Thunderbirds shut out by Everett for second straight night

KENT – The Seattle Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips played nearly 47 minutes of hockey without a goal and with just one power-play chance each Sunday evening. It would be a penalty in the third period that made the difference, however.

Everett’s Michal Gut got behind the Seattle defense in the third period and it was ruled that Seattle’s Owen Williams hooked him from behind. Gut was awarded a penalty shot and converted to put the visitors up 1-0.

“He might have had a step,” Thunderbirds head coach Matt O’Dette said of the call. “They like to call that on those types of plays.”

Everett (29-11-2-1) would add a Wyatte Wylie power-play goal seven minutes later which would be enough for the Silvertips to beat Seattle 2-0, ending the weekend with back-to-back shutouts of the Thunderbirds.

After Saturday’s blow out loss, Seattle (18-22-2-1) played better Sunday but was unable to get a puck past Dustin Wolf who made 29 saves for his seventh shutout of the season.

“I thought we battled hard in the game, it was a good response to last night,” O’Dette said. “Have to find ways to produce a little bit more… We just couldn’t create enough. They’re a good team, a stingy team and you’ve kind of have to keep pounding the stone to break through on them. We didn’t have enough opportunities to break through.”

The Thunderbirds offense had been scoring goals since the team returned from the holiday break, but this weekend found the combination of a bad effort Saturday and Wolf on Sunday to be too much.

It was the third time Seattle has been shut out this season, all coming to Wolf and the Silvertips.

The loss spoiled a strong effort from Roddy Ross in net.

Ross was pulled from Saturday’s game after giving up five goals but made 40 saves Sunday to give the Thunderbirds a chance to win.

“He was great,” O’Dette said. “Kept us in there with some great saves. He gave us a chance to win.”

During Saturday’s game, the Silvertips dominated puck possession.

While Everett still enjoyed an advantage Sunday, it was much closer, with the Silvertips taking 54-percent of the game’s five-on-five shot attempts. Everett did a good job of blocking shots and the Thunderbird missed the net on several occasions which resulted in a 42-29 shots on goal advantage.

The third period started scoreless and Seattle started strong and was creating time in the Everett zone.

But, that momentum would be stymied by the Gut penalty shot conversion.

“I thought we were doing some good things early,” O’Dette said about the third period. “When the scoring opportunities are tough to come by and you get down, it can be deflating. Just a bad break on the penalty there and they were able to tack one on which may have made it feel a little more daunting.”

The loss was the second in a row for the Thunderbirds and comes after they had won four straight heading into Saturday. The two losses cost an opportunity to improve their standing in the playoff race.

Seattle remains six points ahead of Tri-City for the Western Conference’s final playoff spot and three behind the Vancouver Giants for the first wild card slot.

There were positives Sunday but, in the end, the result was frustration.

“I do like the response (to Saturday),” O’Dette said. “It’s tough to respond to a game like that. It takes a lot of character. We have a lot of character in that room, we just fell short tonight.”

The Thunderbirds will have the week off before heading to Kelowna Friday where they will look to rediscover their scoring touch and get back to the way they were playing last week.

“It’s back to work,” O’Dette said. “We’ve had a good stretch. We’ve lost a couple of games to one of the best teams in the league. Those are tough assignments. We’ve had some success against them but just fell short tonight. We’ve got to keep pulling in the right direction and get back to work on Tuesday.”

Game Notes

• The game was relatively penalty free. The Silvertips were 1-for-2 on the power play while the Thunderbirds went 0-for-2.

• The last time the Thunderbirds were shut out three times in a season was during the 2014-2015 season when they were blanked four times. That team featured Ryan Gropp, Mathew Barzal, Shea Theodore, Keegan Kolesar, and Ethan Bear.

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