Thunderbirds blow another lead in 4-3 loss to Red Deer

For the second straight game, the Thunderbirds blew a 3-1 lead in the third period. This time it was at the hands of the Red Deer Rebels as former Everett Silvertips forward Ivan Nikolishin scored the game winner with just over 3 minutes left.

BY ANDY EIDE

Nov 3, 2015, 10:09 PM Updated: Nov 4, 2015, 12:13 pm

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Once again, the Thunderbirds found themselves with a 3-1 lead headed into the third period of a tough road game.

In their last outing, on Sunday afternoon, they blew that exact same lead in Calgary and lost 4-3. It couldn’t happen again, could it?

It wasn’t a rerun, it just felt that way Tuesday night in Red Deer as the T-Birds allowed the Rebels to score three unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes to lose 4-3. Two games, two third-period meltdowns.

Red Deer’s Ivan Nikolishin picked up the game winner this time with just over 3 minutes left to go as the T-Birds allowed him to skate at will through the zone and beat goalie Taz Burman. It was a big night for Nikolishin, the former Everett Silvertip, who added two assists and was plus-2.

For the second straight game, the T-Birds were left without gaining points in a game they should have won.

“We’ve got to finish out games,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said. “They’re some upset guys, and there should be.”

The two losses are nearly carbon copies of each other.

As on Sunday, Seattle dominated the second period, out-shooting the Rebels 14-5 and picking up goals from Alexander True and Nick Holowko. Everything seemed to be working. The T-Birds were playing suffocating defense and Burman was making all the saves.

They went into the second intermission up 3-1 and you have to wonder if the memory of the game before crept in at all. Konowalchuk didn’t think it did.

“You don’t need to bring it up,” he said about his between-periods message. “We just talked about how we need to play… We didn’t play well enough in the third.”

A game after managing only one third-period shot, Seattle found a way to get four this time. Making problems worse was Seattle’s missed chances with the power play. Coming into the game, the T-Birds had the league’s second most prolific power-play unit, clicking at an impressive 27 percent.

They went 0 for 5 with the man advantage Tuesday night, missing on two big third-period opportunities.

“I thought we got out-worked on the power play,” Konowalchuk said. “The power play wasn’t quick enough, they pressured we weren’t quick enough to support each other. Our power play could have been a difference, for sure. It’s another concern to go over.”

Give Red Deer credit as well. Instead of giving in, the Rebels kept pushing to get back into the game. They cut the lead to one when Connor Bleackley scored from the slot on a power play 7 minutes into the period. Seattle held the fort down for a while but then Evan Polei scored with just under 7 minutes left to tie it.

Once again, it looked like the T-Birds would be able to at least salvage a point by getting the game to overtime before Nikolishin took a stroll through Seattle’s defenders to score on a wide-open net. On the game winner, most of the T-Birds players were caught flat-footed, standing and watching instead of skating.

It’s the first time this season that the T-Birds have lost two games in a row and they will look to rebound to avoid any kind of prolonged losing streak. In what is a long season, not everything is going to go right and there are going to be bad nights. The key is how they respond now.

“We’ve just got to get back at it,” Konowalchuk said. “We’ve got some good character and we need to get working. We’ll get through it, it should make us better in the end but we’ve got to get going.”

The T-Birds will get right back at it on Wednesday night when they move down the road to play the Edmonton Oil Kings. It will be their fourth game in five nights. Fatigue could be an issue, but so should the motivation of losing two games that seemed to be all wrapped up after two periods.

“You’re going to go through some bumps,” Konowalchuk said. “You don’t like losing two games like that in a row. It’s hard to take for everybody and we’ve got to learn from it, get back on the horse tomorrow.”

Notes

• Scott Eansor and Jamal Watson were again out of the lineup on Tuesday. The team has officially listed them as day-to-day and you have to wonder how much Seattle missed them over the past two games. Both guys are tremendous shut-down players who bring a ton of energy when they are on the ice.

• Tuesday was the first time this year that the Rebels have come back to win when trailing after two periods.

• Mathew Barzal picked up an assist on the Holowko goal to give him a four-game point streak. Keegan Kolesar was held off the score sheet for only the third time this season.

• Seattle’s top line of Barzal, Kolesar and Nolan Volcan had their hands full on Tuesday and combined to go minus-5 on the night.