T-Birds drop third straight with 5-2 loss against Portland

KENT – The Seattle Thunderbirds did a lot of things right in their Saturday night matchup with the Portland Winterhawks. The only thing they didn’t do was win the game.

Seattle threw 51 shots on Portland goalie Adin Hill but could not find the net enough and dropped a 5-2 decision to the Winterhawks at the ShoWare Center.

Portland had big nights from Oliver Bjorkstrand and Paul Bittner, who both scored twice, and Hill, who made 49 saves in net.

It was a game in which the T-Birds pushed the play and controlled the puck for long stretches of the night. They hit a number of posts, had pucks just go wide or were stopped by Hill. That led to a frustrating evening as they watched the Winterhawks take advantage of the few opportunities they created.

“It’s very frustrating,” defenseman Jerret Smith said. “We had a lot of chances tonight and we didn’t bear down as much as we could have. We can’t let them have that many goals.”

Seattle outshot the Winterhawks 51-28 and there were many times that they blistered Hill and the Portland net with rubber.

“We needed more traffic,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “(Hill) comes right out to challenge a lot – if you let him challenge he’s going to make the saves. You’ve got to keep him in his crease.”

A sign of how things were going to go came early when Portland scored on their first shot of the night. Keegan Iverson had the puck below the Seattle goal line and fed it to an unchecked Chase De Leo in the slot. De Leo potted his 31st goal and Portland had the early lead.

The T-Birds tied it up six minutes later on a nice passing play that ended with Roberts Lipsbergs snapping a shot into the upper corner of the Winterhawks net. It was Lipsbergs’ 12th goal of the year.

Oliver Bjorkstrand would give Portland the lead just after the eight-minute mark when he beat Taran Kozun through the five hole. It was Bjorkstrand’s 47th goal of the year and he tied a Portland franchise record with goals in 11 straight games.

Portland would increase the lead to 3-1 two minutes into the second when Bittner tipped a Bjorkstrand shot past Kozun. It was a power-play goal and would end up being all the offense Portland would need.

The rest of the second period was all Seattle. They pinned the Winterhawks in their own end and offered up a flurry of shots and chances. Shea Theodore hit a cross bar, Turner Ottenbreit hit a post, and so did Smith. Ryan Gropp just poked a puck wide and Theodore threw one right across the goal line and it somehow didn’t go in.

It was that kind of night.

“I thought we definitely deserved a couple more goals than we got,” Konowalchuk said. “Their goalie played a good game. Early in the game I would have liked a few more guys with a little more desperation. Give their guys credit, they made a couple of nice quick plays and capitalized on it.”

Even with all the chances, Shea Theodore thought they could have been better.

“I thought we were pretty active,” he said. “I think we had 50 shots, not sure how many were outside. We weren’t really getting around our guy to get good ample opportunities right in the slot. At the end of the day, we’ve just got to bear down.”

Portland’s top line of Bjorkstrand, Nic Petan and Bittner had a good game. Head coach Jamie Kompon got them on the ice a lot, double shifting them all night. Seattle likes to match Scott Eansor up front with that line along with Smith and Theodore on the back end. That combination did a good job keeping them in check but the Winterhawks got Bjorkstrand and company on the ice against other Seattle lines and took advantage.

“I want to trust our guys,” Konowalchuk said of the matchups. “Especially when you’re trailing you want to get through a couple shifts with different lines so maybe you can free up lines like a Kolesar-Eansor line a little bit and let them go.”

That top line was responsible for four of the Winterhawks five goals.

Seattle got some life five minutes into the third period when Mathew Barzal scored after firing a rebound past Hill for his 12th goal of the year. That got the crowd going and it looked like maybe Seattle’s momentum would carry them back.

Bjorkstrand and Bittner would team up to squash the momentum four minutes later. Bjorkstrand took a shot that Kozun got a piece of but couldn’t control the rebound. With the puck loose in the crease Bittner was there to knock it home for his second goal of the game.

That was a heart-breaking goal, and Bjorkstrand would score on the empty net late to end any doubt.

In the end it was the T-Birds’ third straight loss, but more importantly it drops them nine points behind Portland for second place – and home ice advantage in the first round – with ten games to go. They still play the Winterhawks two more times so they aren’t technically out of the race just yet.

“We’re still gunning for second spot in the division,” Smith said. “Definitely desperation out there. We’ve got to come with every game left and come hard.”

The T-Birds head to Vancouver Island next for two games early in the week against the Victoria Royals. Getting away for a few days might be good for them after a tough weekend.

“It will be nice to get a change of scenery,” Konowalchuk said. “We’ve played a lot of games at home and it’s nice to get on the road, get everyone out there and just a little bit different mindset.”

Seattle plays Victoria Monday and Tuesday night before a rematch with Portland in the Rose City next Friday.

Notes

• Bjorkstrand is having an incredible season for the Winterhawks. His two scores Saturday give him 48 in 49 games played. He is now second in the WHL in scoring and trails Medicine Hat’s Trevor Cox by six points despite playing in 11 fewer games.

• Barzal continues to pile up points. He had two on Saturday and has a seven-game scoring streak going. In that span he has two goals and 13 assists.

• The T-Birds need to get off to better starts. Portland scored on their first shot Saturday night and on Friday Prince George scored on their second.

• Seattle has put up 40-plus shots in three straight games against Portland but have only won two of the three. It’s a testament to Portland’s top line and how they can score, even with a limited number of chances.

Follow Andrew Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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