T-Birds end preseason with another 4-1 loss to Everett

EVERETT -- After dropping a frustrating game on Friday night the Seattle Thunderbirds turned in a similar performance Saturday night to finish up their preseason schedule.

The Everett Silvertips beat the T-Birds 4-1 at the ShoWare Center Saturday, holding Seattle to one goal and only two third period shots. Everett was led by Tyler Sandhu and Carson Stadnyk who each had a goal and an assist to help build the Silvertips lead. Seattle's lone goal came from Keegan Kolesar as once again they could not generate consistent offense.

In many ways, the game was a carbon copy of the night before.

Sep 14, 2014, 7:26 AM Updated: 7:26 am

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By Andrew Eide

EVERETT — After dropping a frustrating game on Friday night the Seattle Thunderbirds turned in a similar performance Saturday night to finish up their preseason schedule.

The Everett Silvertips beat the T-Birds 4-1 at the ShoWare Center Saturday, holding Seattle to one goal and only two third period shots. Everett was led by Tyler Sandhu and Carson Stadnyk who each had a goal and an assist to help build the Silvertips lead. Seattle’s lone goal came from Keegan Kolesar as once again they could not generate consistent offense.

In many ways, the game was a carbon copy of the night before.

“To be honest I liked yesterday’s better,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “I thought there were times in the game where we wanted to play within our structure, we could push pace and get things done, but its a reality check for some guys. We need to get everybody on board real quick here, back to basics.”

Saturday night the T-Birds found themselves trailing early on. The Silvertips struck two minutes into the game after Seattle could not clear the puck out of their own zone. Noah Juulsen’s point shot was deflected in front by Sandhu and past goalie Logan Flodell for the early Everett lead.

Four minutes later, on a power play, the Silvertips would score in similar fashion as Matt Fonteyne deflected a Kevin Davis point shot past the Seattle goalie.

Just like that it was 2-0 Everett as Everett scored on their first two shots of the contest.

“We weren’t ready to play,” Konowalchuk said. “Two big break downs that shouldn’t happen. If we’re ready to play they wouldn’t happen, we didn’t give the goalie a chance, we need to get back to basics and get ready to go.”

Down a pair of scores the T-Birds settled down somewhat. They were able to get some puck possession going, and would spend a lot of time in the Everett zone. The problem was that they didn’t get a lot of shots despite all that possession time. Often the T-Birds would cycle the puck, move it around the zone but couldn’t capitalize.

“We are passing up too many shots and that’s something we have to correct,” Konowalchuk said of his offense. “We’re right in the house area at times, looking for better plays so we do have to get better there.”

Another big break down led to the third Everett goal late in the second period. Everett’s Zane Jones intercepted a bad pass behind the T-Birds net and sent it out front to a wide open Carson Stadnyk. Stadnyk had Flodell at his mercy and beat him to build a lead that ultimately would be too much for Seattle.

The T-Birds got a bit of life when Kolesar potted a wrist shot 20 seconds later but that’s as close as Seattle would get as Brayden Low would seal it late with an empty net tally.

In the third period the Silvertips put the clamps down and held Seattle to only two shots, the first not coming until there were under seven minutes left in the period.

Afterwards, Konowalchuk was frustrated by his team’s performance.

“When we’re playing our game I like what we’re doing,” he said. “If you’re going to force plays and not play consistently for 60 minutes you’re going to have big break downs and take big penalties and you’re not going to win games…You’ve got to play for 60 minutes and we’re not doing that. We’re free-lancing too much and taking shifts off.”

There were a couple of bright spots on the night. Seattle’s defense held Everett to only 23 shots and defenseman Jared Hauf was a physical presence all night. Rookie Nolan Volcan also had a strong game as he played hard and registered several big hits on Silvertip players.

“Volcan is playing like a veteran guy, it’s a credit to him,” Konowalchuk said of his rookie forward. “It’s not a good sign for a team that we’ve got a guy coming in his first year and playing better than a lot of our veteran guys. More consistent, more urgency, he’s willing to play the game plan better than a lot of our veteran guys.”

The T-Birds will now regroup and prepare for the regular season which will kick off on Friday in Portland. They have some work to do for sure, they have plenty of time to find their game before things start to count for real. According to the coach, it will take focus and hard work this week.

“Everyone has got to look in the mirror, including me,” he said. “We’ve got to back to basics and correct our mistakes. I know its in there, we’ve seen it at times but it’s a reality check. It’s not going to be easy and we have to scrape and claw for every game, maybe it’s going to happen now. The guys realize it and I’m going to help them realize what it takes to win games.”

Notes

Seattle ends the preseason with a 3-4-0-0 record while the Silvertips improved to a league best 5-2-0-0. Do these preseason records indicate anything? Three of the predicted top four teams in the Western Conference — Seattle, Victoria and Kelowna — finished with the worst three records in the preseason.

Seattle’s goalie situation remains unsettled. Flodell went the distance on Saturday night and had a solid game. Konowalchuk didn’t feel that he had a chance on any of the three goals he surrendered. With a week to go until the season opener the T-Birds have a tough decision to make with their three goalies that are still on the roster.

Ryan Gropp and Mathew Barzal were again playing on separate lines Saturday night as Konowalchuk continues to try and spread offense throughout his lineup.

Rookie Lane Pederson played in all seven preseason games for Seattle and was their leading scorer with one goal and four assists.

With the regular season ready to kick off we will have a week full of coverage for you on the blog so stay tuned.

Follow Andrew Eide on Twitter @andyeide.