T-Birds take too many penalties in 3-2 overtime loss to Moose Jaw

Moose Jaw's Noah Gregor scored a power-play goal 1:14 into the extra frame to give the Warriors a 3-2 win over the Thunderbirds.

BY ANDY EIDE

Nov 28, 2015, 10:56 PM Updated: Nov 29, 2015, 12:16 pm

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KENT – The Seattle Thunderbirds salvaged a point in their Saturday night overtime loss to Moose Jaw but were left feeling like they kicked one away.

Moose Jaw’s Noah Gregor scored a power-play goal 1:14 into the extra frame to give the Warriors the 3-2 win. It was Gregor’s second goal of the night to go along with 32 saves by goalie Zachary Sawchenko to spark the win.

The loss snaps Seattle’s nine-game home winning streak and is their second overtime loss of the year.

The theme for this night was Seattle penalties.

The T-Birds continually shot themselves in the foot by taking minor penalties at bad times. Seven times Seattle was short handed and the Warriors capitalized twice on the power play.

“Seven minor penalties and I think seven the other day, that’s a period playing short handed,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “You can’t keep any momentum, you wear out guys and that’s the game right there.”

The number of penalties was bad enough and the timing of them was even worse.

With the score tied at one to start the third period the T-Birds came out with three strong shifts. While they couldn’t get one past Sawchenko they were on the verge of taking the game over.

Then they were whistled for an interference penalty.

Gregor would make them pay and score on the first shot of the ensuing power play to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead. Seattle tried to come back and pushed hard but would take more penalties along the way.

“We’re down a goal and we take three minor penalties while we’re trying to catch up, that’s pretty tough to do,” Konowalchuk said. “That’s bad timing. Take a penalty that they’ve already called three of in that game, we’ve got to be better at it.”

With under two minutes to go Mathew Barzal would tie the game on an all-time highlight reel goal.

He carried the puck up ice, built up speed and cut through two Moose Jaw defenders to free himself in on the goal. He got Sawchecnko down and was able to slide the puck past him.

The goal revved up the 4,032 at the ShoWare Center and it looked like Seattle had weathered the storm. Then, with 40 seconds left defensemen Turner Ottenbreit was whistled for another interference penalty that gave the Warriors the power play they ultimately would win the game on.

“We deserved all those penalties at the end,” Konowalchuk said. “Careless plays, those kinds of things were called early in the game on that team. We didn’t change our game and were just careless.”

Coming into this weekend the T-Birds were only averaging 4.2 penalty kills per game, the last two nights they’ve had to be short handed 14 times. Four of the seven penalties on Seattle were interference calls.

“I think we were undisciplined today and especially at the end,” Jerret Smith said. “We took a couple of penalties that cost us the game. We’ve got to be better at keeping our sticks down and knowing when they’re calling a tough game like that.”

While Seattle killed off five of the first six Moose Jaw penalties, having to kill off a 4-on-3 overtime power play is that much tougher.

There’s more room on the ice and it allowed Gregor to move in close to the net and fire a shot that goalie Logan Flodell couldn’t handle.

“Its tough because we almost got through it,” Konowalchuk said. “We did a pretty good job I think that was their one scoring chance. You start to see that light at the end of the tunnel there that we’re going to get through that but we didn’t.”

After a scoreless opening period Seattle opened the scoring in the second period when Gropp scored with a deadly wrist shot. The Warriors would tie the game when Tanner Jeannot beat Flodell with a shot off the rush.

Seattle out shot the Warriors 34-23 and really turned it on in the third 14-4 but could not beat Sawchenko.

“Five-on-five we were generating some stuff,” Konowalchuk said. “We needed to get more traffic. We did get a point out of it but that’s more frustrating.We get that late goal and we have the momentum it looks like and I like our chances in overtime.

To get the same kind of penalty, the same kind that we know the refs are calling tight, we’ve got to be smarter.”

Seattle will now work on playing with more discipline as they prepare to hit the road for a Friday match up in Spokane with U.S. Division rival Chiefs.

“We can’t be taking penalties like that, it’s way too many,” Smith said. “We’ve got to focus on that during the week and come back Friday against Spokane.”

Notes

• The game was physical from the outset with both teams finishing their checks. Konowalchuk felt for the most part the T-Birds matched the physical play that Moose Jaw brought but he thought there was one area they could have been more physical. I didn’t think we went to the net and I consider that physical play,” he said. “We had a lot of shots but I think he saw every shot and to me that’s physical and paying a price.”

• Gropp picked up his 15th goal of the year and has now tied Keegan Kolesar for the team lead in goals.

• Barzal’s goal and assist gives him 40 points on the year and he is tied for 5th in league scoring.

• Ethan Bear had an assist on Saturday and is now tied for second in the WHL for scoring defenseman. He trails Victoria’s Joe Hicketts by two points.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.