T-Birds Training Camp wrap: Day 3

By Andrew Eide

Day three of the Thunderbirds training camp was highlited by a scrimmage with the full team. The squad was split into three teams who each played two ‘halves’ of hockey. This was a chance to see the vets in game action as well as some of the younger players who had played in scrimmages the past two days. The team will play two such scrimmages on Sunday with the first starting at nine a.m.

Here is a rundown of the notable events from yesterday’s scrimmage:

Mathew Barzal: Everyone was interested to see how Barzal would fare against the older players after dominating the scrimmages with the younger players. While he was held off the score board on Saturday he still showed off his tremendous skill. His quickness still played a role and while he didn’t factor in the scoring his line routinely dominated the puck and generated several good scoring chances.

Seth Swenson: Swenson looked strong, as he did at the end of last season, and scored a couple of goals and could be in for a real good season.

Taylor Green: Several people had wondered if Green would play forward and that’s exactly where he was lined up on Saturday. While he did not do much to stand out for most of the day he did end up with a break away in ‘overtime’ of one of the sessions, but was stopped by goalie Brad Rebagliati.

Dylan Gambrell: The 16 year-old from Bonney Lake continued to look impressive. He has good quickness and has shown a great offensive instinct. If the Thunderbirds are able to sign him it could be a big boost to their offense in the future, especially considering how well he played on Friday with Barzal.

Austin Douglas: The big defenseman had a strong outing on Saturday and continued to look steady on the back end. He chipped in on offense with a nice, strong wrister that created a juicy rebound that Brendan Rouse banged home for a goal.

Roberts Lipsbergs: The import draftee had a strong game and looks like he will be a solid two-way center for the T-Birds this year. He is a strong skater and is around the puck at all times.

Riley Sheen: Sheen was buried in Medicine Hat’s roster last year and his numbers suffered for it and Seattle is hoping that new scenery will ignite his game again. Saturday he continued to show the strong puck handling and exciting quickness that he displayed on Friday. He was tough to get off the puck, despite his smaller frame, and was a big part of a line that controlled the puck and generated chances each time on the ice.

Shea Theodore and Jesse Forsberg: The two defensemen were paired up all day and seemed to play really well together. They were solid in their own end and did a good job manning the point when the puck was in the offensive zone. Theodore looks like he is already in mid-season form with some stellar headman passes all day long.

Daniel Cotton: Cotton, who is in the competition for the back up goalie spot had another strong day making several steady saves. If I had to handicap the back up spot right now I would say Cotton has a slight lead over Danny Mumaugh and Nolan Kruizenga.

Tyler Alos: The goal of the day belonged to Alos who broke into the zone, deked a defenseman out of his socks and put a nice top shelf shot into the net.

Centers: Some readers had asked about who was playing center. Of the vets the center’s were Lipsberg, Brendan Rouse, Justin Hickman, Luke Lockhart and Rouse. Hickman had a strong game and managed to score a couple of times and may have stood out the most of this group.

Sunday’s scrimmages are again free and open to the public to attend at the ShoWare Center.