Rockets power their way to 6-4 win over T-Birds

By Andrew Eide

KENT — A night after a comeback win the Seattle Thunderbirds gave up a lead to lose a hard fought game.

The Kelowna Rockets scored three goals in the third period to come from behind and beat the T-Birds 6-4 in front of 4,358 fans at the ShoWare Center. The Rockets got a hat trick from Rourke Chartier and four assists from Nick Merkley in the win. Seattle was led by Mathew Barzal’s goal and two assists.

“Too many penalties,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “We took some other dumb penalties, you can’t hook around the waist, had another trip, those we deserved.”

Kelowna (6-0-0-0) features the league’s best power play that came into the game clicking along at a remarkable 37 percent. Seattle (2-3-0-0) gave the Rockets seven cracks on the power play and they made the T-Birds pay with three conversions.

The power play got Kelowna going in the first and helped them tie the game in the third. It was a tough challenge for both goalie Danny Mumaugh — who was making his first start of the year — and the Seattle penalty killers.

“We weren’t in passing lanes for a lot of it,” Konowalchuk said. “They were able to pass through seams, back door plays, guys away from the puck need to keep their head on a swivel more and not let those passes through.”

Seattle came out of the gates firing on Saturday night and built an early 2-0 lead. Both of the Seattle goals came on power plays of their own. With a two-man advantage Ethan Bear blasted a slap shot that rookie goalie Jake Morrissey had no chance at. Still on the power play, a minute-and-a-half later Alexander True took an innocent looking wrist shot that fooled Morrissey as it flew over his shoulder.

That was the end of the night for Morrissey as he was replaced by Jackson Whistle at the 2:40 mark of the first period.

Kelowna wasted no time in getting back in the game. Less than a minute later Chartier picked up his first score after a nice set up from Merkley. That’s when Seattle started taking penalties.

The Rockets scored on back-to-back power plays as Chartier and Justin Kirkland cashed in. Just like that, with still 15 minutes to play in the first period, Seattle trailed 3-2.

As they did in Portland, the T-Birds pushed back. Barzal got them even in the second period with a pretty goal as he roofed a shot over Whistle for his first goal of the year. Near the end of the period Calvin Spencer banged home a goal after a mad scramble in front of the Kelowna net to give the T-Birds the lead back heading into the third period.

Coming into the game the T-Birds had owned the third period this year. They had out shot their opponents by a combined 41-16 but Saturday night it would be reversed on them.

The Rockets out shot Seattle 14-7 in the third period and scored three times.

Seattle once again got into penalty trouble. Early in the period Evan Wardley was called for charging after a big hit on a Kelowna player. The Rockets scored on the ensuing power play when Riley Stadel knocked home a one-timer.

That tied the game and the Seattle coach was not pleased with the call on Wardley. “I’d like an explanation on the Wardley penalty,” Konowalchuk said. “I’m not sure about that one. He didn’t charge, there was absolutely no charge there so I’d like an explanation on that one.”

The call stood however and with four minutes left in the period the Rockets took the lead for good. Chartier completed the hat trick after Mumaugh could not hold onto a shot and the puck fell over the goal line.

“That’s a routine save, it hits my glove,” Mumaugh said. “I want every goal back but that one probably more than the others.”

Seattle pulled Mumaugh late for the extra attacker and despite a couple of nice chances could not beat Whistle to get the equalizer. Tyson Baillie sent the fans home with an empty net score.

“They played a pretty good third,” Barzal said. “I thought their last goal was a nice goal but we’ve got to respond…we’ve got to really bear down and win puck battles and that wasn’t the case.”

Seattle had struggled to score early in the season but Saturday night went toe-to-toe for the most part with the highest-scoring team in the league. That wasn’t enough to satisfy the coach. “We could still play better,” Konowalchuk said. “I know we can do things well and we still need to do things better. We just need to be more consistent.”

The T-Birds will next be in action Friday night when they hit the road to take on the Spokane Chiefs

Notes

With their three power-play goals the Rockets now lead the league in power-play scores with 16. They lead the WHL in total goals with 39 and are the last remaining unbeaten team in the league. Tyson Baillie picked up the empty net score and now has scored in every game this year and he has eight in total.

Saturday was the first head-to-head match up this year between Barzal and Merkley, both highly rated NHL Draft prospects. The two didn’t disappoint as they combined for seven points.

Kelowna starting Jake Morrissey probably wants to forget his first WHL start. He was yanked in less than three minutes after giving up two Seattle goals on only five shots.

Just prior to Kelowna’s go ahead goal it appeared that Lane Pederson had been clipped with a high stick by Rockets’ defenseman Devante Stephens. The crowd was upset and Pederson was left bleeding, but without a penalty call. After the game Konowalchuk said that the officials determined that Stephens stick did hit Pederson but it did so in the follow through on a shot, which is not a penalty. The coach thought it was the correct non-call.

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