Americans drop T-Birds 3-1 in Kennewick

By Andrew Eide

For the second straight game the Seattle Thunderbirds lose a contest where they struggled to score goals.

Seattle dropped a 3-1 contest to the Tri City Americans Friday night at the Toyota Center in Kennewick. The Americans got 22 saves from goalie Eric Comrie and goals from three different players to send Seattle to their second straight loss. Seattle picked up their lone goal on forward Donovan Neuls’ first WHL tally, but could not generate enough offense throughout.

In many ways it was similar to their home-opening loss to the Everett Silvertips where they possessed the puck the majority of the game, but could not score.

“I still think we’re missing a little bit of desperation at all times,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “We’ve got to get gritty around the net, we’ve got to get harder on the puck so we score more goals, we were getting some chances. Again, two big casual moments, their last two goals were mistakes that can’t happen, we had some good momentum on both there.”

The last of those casual moments would turn out to be the biggest.

Seattle (1-2-0-0), trailing 2-0 in the second period, had cut the Tri City lead in half after Neuls stole the puck from Comrie behind the Tri City net. With the goalie trapped, Neuls wrapped the puck into the open net for his first career goal. More importantly, it cut the lead and gave Seattle some much needed momentum.

Less than three minutes later Tri City (2-1-0-0) got their two-goal lead back. Maxwell James threaded a long pass to Rodney Southam who had snuck behind the Seattle defense. Southam was off to the races and beat Seattle goalie Taran Kozun through the five hole. That killed any momentum the T-Birds had and they could not dig out of the hole.

“We quit forechecking,” Konowalchuk said of the goal. “The D took it back and instead of us staying hard on the foreccheck we put on the brakes. Then our D let a guy get behind them, which shouldn’t happen…so you had veteran forwards not forechecking and then veteran D letting a guy get behind them, it should never happen.”

Tri City built their lead in the first period. Defenseman Justin Hamonic swooped in from the point to bang home a loose puck that was free at the side of the Seattle net. Then, early in the second period another loose puck cost the T-Birds as Beau McCue snapped one home from the slot to give the Americans a two-goal lead.

The T-Birds had their chances in this game. They out-shot the Americans 23-20 and had four power-play opportunities. They were held scoreless in those four chances, despite getting some good movement of the puck.

Seattle’s two losses this year have seen the club struggle to score goals. After scoring four goals on opening night in Portland they have been held to only the Neuls goal since. Despite the lack of results, they have looked good for stretches of play. Friday night they put the puck on net and made Comrie have to make some good saves, but it wasn’t good enough.

The T-Birds are a young team and you can see the talent on the ice. They just need to put it all together, but you have to feel that they are close to doing so.

“At times we can push the pace and it feels like we get some momentum going so that part’s good,” Konowalchuk said of his team. “I don’t feel like we’re overwhelmed with the team’s coming at us. So I know it’s there but I don’t sense the urgency shift in and shift out, and that’s the frustrating part.”

Seattle will have a week to find that urgency as they won’t be in action again until next Friday night when they return to Portland.

Notes

Seattle has not had good fortune in the Toyota Center. Over the past five seasons they have only managed five wins against the Americans in Kennewick.

Seattle was again without Justin Hickman, who made the trip, but is still listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The team could use him to provide much of the grit in front of the net that Konowalchuk says is missing. The coach wasn’t sure if the captain would be healthy enough to play in Portland next Friday.

Friday night was Americans’ goalie Eric Comrie’s first game of the season as he had just recently been returned to Tri City by the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets. Seattle still is waiting to see what the Montreal Canadiens do with defenseman Evan Wardley who has yet to be returned. Shea Theodore is still in camp with the Anaheim Ducks but is nursing an injury that will sideline him for some time still.

Seattle has now out-shot it’s opponents in every game this year.

With their offensive woes over the last two contests, might Konowalchuk mix up his lines? The coach said he would have to assess how his lines are going over the week, but don’t be surprised if we see some new combinations Friday in Portland.

Follow Andrew Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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