tyszka on his top defensive pairing. It would be the first time all season that the Thunderbirds had a veteran defensive pairing on the ice.

“First of all Tyszka, with his skating ability and puck moving ability, he can transfer the puck out of our end smoothly which can save us a lot time in there,” O’Dette said. “It slots the other guys down to where they can have favorable match ups and puts them in opportunities where they can have success.”

Seattle was able to ice a balanced attack and had the Americans on their heels all evening. That attack started early and came from the Thunderbirds top line, which was a beast throughout the game.

Just 14 seconds into the first period, Nolan Volcan and Matthew Wedman worked the puck in deep and out in front where Zack Andrusiak potted his 19^th of the season.

“You can’t start the game any better,” O’Dette said of the goal. “We executed off the face off, got in on the forecheck, created the turnover and got that first goal. We were off and running.”

The goal extended Andrusiak’s scoring streak to nine straight in a run that has seem him score 12 times while piling up 13 points.

Seattle’s top line carried the play on nearly every shift it took. By the time the final horn had sounded it had combined for two goals, two assists and 12 shots on goal. Wedman forced the issue for much of the evening and was rewarded late with an empty net goal to seal Seattle’s fourth victory on the road.

Tyszka had missed action due to a hit he suffered late in the summer while in camp with the Montreal Canadiens. It was an upper body injury and if there was any concern over him being tentative, he doused those concerns in the first period when he got into a scuffle with Tri-City’s Nolan Yaremko.

It wasn’t exactly what the team wanted to see from the Canadiens prospect in his first game of the year.

“That’s Tyszka,” O’Dette said. “He’s competitive and can play with some fire at times. I’m happy that he made it out unscathed but he’s playing hard, he’s competing and when you’re competing, there’s a fight sometimes.”

Despite the early goal and a 14-6 first-period shot advantage, the Thunderbirds only had a 1-0 lead heading into the second period. Tri-City (14-12-1-1) would even the score at 9:55 of the second, with a power-play goal from Yaremko.

The Thunderbirds would then have to kill off another crucial penalty late in the period and that carried over to the start of the third. They got through it and responded with goals.

“We had a good amount of zone time in the first and second,” O’Dette said. “When you do that it can wear down the opposition and open up things in the third. I think we did that and it led to the success in the third and we were able to break through with a couple goals.”

First it would be Dillon Hamaliuk, who would fire his ninth of the season from the slot after a good pass from Noah Philp at 1:42 of the third. Simon Kubicek would then put Seattle up 3-1 at 11:24 when his shot hit the end boards, rebounded back out and hit Warm before landing in the net.

While it was a bad bounce goal, it was one that felt earned by how badly Seattle was out shooting and out chancing the Americans.

Seattle ended the night with a 43-22 shot advantage.

“It seems odd because we haven’t been getting many of those bounces this year so it was nice to get one,” O’Dette said. “But, the more you’re in their end, the more you’re putting pucks on their net, you’re bound to get a bounce at some point.”

The Thunderbirds will return home for a rivalry game at the accesso ShoWare Center Saturday night against the Everett Silvertips.

Notes

• Schwebius was making his fourth start to relieve Liam Hughes. All four have come on the road and Saturday he didn’t allow an even-strength score. “He was good,” O’Dette added. “He was called upon for some big saves there in the third period to keep them at bay when they made a little bit of a push. I thought the team played well in front of him, supported him, and he was solid all night. The team was pumped for him.”

• Tyrel Bauer was a healthy scratch Saturday. The 16-year-old rookie had played in every game for Seattle so far and was due a night off. “Sometimes it’s nice to be able to see from up top and get a feel from up there,” O’Dette said. “He’s played a lot of minutes for us and it’s not bad for a young kid like that to take a step back and see it from the top.”

• Philp has played three games since returning from injury. In those games he has a goal and five assists.

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