T-Birds eliminated after 5-4 overtime loss to Portland

KENT – The Thunderbirds’ season ended on Tuesday night, but they didn’t go down without a fight.

Scott Eansor scored his second goal of the night with 1:40 to go in the third period to even the game and send it to overtime. The Portland Winterhawks’ Nic Petan scored 19 minutes into the extra period to give his club a 5-4 win. With the victory, the Winterhawks won the first-round series 4-2 and will advance to the second round.

Playoff hockey is full of ups and downs, and Tuesday night the T-Birds felt the sting of a sudden end to the season.

“It was a great effort,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “That’s all we can hang our hats on right now. Every single guy left it out there, that’s all you can ask. So maybe they didn’t get rewarded today but somewhere they will. They played hard today, it sucks to loose. It was a hard-fought series.”

The T-Birds fell behind on three different occasions Tuesday night but battled back each time. That kind of resiliency is something that Konowalchuk’s young squad showed throughout the entire season. Seattle always found a way to bounce back.

“From the 20’s on down leading the way, all year’s been that way,” Konowalchuk said. “Through adversity, good character guys, good work ethic. To be down early in that game, guys could have let it slip away, they picked it up and really got back into it. A good team to coach all year.”

The end of the playoffs in junior hockey means the end of some careers as players will move on. Tuesday night was the end for guys like Roberts Lipsbergs and goalie Taran Kozun, who made 36 saves in defeat. Shea Theodore and Evan Wardley also played their last games as Thunderbirds, something that was hard for them both to swallow.

“It’s hitting me pretty hard,” an emotional Wardley said. “I can’t say enough good things about this place. From Day 1 Steve’s really taken me under his wing and changed me into a player that can really see the game and be a good player out there. Can’t thank him enough for everything he’s done for me over the years.”

Wardley played a huge role on Tuesday night. After Portland scored twice in a span of 1:05 in the second – on goals by Dominic Turgeon and Oliver Bjorkstrand – Konowalchuk moved Warldey up to forward. He’s played the position before and he instantly brought energy and a physical edge to the game. He hit everything that moved and was wearing red. It got the team going and Seattle tied the game up before the period ended.

At one point of the night the ShoWare Center crowd was chanting his name.

“Wardley is a heart-and-soul guy that came on really out of nowhere,” Konowalchuk said of his big 20-year-old defenseman. “I think early on in his junior career, at 17, we didn’t know if he would be able to play in this league and to see during that game, 6,000 fans chanting his name … I don’t think we thought we’d see that when he was 17. So good for him and we’ll miss these guys.”

Theodore logged heavy minutes Tuesday, seemingly on the ice for every shift. The team captain played like a guy who did not want his junior career to end. He got Seattle going in the second by turning in a signature type goal. He picked the puck up at center ice, flew into the Portland zone, blew by a defender and beat goalie Adin Hill with a pretty back-handed shot.

It was the type of goal he’s scored a lot of during his four years with the T-Birds. He added two assists and ended the night with a plus-2 in what did turn out to be his last game in a T-Birds sweater.

“It will be tough to sleep tonight, for sure,” Theodore said. “I don’t really want to take this jersey off. It’s been an honor and definitely very proud to have been a T-Bird.”

There are plenty of good things ahead for Theodore, as he will now embark on his promising pro-hockey career. But Tuesday night, none of that mattered. He wanted to go out a winner.

“Theodore, for a superstar player at this level, is a role-model individual and a pleasure to work with every day,” Konowalchuk said. “He doesn’t break a rule, leads by example and works hard. Obviously the skill package is very special.”

Portland got ahead midway through the first period in Game 6. Oliver Bjorkstrand picked up a loose puck in the faceoff circle, spun and fired a shot that Kozun couldn’t handle. It was the third straight game that the Winterhawks scored first; they won all three. Eansor evened the game up 6 minutes later when he took a shot that hit Hill but still found its way into the net.

It was Eansor’s first of two goals on the night as he continued to step it up in the playoffs. He ends the six-game series with five goals while playing tough minutes against one of the best lines in junior hockey.

“He elevates his game, competitive kid, good kid,” Konowalchuk said. “He leaves it on the ice at all times. Another one of those guys, you want better for these guys. They deserve better but they’ll get rewarded somewhere. It’s not always immediate results. It hurts right now.”

Portland took a 3-1 lead in a just over a minute early into the second period. It looked bleak for the T-Birds at the time but that’s when Wardley entered the game at forward. It sparked the team, a spark that started with Theodore’s goal to cut the lead. Five minutes later Cory Millette tipped a Theodore shot past Hill while on the power play to tie the game up.

The game stayed tied headed into the third but Miles Koules put Portland up 11 minutes in when he beat Kozun to the post on a wrap-around shot. That looked like it was going to be the game-winner until Eansor struck late. On Eansor’s goal, he won a battle for the puck along the boards, spun and attacked the net. His shot found the net and the 5,088 in attendance went crazy.

It looked like the two clubs were headed for a second overtime until Petan struck from the face-off circle with a deadly, top-shelf snap shot. As the T-Birds’ players bent over from exhaustion, Portland’s bench emptied onto the ice to celebrate the game – and series – win.

“It’s tough, when they leave it on the ice like that, it’s really tough to see them lose,” Konowalchuk said. “Maybe the youth in this series, when we were up 2-1, crept in a little bit. To let them get the lead, we got a little complacent. A veteran team like that, they jumped on us but we battled back hard, just didn’t come up with it.”

Seattle played hard all series and perhaps hardest during Tuesday’s finale. The T-Birds came up short in what was a competitive series, one that tasked them with trying to take down a club that had 400 more games of playoff experience on its roster. Portland is a tough team to beat but the T-Birds hung in with the Winterhawks, something that should pay off down the road.

“Can’t say enough about this group of guys,” Wardley said. “We’re all brothers and we all battled out there tonight but it didn’t quite go the way we wanted. Tip your hat to Portland, they’re a hell of a hockey club and best of the luck the rest of the way.”

Notes

• Theodore ends his Seattle career as the all-time leader in goals and points by a defenseman. He was drafted in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft by Anaheim and he won a gold medal at the World Junior Championships for Canada. It’s possible he will now head to the AHL to finish the season with the Norfolk Admirals.

• Wardley played 208 games in a Thunderbirds sweater and his last year was his best. He played tough minutes on the blue line and set a career high in goals (six) and assists (16). He got a good look from the Montreal Canadiens this summer and it will be interesting to see where he ends up now that his junior career is over.

• Kozun was a steal for the T-Birds during last year’s trade deadline. Coming over from Kamloops, he took over the No. 1 goalie slot for Seattle and this year was the team MVP. With injuries to key guys early in the year, Kozun held the team together and kept it in the race. He, too, may get some looks from the pros after such a good season.

• Lipsbergs ends his Seattle stint with 79 goals for the T-Birds. He was on pace for his third straight 30-goal year after re-joining the club in January. His season started in the pros, in the ECHL, and the Latvian should have some pro opportunities in the future, whether here in North America or in Europe.

Stay tuned to the blog as we will recap the season that was over the next few days.

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