Thunderbirds dump Tri City in 7-3 win

KENT – The Thunderbirds weren’t wearing their original all-green uniforms for their St. Patrick’s Day clash with Tri City Tuesday night.

Despite that, they were still able to find gold on the ice.

Seattle blew a tie game open with four third period goals and went on to rout the struggling Tri City Americans 7-3 in front of a loud ShoWare Center crowd. The T-Birds were paced by Scott Eansor, who picked up his first career hat trick, as well as getting two scores from Roberts Lipsbergs in the big win.

Eansor’s career night got going early as he picked up a nice pass from Calvin Spencer and scored 13 seconds into the game.

“That was a quick one,” the Colorado native said after. “That was an amazing pass by Spencer. I almost wasn’t ready for it, I just barely saw it … It was kind of in my feet and I just tried to put it on net as fast as I could.”

It was a big night for Eansor’s shutdown line. Paired with Spencer and Nolan Volcan the trio stopped Tri City’s top line all night and managed to find the net themselves. The Americans’ Beau McCue, Tyler Sandhu and Justin Gutierrez were barely heard from while the three T-Birds’ forwards ended the night with three goals and five assists.

Volcan assisted on all three of Eansor’s goals.

“I owe him a soda or something,” Eansor said of his linemate. “The whole year he’s been awesome to play with. I mean, he’s young and going to turn out to be a really good player.”

Eansor’s line proved that one effective way of stopping your opponent is to not let them have the puck. Most of their time on the ice they possessed it, not allowing Tri City’s guys to get any offensive rhythm going.

“If we have possession of the puck there’s no better way to shut down another team,” Eansor said. “They’re a great team and if they have possession of the puck they’re able to make chances. If you have good skilled linemates and defensemen to keep possession of the puck, there’s no better way to shut down a team.”

Eansor has been strong all year and asked to play different roles this year. Most of the time he’s centering the team’s shutdown line. That takes a lot of hard work, but this year he’s shown he can score. After a three-goal rookie season he ended Tuesday with 14 on the year.

“They were ready to play and to go get a goal on the first shift was good,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said of Eansor and his line. “They were good all night again. It was really good to see Scotty darting to that net. He has that quickness.”

Despite the lopsided final score, Tuesday’s game had some tight moments.

The Americans got the game even eight minutes after Eansor’s opening salvo when nobody picked up Richard Nejezchleb in the slot and he was able to beat Taran Kozun.

Eansor would score again a minute later when he fired his own rebound past Tri City goalie Eric Comrie. The Winnipeg Jets prospect was making his last appearance in Seattle and was not treated well. He gave up six goals while stopping 31 shots.

Five and a half minutes into the second it looked like Seattle (35-25-4-5) had put the game away. Ethan Bear received a good feed from Ryan Gropp and weaved his way into the slot where he beat Comrie with a wrist shot. That made it 3-1, but that’s when things started to get strange.

The T-Birds would get awarded two power-play chances in the last four minutes of the period. Not only did they fail to score but they gave up short-handed goals on each chance. The first was after goalie Taran Kozun misfired on a clearing attempt. He over-skated the puck and McCue was right there for an easy tap in. On the second, a T-Birds defenseman got caught in no-man’s land, leading to a 2-on-1 the other way.

Lucas Nickles got the puck to Gutierrez for another easy tap in. Just like that, in a matter of four minutes, Tri City had tied the game up.

“Two big break downs and they capitalized,” Konowalchuk said. “I thought it was a pretty good second. Give them credit, at that point of the game they were playing real desperate hockey. You could see they were really pressing on those penalty kills.”

The T-Birds didn’t let those short-handed goals change the momentum, however. They came out in the third period and continued to carry the play.

“We stayed pretty calm,” Mathew Barzal said. “We thought we were pushing the pace and had a few unlucky bounces. We just had to stick with it.”

Barzal and Lipsbergs teamed up six minutes into the final frame to get the lead back. Barzal battled two Americans defenders behind the net and knocked the puck out to Lipsbergs. He walked the puck in front and took two shots at Comrie. The first was stopped but not the second.

Tri City (29-37-0-3) would get a power play less than a minute later, and with it a chance to even things up yet again. That’s when Shea Theodore made his presence felt.

He picked up the puck off the face off deep in his own end and turned on the jets. He streaked up the right side of the ice at top speed. Once he crossed the Tri City blue line he cut left, somehow not losing an edge. The Tri City defenders were somewhat mesmerized as Theodore glided to the left face off circle and ripped a top-shelf corner shot that Comrie had no chance stopping – there aren’t many goalies who could of.

It was a highlight reel goal and it put the game away.

“That was a nice goal,” Konowalchuk said with a chuckle. “Obviously a big part of the game, and that’s a big time goal. That’s not a slouch of a goalie over there. He went down and cut with a real nice shot. It was definitely what decided the game for us right there.”

The game was over but Seattle wasn’t finished scoring. Barzal made another nice play to draw defenders to him as he fired a pass to Lipsbergs on the door step. Lipsbergs beat Comrie again for his second goal of the night, and he could of had a hat trick of his own.

“We were giving him a tough time about the two he missed earlier in the game,” Barzal said. “He went off in the third so it was nice.”

With Comrie on the bench for the extra attacker, Eansor would then complete his hat trick as he got the puck, raced down the ice and deposited in an empty Tri City net. As hats reigned down on the ice from the 6,084 fans in attendance, the T-Birds celebrated the win.

It was a nice bounce back victory for the T-Birds after a down game in Everett this past Saturday. They also inched a step closer to wrapping up third place in the U.S. Division. The win puts them seven points ahead of Spokane, and the T-Birds can clinch the spot Wednesday night when they go to Kelowna for a game with the Rockets.

Notes

• Konowalchuk did some line juggling early in Tuesday’s game. He moved Gropp up to play with Barzal and Lipsbergs. The three had good chemistry and generated a lot of scoring opportunities. Konowalchuk said it had to do with matching what Tri City was doing. “I just thought that they were going three lines and I needed what I thought were the best nine forwards in the game,” Konowalchuk said. “That’s kind of what I went with early. (Gropp) started off strong with that other line … He kept his intensity up.”

• Eansor’s night was the best in his career from a scoring standpoint. It was his first hat trick and only his second multiple-goal game, the first coming when he scored twice in a playoff game last year.

• Volcan’s three assists also were a season high for him and only his second multiple-point game. The 16-year-old rookie has been stellar this season, scoring eight times with 21 points.

• The goal 13 seconds into the game was the fastest score to start a game for Seattle this year. The franchise record for fastest came back in 1987 against the Victoria Cougars when Dean Sexsmith’s bouncing shot from the neutral zone found the back of the net only five seconds into the game.

Follow Andy Eide on Twitter @andyeide.

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