T-Birds wrap up morning scrimmage
Aug 24, 2012, 11:15 AM | Updated: Aug 27, 2012, 1:23 pm
By Andrew Eide
The Thunderbirds wrapped up their morning scrimmage with the blue team beating the grey team 4-3. These players were all 1996 and 1997 born players. Seattle does not hold a ‘rookie’ camp as other teams do, but this was as close to that as they will get.
The best player on the ice was this year’s first round draft pick Mathew Barzal. Barzal scored three goals this morning and created several other chances. One of the prettiest plays he had was on a rush that he did not score on. Taking on a defensemen one on one he deked a couple of times and undressed the poor d-man before getting a shot off.
Barzal played on a line that featured Bonney Lake’s Dylan Gambrell. Gambrell seemed to have a good chemistry going with Barzal, but then again Barzal may be one of those guys that make everyone play better.
Other players who looked impressive included Michal Holub who is a big, physical winger and he is someone who will be participating in the main camp tomorrow. Holub is a ’96 born player who spent last year with the Fraser Valley Bruins and put up 12 goals and 34 points in 39 games.
Defenseman Reid Fritzke also had some strong moments for the blue team with some nice physical play.
The scrimmage was pretty spirited as three separate scraps broke out with winger Carter Folk getting into his second scrap of the camp.
The goalies for the scrimmage were Danny Mumaugh, Kyle Cheema for the blue team and Bobby Gathercole, Nolan Kruizenga and Logan Flodell for the grey team. None of the guys in net really seemed to stand out, each had some nice saves but nobody really seemed to distance themselves from the other. Mumaugh and Kruizenga probably are the only two of the bunch from the scrimmage, along with returning vet Daniel Cotton, who have a shot of making the club as Brandon Glover’s back up.
The T-birds’ veteran players hit the ice for practice after the scrimmage and the younger players will hit the ice again at 4:30. The practices and scrimmages are open to the public.
Check back later this evening for a more comprehensive wrap up of day 2 of camp.
