Thunderbirds’ epic comeback bid falls short in overtime loss

While it’s still early in the season, it’s hard to imagine the Seattle Thunderbirds will play a crazier game than they did Sunday evening against the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick.

After sleep-walking their way to an early second period 5-0 hole, the T-Birds stormed back to tie the game and force overtime, only to fall in the overtime period as Parker Wotherspoon scored on a 2-on-1 for the game winner.

While the T-Birds are happy with the point they got by getting to overtime, the bad start of the game may have cost them the other point they would have had by winning outright.

“That start,” head coach Steve Konowalchuk said after. “We weren’t ready to play as a team and they jumped us, out-worked us for pucks. It was not a good start.”

Seattle was not ready at the start and it showed pretty early. The T-Birds weren’t active, turned the puck over and failed to match the intensity of an Americans squad desperate for their first win of the season. It started when Jordan Topping got in alone on the Seattle net six minutes in. T-Birds goalie Taz Burman made the initial save but nobody was there to clear the puck and Topping easily tapped the rebound in.

The floodgates would then open up.

Vladislav Lukin would find the Seattle net followed by two power-play goals off the sticks of Parker Bowles and Beau McCue. When the horn sounded the T-Birds slinked off the ice, trailing 4-0 after being out shot 14-5.

Konowalchuk pulled Burman after the fourth goal in a move that he said was not a reflection on how the goalie was playing.

“I thought Taz stopped the first five or six quality chances,” Konowalchuk said. “We were not good in front of him. (The goals allowed) was a team thing because he had some key saves early for us.”

Burman ended the night making 10 saves on 14 shots. Logan Flodell came in and was greeted early in the second period with more bad defense in front of him. Americans defenseman Juuso Valimaki was allowed to stroll through the Seattle zone and in close for his first WHL goal to make it 5-0, and it looked like it was time to turn the lights out.

Over the past two seasons this T-Birds group has shown that they have a ton of resilience, and down five goals they woke up and got back into the game.

“We just needed to take it one shift at a time,” Konowalchuk said. “They did a good job between periods because we started to chip away at it.”

That chipping away began less than two minutes after Valimaki’s goal. Luke Osterman got the puck in front to Alexander True who banged it past Tri-City goalie Evan Sarthou. Three minutes later, Kaden Elder turned on the jets and sped past a defenseman to snap another shot past Sarthou. That made it 5-2 and things were starting to get a little interesting.

The T-Birds weren’t done however and Gustav Olhaver scored his first WHL goal on a nice set up from Donovan Neuls with just over three minutes left in the period. Seattle would then take a too many men on the ice penalty late and it looked like maybe the comeback would get stifled.

Neuls made another nice play to steal a puck on the ensuing penalty kill and get it to True who was behind the Tri-City defense. True raced down ice and beat Sarthou for his second goal of the night with only five seconds left in the period. He would end up with a three point night as the big Dane is off to a good start this year.

“He’s played well all week in practice and I thought he played well last night,” Konowalchuk said. “It was nice to see him have a big game.”

The T-Birds would strike early in the third to get the game even.

On the rush, Scott Eansor fed Keegan Kolesar on the wing. The big winger snapped a shot past Sarthou and the comeback was complete. With the score tied at five, both teams settled in, seemingly looking to preserve the one point in the standings.

The game went to overtime which was the first chance in the regular season the T-Birds got to experience the new 3-on-3 overtime format. After a close call at the Tri-City end, the Americans had an odd man rush the other way, as is par for the course with that much room on the ice, and Wotherspoon ended it with his first of the season.

Despite the loss, Seattle got some good news on Sunday off the ice. Earlier in the day the St. John’s Ice Caps released forward Jamal Watson, which means he will now return to Seattle and be in the lineup next weekend. Then, just before the third period began, Arthur Staple of Newsday in New York reported that Mathew Barzal was being sent back to the T-Birds by the New York Islanders.

Konowalchuk said those guys will be a welcome addition to the club but was happy with how the team had played this weekend and in their absence so far.

“We took three out of four (points) this weekend, I’ll take that,” he said. “We had guys stepping up and you could see them playing two-way hockey. We played five pretty good periods this weekend, and one bad one.”

The T-Birds will next take the ice Saturday at the ShoWare Center to host the Prince Albert Raiders.

Notes

• With an assist on Sunday, Eansor is off to a strong start for Seattle. He has four points in the first three games and has a three-game scoring streak. His numbers may jump even more now that the speedy Watson will be back on the ice with him and Nolan Volcan.

• Kolesar scored his first goal of the year Sunday and he is also off to a strong start. His four points ties Eansor for the early team lead and he has points in all three games so far.

• Joining in the streak parade is 16-year-old rookie Matthew Wedman, who added an assist Sunday and now has an assist in all three of Seattle’s contests in the young season.

• Konowalchuk didn’t have an update on injured forward Ryan Gropp but did say he was “close.” Gropp was returned from the New York Rangers prior to the team’s first game but has been sidelined with a lower body injury. He is officially listed day-to-day.

Related

Seahawks-Broncos Info: TV, radio, uniforms and moreStacy Rost: 2 numbers that matter for Seahawks vs BroncosLB Drake Thomas among 3 Seahawks ruled out vs BroncosRoster Moves: Seahawks sign RB, move WR to practice squadStorm guard Flau’jae Johnson named to WNBA All-Rookie TeamPro Football Pick’em Presented by Silver Reef Casino