T-Birds give one away to Calgary Hitmen in 4-3 loss

The Thunderbirds played forty solid minutes of hockey Sunday afternoon but gave one away late to the Calgary Hitmen.

Seattle (9-3-1-0) blew a two-goal lead in the third period by allowing Calgary (8-7-0-1) to score three unanswered goals, including Jackson Houck’s game-winner with just three seconds on the clock, to give the home team a 4-3 win.

Seattle had been playing well but struggled in the third period while getting outshot 10-1.

“We let them come at us too much,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said about the fateful third period. “We weren’t able to sustain pressure in their end and they kept coming at us and they were able to get a little momentum that way and we let them get back in the game.”

The T-Birds looked like they were well on their way to a third straight win after playing two solid road periods. They played strong team defense that didn’t allow any sustained Calgary pressure and they killed off all four Hitmen power-play chances.

Everything changed when the puck dropped in the third period.

“They were working hard,” Konowalchuk said of the Hitmen. “The team kept coming but I think we got away from it a little bit and a few simple plays where we could have made life easy for us, we didn’t.”

The bleeding started early in the third when Radel Fazleev scored from the high slot. Even after that goal cut the lead it still looked like Seattle was going to hold off the Hitmen. Goalie Taz Burman was sharp and made some key saves but the T-Birds could not get anything going offensively and the Hitmen kept pushing.

There was a little bit of bad luck as well.

Calgary would tie the game with under five minutes to go when Mark Kastelic tried to center a pass from behind the Seattle goal. His attempt hit a T-Birds stick and the puck deflected past Burman for an own goal. The goal will count as Kastelic’s first WHL goal and it appeared that the game would have to be decided in overtime.

Overtime seemed even more inevitable as the third period clock wound down to under 20 seconds but then a turnover behind the Seattle net allowed Carsen Twarynski to get the puck in front to a wide open Houck. Houck had time and space and fired a wrist shot that found the top corner for the game winner.

With only three ticks left on the clock, there was nothing more for the T-Birds to do.

“We’ve got to keep playing,” Konowalchuk said. “You can’t have a casual moment on the ice and it wasn’t just the end shift, there was a lot in the third period where we started to get a little casual. Whether its a little battle here or something small there, it was a whole bunch of little things that put us on our heels. We couldn’t get our forecheck going and when we did have chances we would miss the net.”

The T-Birds built their lead in the first period when Mathew Barzal fed Nolan Volcan with a nice pass on a two-on-one chance. Volcan beat Calgary goalie Cody Porter for his fifth tally of the season. Seattle extended that lead in the second with a power-play goal on Donovan Neuls’ first of the year.

The Hitmen battled back on a Travis Sanheim goal – the Philadelphia Flyers prospect’s sixth of the season. Seattle would answer however as Brandon Schuldhaus notched his first WHL score on a nice passing play from Keegan Kolesar and Barzal.

The T-Birds will lick their wounds from Sunday’s loss and get back at it Tuesday night when they travel to Red Deer for a big match up with the Rebels.

“We got to regroup and get going again,” Konowalchuk said. “Next game we have a real tough opponent and we have to regroup and get ready for Red Deer.”

Notes

• Barzal added two more assists on Sunday, bringing him to 16 on the year. He is averaging two points per game.

• Kolesar picked up two assists, which gives him points in 11 of the 13 games he’s played to start the season.

• The four goals allowed by Seattle snaps the T-Birds’ nine-game streak of allowing two scores or less.

• When Seattle plays in Red Deer on Tuesday it will be its first look at former teammate Lane Pederson this year. The 18-year-old forward was traded just before training camp for goalie Taz Burman. Pederson has three goals and six points in 15 games for Red Deer.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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