Medicine Hat outscores Thunderbirds in up and down game
Jan 5, 2020, 9:15 AM
Henrik Rybinski scored his 10th of the year but it wouldn't be enough as the Medicine Hat Tigers won 8-5. (Ryan McCracken)
(Ryan McCracken)
Through 40 minutes of play Saturday night, the Seattle Thunderbirds hung with the league’s top-scoring club.
Seattle trailed the Medicine Hat Tigers 5-4 at the start of the third period and was on the power play, with a chance to tie. On the opening faceoff, the Thunderbirds turned the puck over and it led to a short-handed goal by Medicine Hat’s James Hamblin, 12 seconds into the period.
It was a backbreaker goal that the Thunderbirds could not recover from as Medicine Hat would take the game 8-5.
“We give up that, that one hurts,” Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette said. “We were pretty amped up and fired up going into the third, the same situation as last night, chance to win a game going into the third by taking over momentum and capitalizing on some of the good work we’d put in. That put us back, it was one of those key moments that we weren’t dialed in.”
Seattle (14-20-2-1) wasted a hat trick from Andrej Kukuca as well as two-point nights from four other players in the loss. Medicine Hat (25-11-1-1) had two players score twice, including Brett Kemp who also added a pair of assists.
After a strong first period where Seattle erased an early 2-0 deficit to tie the game at 3-3, Medicine Hat was able to turn the game into an up and down affair in the second. It’s the type of game that benefited the home club.
The Tigers outshot the Thunderbirds 20-9 in the second, scored twice and left with a one-goal lead.
“I thought we had our game going in the first, that was a really good first period,” O’Dette said. “The track meet started up in the second period. That’s their style, that’s what they want. I thought we hung tough and gave ourselves a chance going into the third and it just got away from us there.”
Seattle had its chances Saturday.
Medicine Hat’s style allowed the Thunderbirds to create a number of odd-man rushes for themselves. While they scored five goals, they missed on several more that could have made a difference.
“We’ve got guys developing into those offensive type players that finish those chances,” O’Dette said. “It’s a work in progress. We’ve got some dynamic offensive guys that don’t miss very often.”
Kukuca didn’t miss, and Saturday was another strong game for the Thunderbirds top line.
Henrik Rybinski scored a goal and added an assist, playing in Medicine Hat for the first time since he asked for a trade from the Tigers last season. Playing on Rybinski’s wing, rookie Conner Roulette added a goal and an assist while Jeri Keltie-Leon had two helpers.
The goals were positive for Seattle, and the Thunderbirds have scored 10 times over the first two games of their weekend swing, but the up-and-down play is not in their DNA.
Seattle got sucked into the ‘track meet’ at the cost of getting the puck low and wearing down the Tigers.
“It’s hard because they are risky off their offense, and they do give up odd-man rushes going the other way,” O’Dette said. “I thought we could have defended better at times. Some of the set plays, they scored two goals directly off faceoffs…we need to be dialed in and focused in on those plays.”
The loss didn’t cost the Thunderbirds in their quest for a playoff race as the Tri-City Americans lost in Portland on Saturday. The two teams remain tied for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Seattle will finish off its busy weekend Sunday afternoon with a game against the Swift Current Broncos.
Game Notes
• The Thunderbirds are playing without defenseman Simon Kubicek who was playing in the World Junior Championships in the Czech Republic. Kubicek’s Team Czech has been eliminated but O’Dette said that Kubicek wouldn’t rejoin the team in time for Sunday’s game.
• Kukuca’s hat trick gives him 14 goals on the season and just like last year, he’s getting hot in the second half. He had a five-game point streak snapped on New Year’s Eve but has been back to scoring in the two games to follow. Over his last eight games, he’s scored seven times while piling up 15 points.
• Rybinski’s goal was his 10th on the year and the Florida Panthers prospect has points in five straight games, four of which were multi-point outputs.
