THUNDERBIRDS

Thunderbirds beat by bad bounce in OT of Game 1 of WHL finals

May 6, 2016, 11:27 PM

Brandon's Tanner Kaspick celebrates with his teammates after scoring the game-winner. (Photo by Tim...

Brandon's Tanner Kaspick celebrates with his teammates after scoring the game-winner. (Photo by Tim Smith)

(Photo by Tim Smith)

The Seattle Thunderbirds found themselves tied at 2 in overtime of the first game of the WHL Championship series Friday night against the Brandon Wheat Kings, and they were done in by a bad bounce.

Brandon’s Duncan Campbell took a shot at the Seattle net 6:22 into the overtime period that sailed over goalie Landon Bow and the net. Unfortunately for the T-Birds, the puck rebounded off the glass and back out in front, where Tanner Kaspick batted it out of the air and into the Seattle net to give his team a 3-2 win.

The Wheat Kings celebrated while the T-Birds slumped off the ice after only their second loss of the postseason, as they now trail the best-of-seven series 1-0. The Thunderbirds will now have to do something they’ve haven’t had to do much of in the last three months — shake off a tough loss and regroup for Game 2 on Saturday night.

“Our heads are not down,” Seattle’s Scott Eansor said after the game. “We’re focused on the next game. First thing we said is we’re focused on tomorrow. We’re going to have a good meal tonight and we’re looking forward to the first shift tomorrow.”

For 41 minutes on Friday, the T-Birds were playing their game.

They were hemming in the high-powered Wheat Kings and not giving them much room on the ice. They even built a 2-1 lead early in the third period on a Ryan Gropp power-play goal. Brandon got going after that, though, outshooting Seattle 28-6 over the third period and overtime to eventually tie the game and then win it on Kaspick’s goal.

“It was two different teams for us,” Seattle head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “First part were playing like we want to, managing the puck and on the forecheck. I thought after we scored our second goal we definitely turned over a lot of pucks and allowed them to come at us … We couldn’t get the momentum back. We’ve got to manage the puck. I think we had more turnovers in that third period than we’ve had all of the playoffs, so we’ve got to get better there.”

Seattle started turning the puck over and the Wheat Kings grabbed the momentum.

“They scored to take the lead and it seemed for whatever reason we got playing better after that,” Brandon head coach Kelly McCrimmon said of the third period. “I don’t know if it was the urgency or the reality of the situation but we supported the puck better in the final stages of the game.”

Nolan Patrick answered the Gropp goal to tie the game at 2 at 4:50 of the third period. With traffic in front of Bow, a rebound found Patrick, who was parked on the doorstep. He wasted no time to pot his 11th goal of the playoffs.

There was a lot of contact with Bow but the officials determined that it all occurred after the puck was in the net so there was no goaltender interference. After the game, Konowalchuk said he couldn’t complain about the call. He was more concerned with how his team was playing at that moment.

“I’m a little bit frustrated with the third period and the overtime,” he said. “We got ahead of ourselves but the first period and second period we were playing pretty good hockey and skating the way we want to and need to to have a chance to succeed here. That will be our challenge to get back on track.”

Brandon took the lead in the first period on the power play after the T-Birds got a little too aggressive on their penalty kill. They had three skaters in the Wheat Kings zone but an attempted slap shot was thwarted by a body check and that led to a three-on-one the other way.

Reid Duke had the puck and he looked off the lone Seattle defender and fired a wrist shot past Bow’s glove hand for his seventh goal of the postseason. Brandon ended the night 1-for-5 on the power play.

“When you’re short handed and going in on an odd man rush it can backfire,” Konowalchuk said of the play. “I don’t mind us going on the rush but I’d like us to recognize the situation there.”

The T-Birds would tie the game in the third period while killing off a penalty.

Donovan Neuls had the puck short-handed and was on a rush with Alexander True. He attempted to pass the puck to True but it hit a Brandon defender and rebounded right back to him. He cut into the slot, got goalie Jordan Papirny down and deposited his third goal of the playoffs.

When Mathew Barzal was tripped nine seconds into the third period the T-Birds took the lead on the ensuing power play. Gropp got some speed and blew past a defender to slide the puck past Papirny, but that would be the end of Seattle’s happy times on the night.

There were a lot of positives for Seattle as it was able to dictate the style of play for a good portion of the game. The T-Birds will have to find a way to do it for 60 minutes if they wish to come back and get a road split on Saturday night. For the Wheat Kings, they weren’t happy with the way the game started but were plenty happy with the ending.

“They came out hard like we kind of expected,” Patrick said. “I think it took us a while to get our legs under us but we came out with the win so that’s all that mattered.”

Game 2 will be Saturday night at Brandon’s Westman Place.

Notes

• Seattle got Cavin Leth back in the lineup after he missed the last three games against Kelowna in the last round. He played well and nearly scored on a first period breakaway.

• Both goaltenders played well on Friday with Bow making 39 saves and Papirny stopping 31 Seattle shots.

• The game-winning goal was quickly reviewed by the video replay booth to make sure that Kaspick’s stick was below the cross bar and therefore a legal goal. Replays showed that without a doubt it was and Kaspick was certain as well. “Just wait til it got low enough,” he said. “By the time it was right in my wheel house it was low enough so I just swung at it and fortunately it went in.”

• The Wheat Kings did a good job of keeping Barzal quiet on Friday. He did hit a post and create some offense but Brandon managed to keep the New York Islanders prospect off the score sheet. It’s the fifth time in the postseason a team has managed that. Seattle is 3-2 in those games.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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