I'm All Four it

Seattle made it a perfect 4-for-4 this season against the rival Everett Silvertips with a 5-1 win Friday night up at Comcast Arena. In the process they also ran their overall winning streak to a season best four games and pushed their season record to a high water mark of three games over .500.

It wasn't the prettiest of games for Seattle, but you don't always have to win with style points. No, this one may have lacked the emotional edge Thursday's comeback victory in Kennewick had, but it was an effecient win. You know, one of those games against a team below you in the standings that you need to beat if you want to be a serious playoff team.

These are the type of games on the schedule that can trip up a lesser team. Seattle had the strong performance on the road the night before against Tri-City. They had traveled much of the night to get back across the mountains. Everett was banged up, coming off an emotional loss in their last game and they were playing at home. The T-birds responded well enough to earn the win. TCBY, takin' care of business.

The clear cut star of this game for Seattle was goaltender Brandon Glover. Starting for the 12th straight game, Glover was clinical in goal. He seemed to be moving effortlessly from side-to-side. It looked like he was squared to every shot and rarely had to scramble or flop to make a save but when he did he got to the right spot quickly. He was 6.7 seconds away from a shutout when, with Everett on the power play, a puck was tipped behind him off his own teammate's stick. The sickest person in the building at that point had to be defenseman Jared Hauf. Hauf, trying to break up a pass across the mouth of the Seattle goal inadvertently deflected it past Glover.

Up to that point Hauf had played another in a string of strong games on the back end. he continues to be more physical but I know he feels bad for his goalie. Hopefully, he can buy him dinner as a way of apologizing. I know Glover won't be too hard on him.

We'll have to dig back deep in the T-bird annals to see when the last time a Seattle player had a stretch of play like the one Roberts Lipsbergs is having right now. With another goal last night, his team-leading 15th, Lipsbergs has now registered a point in 11 straight games.

Congratulations to Mitch Elliot on his first goal of the season. Elliot parked his large frame in front of the Everett goal midway through the second period last night and then pounced on a rebound, banging it home to give the T-birds a 3-0 lead.

Before the game, in his pregame radio interview, head coach Steve Konowalchuk went out of his way to praise the efforts of Elliot in recent games. Elliot is one of those players who does a lot of the dirty work without getting the public praise because he's not scoring highlight reel goals. Last night he rewarded his coach for believing in him.

No rest for the road weary as Seattle returns home tonight to the ShoWare Center to take on the WHL's top dog, the Portland Winterhawks. This will be the sixth of 12 meetings between the long time rivals this season. After winning on opening night down in Portland, the T-birds have dropped four straight to the 'Hawks, being outscored 25-7 in the process. If the Thunderbirds want to stretch their winning streak to five games, they'll need to bring their best effort to the ice.

In memory of Bruce McDonald, 1971-2012