Thunderbirds breeze by Hurricanes in overtime to open three-game weekend

Seattle Thunderbirds center Henrik Rybinski hopped over the boards just under two minutes into overtime Friday night in Lethbridge.

He skated into the Hurricanes zone where a puck battle along the boards was taking place. He poached the puck away from two Hurricane players and moved in on the goal with nobody in front of him. Lethbridge goalie Bryon Thomson tracked him but Rybinski flipped the puck back to a streaking Payton Mount who would bury his ninth goal of the year to send the Thunderbirds to a 5-4 win at the Enmax Centre.

The win put Seattle (14-19-2-1)back into a tie with the Tri-City Americans for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference and snapped a two-game losing streak.

It was a back and forth affair that saw the Thunderbirds tie the game in the third period and ride the momentum to a win, opening their three-in-three weekend on a high note.

“The first half of the game was OK, but we weren’t playing the way we wanted to play,” Thunderbirds head coach Matt O’Dette said. “That third was a blueprint on how we want to play. A really good response from the guys coming out of the room for that period.”

Lethbridge (23-10-1-5), who was missing three players who are away at the World Junior Championships, had taken a 4-3 lead midway into the second period when Logan Barlage scored on a five-on-three power play.

Seattle responded with a third period that was its best. The Thunderbirds outshot the Hurricanes 12-8 and tied the game on a goal from Max Patterson, his fifth of the year and second as a Thunderbird. That goal set up the Thunderbirds for the home stretch and overtime.

“We refer to it as ‘small ball’ where you’re wearing teams down with a lot of extended zone time, a lot of attempts at the net,” O’Dette said. “I thought they started to get tired a bit and that resulted in us getting back into the game and winning it.”

Rybinski’s play in overtime capped off a strong night for the Florida Panthers prospect who returned to the lineup after missing one game to injury.

He scored Seattle’s first goal, on a first-period power play, and would set up Keltie Jeri-Leon for his 13^th goal early in the second period. He had an impact on the game by creating offense, forechecking and ended up with three points.

“We certainly missed him last game,” O’Dette said. “He’s creating, he’s a threat every time he’s out there. You could see it on that last play in overtime, he won a battle on the wall and made a nice play to Mount for the winner.”

Playing on the wing last year, Rybinski has had a desire to play center, a position he felt was natural to him. The Thunderbirds have had him in and out of the pivot at times this year, but he’s played center since a November 30^th game at Everett.

In the 12 games since he’s scored seven goals, seven assists and has gelled with Jeri-Leon and Conner Roulette to give the Thunderbirds a potent top line.

“He’s so good on the wall as a winger that we were reluctant at first to move him,” O’Dette said. “But when we moved him to the middle he’s been just as good down low. Just winning battles and skating the puck out of the zone. That’s when he hit his stride and has been good ever since.”

Rybinski’s power-play goal was a good sign for the Thunderbirds who came into the game with just one goal on 68 road power-play chances.

Seattle would end the evening 1-for-4 with the man advantage and O’Dette threw a wrinkle into his top unit by deploying five forwards on the power play with Andrej Kukuca running the point.

“We’ve tried Andrej there at practice and he’s comfortable with that quarterback spot,” O’Dette said. “Just trying something new with arguably our five best players out there. It cashed in tonight, so we’ll have to look at that as an option.”

The Thunderbirds got balanced scoring with five different players finding the back of the net. That included Conner Bruggen-Cate who would tie the game at 2-2 late in the first period. It was the 20-year-old’s eighth goal of the season and fourth in as many games.

He was one of Seattle’s best players on Friday.

“Bruggy was great tonight,” O’Dette said. “He’s been one of the workhorses for us and given us a lot of good minutes. He’s had a good stretch and now he’s being rewarded for his good work and cashing in on some goals. I thought all our older guys were good, it can be tough on the road but they led the way tonight.”

There was no time for rest for the Thunderbirds as they head to Medicine Hat for a matchup with the high-flying, and high-scoring Tigers. Getting the win Friday was a good way to start the trip and O’Dette said that the team would try to build off their third period heading into Saturday.

Game Notes

• Roddy Ross was in net for the Thunderbirds and made 25 saves to collect his 11^th win.

• Lethbridge had Affiliated Player Salvatore Collora in the lineup Friday night. Collora, 16, is from Woodinville, WA and was a one-time teammate of Seattle’s Mekai Sanders.

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