Thunderbirds shred Wheat Kings in 7-2 rout

KENT – If Tuesday’s game against the defending Eastern Conference champs was a test, then consider the Thunderbirds to have passed with flying colors.

Seattle blitzed the Brandon Wheat Kings 7-2 in front of a loud ShoWare Center crowd Tuesday night to make an early-season statement. The T-Birds had to fight through the adversity of losing two key players to injury but had big nights from Mathew Barzal, Keegan Kolesar and goalie Taz Burman, who made 27 saves.

Coming off a shutout loss in their last game, the T-Birds went toe to toe with the league’s top offensive club and were in control for most of the night.

“Its huge,” Kolesar said of the win against his hometown team. “They come over from their conference and show us what they have, they’re a highly touted team over there. For them to come into this building, we knew it was going to be a hard game and we lost some guys in the beginning, but we found a way to win.”

Seattle (8-2-1-0) had to fight through some adversity Tuesday as it lost both Jamal Watson and Scott Eansor to injury in the first period. In a game against a team as deep as Brandon, losing two of your best defensive forwards is a challenge but the T-Birds had guys step up and never missed a beat.

“Real good effort,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “We came out ready from the start. A couple of veteran guys that play a lot of minutes went down but guys bucked up and other guys stepped up and played really good.”

Konowalchuk had broken up Seattle’s top line – Barzal, Kolesar and Ryan Gropp – at the start of the game. After the injuries, he put them back together and they put the team on their back.

Barzal set a career high with five assists, Kolesar potted his first career hat trick and Gropp added a goal and an assist. They combined to score four goals, five assists and were plus-10 on the evening. They worked hard at both ends of the ice and dominated the talented Wheat Kings.

“They were on a mission,” Konowalchuk said of his top line. “Guys went down and they stepped up and they’re a tough line to handle when they’re all going hard.”

It was in the second period that they were at their best.

With the score tied at one, the T-Birds erupted for three goals in the second to give them a commanding lead. The top line was involved in all three.

It started early as Kolesar burst into the Brandon zone and beat goalie Jordan Papirny with a deadly wrist shot 42 seconds into the period. Six minutes later, Barzal skated down a loose puck and fed Gropp, who beat Papirny with a nice back-hand shot to extend the lead. Barzal and Gropp would then work the puck to Ethan Bear on the power play for a big slap shot that found the net.

When the horn sounded, the T-Birds had put the Wheat Kings on their heels.

“It was physical, it was fast, it was skilled,” Barzal said of the win. “Just knowing they were the top team out East we kind of wanted to make a statement tonight. It wasn’t just one guy tonight, it was 20-deep, Burman included. He played lights-out so it was great to see everybody going.”

When a team scores seven times, its goalie’s play can be lost in the shuffle, but Burman turned in another good performance on Tuesday. He made several key saves against a highly skilled team and back-ended two big penalty kills in the third period and has now won his last four starts.

“It was definitely a game that guys were looking forward to,” Burman said. “Any time you can play a top team in the league you want to make a statement and prove that you can beat the best.”

Brandon (8-3-0-2) cut the lead to two goals early in the third period on a Rihards Bukarts goal and got two big chances to get back in it midway through the period. They had two power plays and had they scored they could have swung the momentum back in their favor.

The T-Birds did a good job of taking away their shooting lanes on those power-play chances, getting the puck out of the zone and Burman would close the door at the back end.

“Huge PK’s there to keep it 4-2,” Konowalchuk said. “I think that deflated them a little when they didn’t get those. That’s their chance to get within one goal.”

Brandon was deflated and then the flood gates opened up.

The Wheat Kings pulled their goalie for the extra attacker and the T-Birds iced the game on Kolesar’s second of the night with just under 2 minutes left in the game. That made it 5-2, but Seattle wasn’t done yet. With Papirny back in goal, Kolesar scored again with 30 seconds left and then Kaden Elder put a bow on the game when he scored on the power play at the horn for Seattle’s seventh tally.

With the win, the T-Birds avoided their first two-game losing streak of the season and remained unbeaten at home. The ShoWare Center is becoming a loud and tough place for opponents to play and the players feed off of it.

“Everybody gets excited and we take pride in winning at home,” Burman said. “We’ve done a good job of that this year and we want everybody to know that it’s going to be a tough building to win in. I may not be hitting guys out there but I still get chills when we come out there and the crowd’s going crazy on the opening faceoff.”

Seattle has proven over the last couple of seasons that it can overcome adversity, as it did Tuesday night. The confidence gained against Brandon should pay off on Seattle’s upcoming road trip as well.

“We like what we’ve got as a team and everybody battled and it was a good test,” Konowalchuk said. “A good measuring stick for us and we should get some confidence from it, playing a team like that. Now we just get back to work tomorrow.”

Notes

• After giving Seattle an early lead on his first goal with the club, Watson went down when he caught his skate in the net. He was in visible pain as he was helped off the ice, favoring one leg, and there was no update after the game on his condition.

• Eansor was hit after the whistle by John Quenneville and appeared to have hit his head on the ice. There was no update on his condition, either.

• Ethan Bear is quietly putting together some really strong games. He scored a goal on Tuesday while adding two assists on the night.

• Barzal appeared to have scored Seattle’s fifth goal, into the empty net, but was whistled down for offsides on the play. When asked if he would rather have that goal and four assists or the career-high in five, he laughed and said, “I’ll take five assists and ‘Keegs can have the hat trick because he got the empty net later. It’s all good, it doesn’t matter.”

• The Wheat Kings got a taste of what life in the U.S. Division is like. They were shut out in Portland on Sunday and have now been outscored 12-2 in their last two games against U.S. Division opponents. They’ll get one more chance on Wednesday night when they play in Everett.

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