T-Birds on the brink after dropping Game 5 to Portland 5-3

PORTLAND, Ore. – For the first time all season, the Seattle Thunderbirds find themselves in a do or die situation.

Seattle faces elimination from the playoffs after dropping a hard fought 5-3 decision to the Portland Winterhawks at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum Saturday night. The Winterhawks took a 3-2 series lead with the win, paced by Paul Bittner’s two goals. Seattle made a late charge behind tallies from Shea Theodore and Mathew Barzal but was not be able to find the equalizer it needed.

Much like they did in Game 4, the Winterhawks put Seattle on its heels with a good start. Portland skated out to a two-goal lead in the first period, which meant once again the T-Birds would have to chase the rest of the game.

“Not good enough,” Seattle head coach Steve Konowalchuk said afterwards. “We’ve got to be a little bit better at the start. I thought they were the better team to start the game and the rest of the game was back and forth.”

The Winterhawks struck first when nobody from Seattle picked up Keegan Iverson coming off the bench. Portland’s Nic Petan did see him, though, and got the puck to him in the high slot. Iverson stepped into a big slap shot that Seattle goalie Taran Kozun couldn’t catch up to. That goal gave the Winterhawks a ton of momentum and they would spend the rest of the period pushing the play.

Kozun was big all night and in the first he was able to make some key saves to keep the game from getting out of hand. Most notable was a spectacular pad save he made on Oliver Bjorkstrand, who had raced around the Seattle defense. Kozun would end the night making 30 saves.

Despite Kozun’s heroics, Portland would score again in the first when Bittner was left alone in front of the net. He converted a pass from Bjorkstrand to give the Winterhawks a two-goal lead.

After finding a way of slowing down Portland’s top line in the first three games of the series, the T-Birds had their hands full on Saturday. Nic Petan, Bjorkstrand and Bittner had a strong game and were driving the play nearly every time on the ice. Without the last change on the road, Konowalchuk was not able to get Scott Eansor’s line out against Portland’s top line.

Seattle’s other lines were no match for Petan and Bjorkstrand.

“Their top line played a good game,” Konowalchuk said. “We’ve got to do better against them for sure.”

Seattle would get a huge goal late in the period from Scott Eansor. While killing a penalty, Eansor took the puck away at his own blue line and blew past the Portland defenders. He got in close on goalie Adin Hill and beat him through the five-hole. It was Eansor’s third goal of the series as his playoff scoring prowess continues.

The two teams would play a scoreless second period as the game settled into a tight playoff affair. There was some controversy in the period however. Late in the frame it appeared that Adam Henry had scored on a point shot. The referees ruled that Bittner had made contact with Kozun and interfered with his ability to make the save. The goal was waived off, much to the protestations of Portland head coach Jamie Kompon.

The third period would see a lot of scoring and some real back and forth play.

The T-Birds dug their hole deeper by taking a penalty early on, and Portland cashed in when Bittner tipped a Henry shot past Kozun. Down two goals, the T-Birds kept pressing. They generated a ton of chances and Shea Theodore would bring them back to within one goal with a power-play marker of his own.

One bad bounce would give Portland its two-goal lead back.

A bouncing puck got over Ethan Bear’s stick at the point and created a two-on-one for Alex Schoenborn and Iverson. Iverson got the puck to Schoenborn, who beat Kozun to make it 4-2. It was a big goal as Barzal would score on a backhand less than a minute later to cut the lead again.

Down a goal the T-Birds pulled Kozun for the extra skater but could not get the tying score, and Bjorkstrand ended the drama with his second empty net goal of the series.

Now the T-Birds will head home for a Game 6 that they will have to win to stay alive.

“Everybody, leadership has to stand up,” Konowalchuk said about Game 6. “The key players have to lead the way as well and everyone follows. It will need to be a team effort back home. It will be nice to get the fans behind us and get ready to go.”

For the first time in this series a team has won back-to-back games. With the season on the line in Game 6, Konowalchuk said his guys were staying positive.

“It’s a series,” he added. “We’d rather not be in this situation. Against a good team, we’ve just got to win the next game, it’s that simple.”

Game 6 is Tuesday night at the ShoWare Center in Kent.

Notes

• Eansor continues to step it up come playoff time. Along with his outstanding hustle and defensive play, he has scored – his three goals in this series give him seven goals in 14 career playoff games.

• Seattle was only awarded one power-play chance on the night and converted on it. Portland ended the night 1 for 3 with the man advantage.

• Bjorkstrand has been good in this series but in a quirky stat, he has yet to beat Kozun. He has two empty net goals and a power-play goal in Game 5 against Logan Flodell. Kozun has robbed him point blank on a handful of occasions; otherwise his goal totals would be much higher. Bjorkstrand has still been a beast, picking up seven assists.

• If Seattle can stay alive on Tuesday, Game 7 would be played on Wednesday back in Portland. This series is one of three first-round series that are still to be decided. Calgary and Kootenay will play a Game 7 on Tuesday night and Everett leads Spokane 3-2.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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