T-Birds complete weekend sweep of Royals with 3-1 win

By Andy Eide

VICTORIA, British Columbia — It wasn’t pretty at times but the Thunderbirds found a way to complete the weekend sweep of the Royals Saturday night.

Despite being short-handed on nine different occasions the T-Birds grinded out an impressive 3-1 win over the Victoria Royals at the Save-On Foods Memorial Arena. For the second straight night they held off a Victoria team that had been playing as well as any in the league and now have won three straight.

Seattle got goals from Mathew Barzal and Keegan Kolesar to go with a 22 save performance by goalie Logan Flodell in net to pick up the win.

“I’m proud of our guys for buckling down during a game that was penalty after penalty,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk. “We had to stick with it and find a way to play and five on five I thought we played a high tempo game, an in your face game.”

The flow of the game was marred by a parade to the penalty box by both teams. Victoria got the bulk of the power-play time with nine man-advantages while Seattle was given six.

That makes for a choppy game and not a lot of offensive execution.

“Its frustrating,” Konowalchuk said. “A good hockey game is a lot of five-on-five play and not a whole lot of special teams. It was one of those games that I’m sure the fans were real frustrated with the amount of calls being made but our guys buckled down and focused on their shifts.”

Both teams cashed in on two-man advantages in the first period. Victoria started the scoring when Matthew Phillips somehow got a shot through Flodell’s arm.

Seattle would respond with their own two-man score when Barzal found Kolesar at the side of the net. The big winger potted it for his team leading 14th of the season.

The rest of the first period and parts of the second continued to be highlighted by penalties and power-play chances. Seattle’s penalty kill was big all night and only allowed the one five-on-three goal while killing off the remaining eight power plays.

“Really strong,” Konowalchuk said of his penalty killers. “Specialty teams this weekend played a really big factor in coming out of here with four points.

Seattle limited the Royals chances on the power play, shutting down lanes, blocking shots and getting big saves from Flodell at the back end.

“You’ve got to kill penalties with your goalie and he was good,” Konowalchuk said of Flodell. “I thought he was pretty confident right from the start.”

Flodell was making his fifth straight start and picked up his seventh win of the year.

With the score tied at one Seattle would take the lead when they finally got a chance to play five-on-five. Barzal had the puck in the circle and beat Royals’ goalie Griffen Outhouse with a deadly wrist shot.

Seattle would extend that lead only 14 seconds later when Nick Holowko threw the puck at the net and had it deflect in. Alexander True was in the vicinity but it looked like the puck went off a Victoria defender.

“We’ll have to look at it,” Holowko said of the goal. “I think it might have gone off the D, so far its mine.”

The goal was his and punctuated a strong night by his line. With Scott Eansor and Nolan Volcan both out of the lineup, Holowko stepped up to play with Jamal Watson and True.

Those three were a force all night. They caused trouble with a strong forecheck, played solid defense and ended up scoring a big goal.

“They played with a little more speed and I thought their game was even better today,” Konowalchuk said of the line. “You need everybody, especially against good teams like these guys.”

Despite all the power-play time Victoria had, the T-Birds held them to 23 shots on the night. Seattle leads the league with the fewest shots allowed on average and were below their season average of 26 on Saturday.

“It’s all over the ice,” Konowalchuk said. “It’s not one thing, we want to be a high tempo, high forecehcking team. To me if we can forecheck we will frustrate the other team and that’s where it starts .”

Seattle frustrated the Royals this weekend and are back to playing the brand of hockey that had them flying high before the road trip.

“We’re feeling a lot happier,” Holowko said. “We’re starting to joke around more again and get back to our own ways and have fun out there.”

The T-Birds will put their road sweaters away for now and head home for a Tuesday night affair against the Swift Current Broncos. After a frustrating Eastern swing, the momentum has shifted back on their side.

“You’ve got to keep your mountains high and your valleys low,” Konowalchuk said. “We were a frustrated team for a bit on that trip and we found a way to get that first win in Medicine Hat and get the monkey off our back and came in here with a real tough chance against a real good hockey team.”

Notes

Volcan was a scratch Saturday night as he suffered a lower-body injury on Friday night. Konowalchuk wasn’t sure what his status was, which is the same update on Scott Eansor’s condition. Eansor has been out since the Brandon game when he suffered a head injury.

There was a loud and vocal contingent of Seattle fans in Victoria Saturday night and it didn’t go unnoticed by the team. “We’ve got really loyal fans and just seeing all those jerseys was great,” Holowko said.

With a goal and an assist on Saturday, Barzal’s remarkable season continues. He now has 29 points and is averaging 1.81 points per game.

Saturday the Royals celebrated Victoria hockey history and honored former Victoria Cougars goalie Grant Fuhr. Fuhr would post a 78-21-1 record with the Cougars and went on to win five Stanley Cups in his Hall of Fame Career.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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