T-Birds beat Winterhawks 3-2 for first road win

Alexander True scored with just over five minutes left in the third period to give Seattle a 3-2 victory over the Winterhawks in Portland Sunday night.

BY ANDY EIDE

Oct 11, 2015, 8:20 PM Updated: Oct 12, 2015, 10:13 am

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Seattle Thunderbirds forward Alexander True is on his way to becoming a regular Sunday hero.

For the second straight Sunday, True played a big role for the T-Birds. He scored with just over five minutes left in the third period to give Seattle a 3-2 victory over the Winterhawks in Portland Sunday night. It was True’s third goal of the year as Seattle once again came back from a deficit to win.

True was injured for the majority of last season but the Danish import is healthy, stronger and off to a great start for Seattle (3-1-1-0). Last Sunday he sparked a T-Birds comeback with two goals and an assist and was a hero again this week.

Sunday’s seem to agree with him.

“He’s playing well,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said after the game. “Playing with confidence and he’s tenacious on the puck. He’s in good position for us down low on the power play and winning puck battles.”

With the score tied at two, True found himself with some room at the Portland blue line. He picked up speed to stay clear of the defender chasing and fired a wrist shot past Winterhawks’ goalie Adin Hill. The goal capped off a night that saw Seattle twice come back to tie the game and gives them a big win over their U.S. Division rivals. True’s goal quieted the 6,597 Moda Center fans and iced Seattle’s second straight victory.

The other theme for Sunday’s game was penalties.

The two teams combined for 15 power plays which bogged the game down for large portions and kept either team from maintaining any momentum. Portland (1-4-0-0) struck late in the first period – on the power play – when Dominic Turgeon somehow got the puck past the right pad of goalie Logan Flodell.

The second period brought even more penalties.The T-Birds would go short-handed five times while Portland was sent to the sin bin three times of their own.

That was tough for the T-Birds, who couldn’t get going offensively.

“It’s tough because some guys don’t play on special teams and can’t get in the mix,” Konowalchuk said of the second period. “We just had to battle through it and settle down and I thought we did a good job of that.”

The T-Birds did tie the score eight minutes into the second when Nolan Volcan displayed some nice hands deflecting a point shot from Jerret Smith into the Portland net. That excitement was short-lived as Portland went right back to the power play which resulted in Keegan Iverson scoring to give the lead back to the Winterhawks.

Seattle’s Jarret Tyszka would bring Seattle back to square with just over three minutes left in the second with another power-play goal. It was Tyszka’s second of the season and came off of a strong point shot.

The game settled down in the third period and that’s when the T-Birds turned it on. They controlled the play, began to generate offense and ended up outshooting the hometown Winterhawks 16-5 in the final 20 minutes. Konowalchuk said he didn’t need any big intermission speeches to get his charges going.

“(Playing) Five-on-five is a good start,” he said of the third. “That second period was scrambly with special teams both ways. We settled down and got back to the basics of hockey.”

Sunday was the fourth time this season that Seattle has trailed during a game early. Each time they have battled back to tie and for the second straight night, have ended up winning.

“We look at the big picture,” Konowalchuk said of his team’s resilience. “Just play the same way regardless of the score. Keep trying to play the same way and not over-analyze it too much, that can get you in trouble.”

Flodell wasn’t tested in the third period but he kept the T-Birds in the game all night long while making 23 saves for his second win of the year. Despite giving up two goals on the power play, the T-Birds penalty kill was also solid.

They killed off seven of Portland’s nine chances, including over a minute of a two-man advantage in the second period.

The T-Birds will now head home to prepare for two home games this coming weekend. They host the Kamloops Blazers on Friday night and the Victoria Royals on Saturday.

Notes

• Tyszka added an assist for his first two-point game in his WHL career. The 16 year old rookie has played well to start the year and Konowalchuk has shown a lot of confidence in the former first-round Bantam pick by playing him on the second power-play unit.

• For the second straight night the T-Birds picked up two power-play tallies on Sunday. They ended the night 2-for-6 and got a big score from their second unit. The first unit has all the star power but don’t sleep on the second group. “They’re a good unit and I thought they had a couple of good shifts there,”Konowalchuk said. “They work so good together and they can score for us when they need to.”

• While it is still early, the win vaulted the T-Birds up to second place in the U.S. Division where they trail the Everett Silvertips by one point.

• Portland goalie Adin Hill ended the night with 31 saves on 34 Seattle shots.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.