Early penalties the difference as Thunderbirds fall to Giants

LANGLEY, British Columbia – Two first-period penalties turned out to be the difference in the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Giants Monday afternoon.

The Giants converted on both early chances to build a lead and they would hold off the Thunderbirds to pick up their 10^th straight win while sending Seattle to a third defeat on the weekend.

“The early kills we could have avoided,” Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette said. “I think there was some indiscipline there. Their power play is hot right now and we gave them two chances early that we didn’t need to. Obviously, they converted on them and we’re chasing the game from there.”

O’Dette was looking for a better effort and compete level from his young team and while they did play better, that early hole turned out to be too big to crawl out of.

Seattle (21-27-3-3) was paced by Conner Roulette’s goal and assist while goalie Blake Lyda kept the Thunderbirds in the game by turning away 36 shots. Vancouver (29-20-3-2) would go 2-for-4 on the power play and were led by Washington Capitals prospect Eric Florchuk’s goal and two assists.

The Giants’ first power-play didn’t last long as Bowen Byram would score off the faceoff at 13:13 for his second goal against Seattle and the ninth overall for the defenseman. Four minutes later, another Thunderbirds penalty ended up in the back of their net as the speedy Tristan Nielsen potted his 28^th of the season.

Vancouver would be up 2-0 and the Thunderbirds were chasing.

“We wanted to play a somewhat boring road game and not get into the track meet,” O’Dette said about the first period. “That kind of got them going early, by taking those penalties.”

Roulette cut the lead to 2-1 early in the second period with his 17^th on a highlight reel type of goal.

The rookie raced into the Giants zone and got past a defender. With the puck on his backhand, he was able to move it to his forehand in the blink of an eye to flip it over Vancouver goalie Trent Miner. That momentum didn’t last long, however.

Florchuk would crash the net to tip in a pass seven minutes later to reinstate the Giants two-goal lead. Seattle pushed in the third period by taking a game-high 12 shots but could only get a late Simon Kubicek goal that came with Lyda on the bench.

It was a loss but an improvement over Saturday’s loss.

“Much better,” O’Dette said. “We pushed the pace. They’re good, hard to track down with a ton of speed. The effort was there tonight, much better than Saturday night. We’re disappointed. That’s a good team, an experienced team that went to the finals last year and they’re getting on a roll now. We’re disappointed but we’ll take the positives into a big game tomorrow night.”

While the Giants capitalized on the power play, the Thunderbirds continued to struggle with the man advantage. Seattle was 0-for-4 Monday and that included an extended three-minute chance after Byram was given a five-minute major and game misconduct in the third period.

The Thunderbirds struggled to move the puck into the Vancouver end to get the power play set up on most of their chances.

“It’s some executing stuff there,” O’Dette added. “We have to keep it simple as possible. We have a young group obviously and we have to tailor the power play towards simplicity and give ourselves multiple looks at the net. I think it’s just execution, just execution in stringing passes together…we just have to keep working on it.”

Seattle’s young players were again perhaps its best Monday.

Roulette added offense, Lyda was good in net but there were other contributions as well. Kai Uchacz played a solid game and pushed the pace as did Mekai Sanders, who was a ball of energy.

“They’re buying in and playing T-Birds hockey,” O’Dette said. “Lots of energy, lots of tenacity. By doing that, that work ethic just creates out there. We saw that, They pushed the pace when they’re out there for their shifts. That’s nice to see, they’re coming around nicely.”

Despite the loss, the Thunderbirds remained nine points ahead of Prince George for the Western Conference’s final wild-card spot. Seattle gets no rest as the Thunderbirds will be at home Tuesday night for a game against the Moose Jaw Warriors.

Moose Jaw is in the middle of a rough season and coming off an 11-2 drubbing in Portland Sunday night, but the Thunderbirds can’t afford to take the Warriors lightly.

“They’re going to respond from their last game,” O’Dette said of the Warriors. “They’re a young team, we’re a young team. We have to be prepared to play.”

Game Notes

• Roulette extended his point streak to five games. It’s the second five-game streak this season for the rookie winger.

• Matthew Rempe saw his three-game goal streak snapped Monday.

• Roddy Ross was rested Monday so that he could get the start in goal on Tuesday. Ross had played the previous two games over the weekend.

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