T-Birds drop 4-2 decision to Oil Kings for third straight loss

The T-Birds dropped their third game of the month in Edmonton Wednesday night as the Oil Kings got a lead and held off the T-Birds 4-2 at Rexall Place.

BY ANDY EIDE

Nov 4, 2015, 10:26 PM Updated: Nov 5, 2015, 11:03 am

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The month of November has not been kind to the Thunderbirds so far.

The T-Birds dropped their third game of the month in Edmonton Wednesday night as the Oil Kings got a lead and held off the T-Birds 4-2 at Rexall Place. Brandon Baddock scored twice for Edmonton and goalie Patrick Dea made 28 saves to pick up his third win of the season.

After two straight games where they blew leads, the T-Birds never had a lead on Wednesday night.

For the fourth straight game the T-Birds fell behind in the first period as Tyler Robertson would fly in from the blue line to pick up a rebound and fire it past Seattle goalie Logan Flodell. As in the previous four games, the T-Birds would battle back to tie the game at one before the period was over.

Mathew Barzal would send the puck to a streaking Alexander True who would beat Dea for his seventh goal of the year. The Oil Kings wasted no time in getting the lead back however as Brett Pollock would score 20 seconds later to kill any potential Seattle momentum.

Overall, the head coach wasn’t pleased with the team’s energy to start.

“They got that first power play goal there and then I thought we just kind of played in that first period” Steve Konowalchuk said. “We didn’t really play with a whole lot of desperation and passion in that first period. I thought we got going a little bit better as the game got going but not enough to catch up.”

That same scenario played out again in the second period when Ryan Gropp skated the puck out from behind the Edmonton net to sweep his sixth goal past Dea on the power play to tie the game at two. Less than four minutes later Baddock would walk around the Seattle defense to slide a back-hand shot past Flodell to get the lead back.

“That’s tough to have that happen,” Konowalchuk said. “We’ve got to be better in those situations, guys going on the ice after a goal have to be good to make sure we get momentum.”

Playing their fourth game in five nights the T-Birds found themselves constantly chasing the lead. That expends a ton of energy and the T-Birds never were able to generate consistent pressure while playing five-on-five. They did get ample chances to take the game over on the power play however and for the second straight night, were not able to take advantage.

Edmonton gave Seattle eight power-play opportunities and while Seattle cashed in on two of them early, they could not get the third goal that they desperately needed. After Gropp’s goal the T-Birds had four more power-plays and could not beat Dea on any. Not only did they not score, but they didn’t look particularly dangerous on any of the final attempts.

“We’ve got to start shooting the puck,” Konowalchuk said about his power play. “We want the pretty play and its not there all the time and so we’ve got to find ways to get the puck to net with traffic. Its pretty simple but we’re a little bit stubborn that way and when we do shoot our decisions aren’t very smart.”

With that many penalties the game’s flow was interrupted and Seattle never got their even strength game in gear. They did get Jamal Watson back in the lineup and his speed helped create a number of the power-play chances but it wasn’t enough.

To compound matters, Seattle lost captain Jerret Smith to an injury in the first period. That forced Konowalchuk to have to scramble his blue line to find the right combination. While they played well at times it added to a general sense of disarray for Seattle all night.

Baddock would put Seattle out of its misery late with an empty net goal to send the T-Birds to their longest losing streak of the season.

“We’re just not on top of our game” Konowalchuk said. “Either not everybody on board or just different facets of the game, forechecking at times, still on some D zone coverage. As a team, we’re just not on top of our game and it’s too tough of a league and if you’re not on top of your game, you’re not going to win.”

Seattle will get a chance to get back on their game Friday night when they will take on the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Notes

• Konowalchuk did not have an update on Jerret Smith’s injury after the game.

• Flodell made his first start in two games and made 22 saves.

• The win was only Edmonton’s second win on home ice, which makes the loss all the more frustrating for the T-Birds.

• Barzal added two more assists on the night which extended his scoring streak to five games and he has 13 points over that span.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.