THUNDERBIRDS

Thunderbirds season ends after Game 6 loss to Vancouver Giants

Mar 30, 2019, 10:18 PM | Updated: Mar 31, 2019, 7:30 pm

Seattle captain Nolan Volcan is embraced by Matthew Wedman after playing his final WHL game Saturda...

Seattle captain Nolan Volcan is embraced by Matthew Wedman after playing his final WHL game Saturday night (Brian Liesse/T-Birds)

(Brian Liesse/T-Birds)

KENT – The Seattle Thunderbirds season, which found life in the second half of the year, came to an end Saturday night.

The Vancouver Giants controlled Game 6 from start to finish and eliminated the Thunderbirds after a 5-1 final at the accesso ShoWare Center. Vancouver wins the series 4-2 and will advance to the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs to play the winner of the Victoria Royals and Kamloops Blazers series.

It ended up being a frustrating night for the Thunderbirds, who started the game tentative and were never able to generate a consistent push. They end up being eliminated at home for the first time since 2016 when they lost to Brandon in Game 5 of the WHL Championship Series.

“I think we were ready to go,” Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette said. “Our guys were excited. In games like this, when you’re facing elimination you want to get off to a good start. You don’t want that doubt to creep into your mind. I thought our guys battled hard right to the very end. Sometimes you run out of gas and I think we ran out of some steam at the end of the series.”

Vancouver was paced by a pair of goals from Jadon Joseph as well as Bowen Byram, who had a goal and an assist. David Tendeck got the start in net for the Giants and made 33 saves to pick up the win. Seattle got one goal from Andrej Kukuca while Roddy Ross kicked out 28 Giants shots.

After scoring seven power-play goals in the first five games of the series, against a good Vancouver penalty kill, the Thunderbirds weren’t able to score on five attempts Saturday.

“We weren’t quite connecting with some of the passes and stuff, doing what made us successful in previous games,” O’Dette said of the power play. “I thought they made a couple of adjustments that countered what we we’re doing…the power play took a lot of positive steps over the last part of the season and was great in this series, just wasn’t there for us tonight.”

The failed attempts were compounded in the second period, with the Seattle trailing 1-0, Vancouver’s Jared Dmytriw raced down the ice and ripped a wrist shot that beat Roddy Ross clean. Instead of tying the game, Seattle found itself down 2-0 and all the momentum was wearing red sweaters.

“Special teams can always be a momentum swing,” O’Dette said. “If you can get one or get some momentum going it can tilt the ice in your favor. If you give up the shortie it can obviously do the opposite and special teams were obviously a factor tonight.”

The Giants rode that momentum to two more goals in the second period as Joseph would strike twice for his fifth and sixth goals of the series. As the Thunderbirds skated off the ice to end the second period, they trailed one of the top defensive clubs by four goals.

Vancouver built a 5-0 lead early in the third period before Kukuca scored to stop the bleeding.

Saturday’s loss ends what was a strong rebound by the Thunderbirds in the second half of the season. Left for dead as the calendar turned to 2019, Seattle caught fire after a slew of shrewd trades by general manager Bil La Forge.

O’Dette pushed the right buttons and the Thunderbirds ended the second half of the year winning 20 games – the third highest total in the Western Conference. The surge was good enough to get them the last wild card slot in the conference and a date with the top-seeded Giants.

“I just told the guys ‘man there’s a lot to be proud of. You guys showed a lot of heart, showed a lot of character’,” O’Dette said. “Where we were at Christmas time and at the trade deadline it could of gone in the opposite direction, that’s a credit to everyone in that room. The new guys who came in and bought in, tons of character in that room and it showed off time and time again during the second half of the season.”

The loss also ended the career of Seattle captain Nolan Volcan, who was the heart and soul of the Thunderbirds this season.

A quiet, lead-by-example type of player, Volcan put the team on his back in the second half and played with a cast on his arm due to a wrist injury that never seemed to affect him.

“He’ll be a standard of where you measure T-Birds and the type of player you’re looking for,” O’Dette, who coached Volcan his entire career, said. “He exemplifies our identity and just an unbelievable career, he’s done everything. In my opinion, one of the greatest T-Birds to ever put on the jersey. Tons of him to be proud of and great legacy to pass on to younger guys.”

The mood was somber in the Seattle room after the game and with a young roster, especially on defense, the lessons learned during the season and in the series with Vancouver should pay dividends in the future for Seattle.

“It’s part of the process,” O’Dette said. “You let it sting, you build on the experience and you grow from there. I told the young guys, the (Payton) Mounts, the (Tyrel) Bauers, the (Kai) Uchacz’s, this is just a taste. You build off this experience and you remember the feeling of what it’s like to lose a tough series and you take that experience and grow from it. Lots of playoff hockey for those guys down the road.”

Notes

• Volcan ends his Seattle career the franchise leader in postseason games played with 55. All told he appeared in 321 regular season games and scored 100 goals, 131 assists for 231 points. He was a member of two Western Conference Championship teams and a key member of the 2017 WHL Championship team.

• Noah Philp also saw the end of his WHL career Saturday. Philp played in 259 league games for Kootenay and Seattle. The Thunderbirds acquired him prior to the start of the 2017-2018 season and in his two years with Seattle he scored 40 goals while recording 125 points in 127 games.

• While he didn’t play in Saturday’s game due to suspension, Sean Richards’ WHL career ends. Richards played for Seattle, Everett and Regina and scored 47 goals, 81 assists and 128 points over 244 regular season games. He was a member of the Everett Silvertips squad that won last year’s Western Conference. He came to Seattle on a New Year’s Day trade.

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