Oil Kings spill Thunderbirds to snap Seattle’s point streak

It was a mix of untimely penalties, turnovers, and bad bounces that did in the Thunderbirds Saturday night in Edmonton.

Playing at Rogers Place against the league-best Edmonton Oil Kings, Seattle made just enough mistakes that put them in a hole that they tried to, but couldn’t, crawl out of. Edmonton was led by the first career hat trick from Dylan Guenther as the Oil Kings skated away with a 6-2 win.

The loss snaps Seattle’s two-game win streak and five-game point streak as they could only muster goals from Matthew Wedman and Henrik Rybinski on the road.

A couple of tough bounces went against Seattle (4-5-2-1) early to help establish an Edmonton (10-1-3-0) lead.

First, it was a puck deflecting off a Thunderbirds skate and into the slot on an Oil Kings power play. That’s where Josh Williams was parked, and he snapped a one-timer for his sixth of the season. In the second period, a clearing pass hit the skate of one of the officials and rebounded right to Guenther, who quickly moved on net and beat Seattle goalie Blake Lyda for his first of the night.

That goal made it 2-0 in the second and came after the Thunderbirds had created some chances early in the period.

An errant pass 12 minutes into the second period ended up on Conner McDonald’s stick at the Seattle blue line and he skated to his left and scored to make it 3-0.

Rybinski would score his second goal in as many nights to cut the lead to 3-1 over a minute later and the Thunderbirds followed that up with a Wedman score a minute after that. The two quick goals could have given Seattle some momentum, but the Thunderbirds would take two penalties in the last three minutes of the period.

Edmonton didn’t score on either – the second carried into the third period – but it gave the Oil Kings a push and they would score two quick goals in the third, including Guenther’s second, to build the three-goal lead back.

Guenther, the first overall pick in the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft, would complete the hat trick with an empty-net score to complete the scoring.

Seattle will remain in Alberta for one more game, Monday, against the Calgary Hitmen. They still have two road games, next Friday in Tri-City, and Saturday in Portland, before playing at the accesso ShoWare Center again.

Game Notes

• Lyda got the start in net for Seattle on Saturday in his home town. He stopped 35 of the 40 shots that he faced and played better than the final scored may have indicated.

• Wedman is starting to heat up for the Thunderbirds. The captain has a goal and five assists in his last three games.

• Edmonton goalie Sebastian Cossa made 28 saves for his fifth win of the season. The Oil Kings were 1-for-6 on the power play while Seattle failed to connect on its four attempts.

Follow @AndyEide