Everett extends T-Birds’ losing streak to four

The Thunderbirds are getting pretty good at playing in one-goal games. Unfortunately for them, they're coming up on the wrong end of the majority of those games.

BY ANDY EIDE

Nov 23, 2014, 7:21 AM Updated: 2:54 pm

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Carter Cochrane beat Taran Kozun in a shootout to give Everett a win over Seattle. (T-Birds photo)

(T-Birds photo)

KENT – The Thunderbirds are getting pretty good at playing in one-goal games. Unfortunately for them, they’re coming up on the wrong end of the majority of those games.

Saturday night the T-Birds’ losing streak grew to four with their fourth straight one-goal loss. The Everett Silvertips picked up the 3-2 win in the shootout behind 31 Austin Lotz saves as many of the problems Seattle has been struggling with were prevalent. Everett came back to tie the game late and then would go on to win the shootout on a conversion by Carter Chochrane.

A night after head coach Steve Konowalchuk lamented the lack of discipline from his team, Seattle took three penalties in the third period. The last one cost Seattle dearly.

Clinging to a one-goal lead, Justin Hickman raced for a loose puck behind Everett’s net. Everett goalie Austin Lotz went to play the puck at the same time and the two players collided. Hickman was called for goalie interference and Everett went on its fourth power play of the night.

“They’ve got to call that. It’s frustrating,” Hickman said of the play. “There wasn’t anything else I could have done.”

The penalty came with just over 3 minutes left in the third period and less than a minute later Everett would tie the game on a Graham Millar power-play goal. That sent the game to overtime and eventually a shootout, where Cochrane scored the lone goal for the win.

As the Silvertips players skated on the ice in celebration, the T-Birds were left with another close loss.

“This one here was frustrating because we had the lead,” Konowalchuk said. “We felt pretty good on the bench that we were going to take it home and then we got in trouble with penalties.”

Hickman was a key player in the third. With the score tied he gave Seattle a lead 17 seconds into the period. He took a pass from Scott Eansor and skated into Everett’s zone. He fired a quick wrist shot from the face-off circle and beat Lotz for his seventh goal of the year.

“We got the goal and then I thought we started to get carried away, some mental mistakes, trying to do too much,” Konowalchuk said. “I thought we buckled down and started having the game in control until we started taking a couple of penalties.”

Hickman’s goal re-energized the 4,285 in attendance after a scary incident ended the second period. With 1:30 left in the middle frame, Everett star Nikita Scherbak got hit along the boards and was injured. He was reaching for a puck when Keegan Kolesar glided into him with what seemed to be an innocent looking check. The Montreal Canadiens prospect stayed on the ice for several minutes and had to be carried off on a stretcher.

“It looked like he leaned on him, and it was just a freak thing,” Konowalchuk said of the play. “I hope the kid’s all right.”

Initial reports were that Scherbak was taken to a local hospital as a precaution but that he had passed several movement tests.

Saturday night was the 13th one-goal game the T-Birds have played in, and counting shootout and overtime losses, they have lost nine of them, including the last four in a row. While the T-Birds have been in every game this year, they continue to struggle to convert on enough of the scoring chances that they are generating.

“Again, today it was in our hand,” Konowalchuk said. “The good news is that we’re there with every team we play but we’ve got to learn what it takes to win and go from there.”

As they did Friday night, the T-Birds fell behind in the first period Saturday. Patrick Bajkov got the Silvertips on the board first after spinning and firing a shot that Taran Kozun couldn’t handle. It was Bajkov’s seventh goal of the year. Kozun made 29 saves in what was another solid performance for the 20-year-old goalie.

Seattle got the game square 6 minutes into the second period. On the power play Kolesar got the puck in the slot, turned and beat Lotz with a backhand for his seventh goal. Seattle’s scuffling power play ended the night 1 for 3.

The T-Birds will now go back to the drawing board over Thanksgiving week. They have a busy weekend schedule coming up with three games in three nights that starts with a rematch against the Silvertips in Everett.

“We’ve got to keep that belief that this club can win,” Hickman said. “We’ve shown that in the past and once we get the confidence that we’ll win again, we’ll be just fine.”

Notes

• Three of Seattle’s one-goal losses have come at the hands of the Silvertips. Everett has beaten Seattle by scores of 1-0, 2-1 and now 3-2. The last two games have been decided in overtime and the shootout.

• Saturday night marked the return of defenseman Evan Wardley, who finished serving a five-game suspension.

• Goalie Taran Kozun’s strong season continues and the T-Birds’ netminder now has allowed two or fewer goals in 14 of his 18 starts this year.

• The loss dropped the T-Birds to 2-5-0-1 since Mathew Barzal was injured on the road trip.