Seattle enters the shortest month of the season with the busiest schedule of the campaign. The month of February has just 29 days but Seattle will play 14 games over that span. The most they had played in any previous month was 11 games. The Thunderbirds got the month off to a good start with hard a fought, 4-3, shootout win down in Portland thanks to a pair of goals from Andrej Kukuca and a 43-save performance from Roddy Ross. Simon Kubicek provided the finishing touch with his shootout game winner.
Once again the rivalry between these two teams delivers big time in drama and entertainment value. I still would not have cared if this game ended in a tie. Of course Seattle getting the extra point by winning the shootout is fine with me too but I prefer the intensity and edge of your seat action provided through 60 minutes of regulation and the five minute overtime period.
These two teams have met seven times so far this season. They still have five more games to play against each other including a home-and-home battle mid-month. In those seven games, four have been decided by a shootout with Seattle winning three. Two were one goal games won by Portland in regulation. Only one game was decided by more then a goal. That was a 4-1 Portland win in late December and the fourth goal was into an empty net. As they say, if the playoffs began today, these two teams would meet in the first round. Think that would be fun?
Here's one for the strange statistic department. In their last two clashes, the T-Birds and Winterhawks have combined to score four goals in the second period only to follow it up with scoreless third periods, forcing both games to be decided past regulation. And once again, Seattle shows their grit, coming from behind three times Saturday night to force the game to overtime. In fact, it's the third time this season the T-Birds have overcome a Portland lead to get the game to a shootout. They were down 5-2 back on January 25th at the accesso ShoWare Center before rallying to forge a 5-5 tie only to fall 6-5 in the shootout. Back on December 15th, Seattle was trailing 4-3 at the Moda Center when Conner Roulette scored in the final minute of the third period, then won it with the only goal of the shootout that night.
These are two young teams with Portland being slightly older then Seattle. What helps the T-Birds stick around in these games, outside the solid goaltending by Ross, is the contribution they are getting from their fourth line. Head Coach Matt O'Dette and his staff can rely on that line to provide productive minutes, keeping a little more fuel in the tanks of the older players for the third period. Depending on who is in the lineup that night, a fourth line made up of Jared Davidson, Kai Uchacz and either Brendan Williamson or Mekai Sanders have earned the trust and confidence of their coaches.
Two 17-year old rookies are continuing their solid inaugural seasons. Matt Rempe is the leading scorer for Seattle in the series versus Portland. Because of injury, Rempe missed the first game against the Winterhawks back on November 2nd. Healthy for the next six he has compiled nine points (2g, 7a). He was credited with two assists Saturday night, so technically I guess he has 10 points, but I believe that second apple will be taken away and rightly awarded to Lucas Ciona. But Rempe did score a goal in his first WHL shootout attempt. On the season Rempe has 23 points (7g, 16a) and is +5 in 31 games. Not bad for a guy passed over in the Bantam Draft.
I thought 17-year old rookie defenseman Luke Bateman had one of his best games this season down in Portland and that continues a recent trend. No points but he finished the night with a +1 rating and was consistently using his reach and size to disrupt the Portland offense. He's a defensive defenseman and as a result he only has ten points (1g, 9a) in 41 games but overall he is +8, including a +3 in his last three games. That +8 by the way? Second on the team behind the +11 of Roulette. His stat line is starting to remind me of a guy named Turner Ottenbreit.
I liked the new defensive pairings the coaches have deployed the last couple of games. I especially like how Kubicek and Cade McNelly have worked together. It allows Seattle to put their top two defensemen, Ty Bauer and Owen Williams, out together against opposing top lines. That doesn't mean those new pairings are etched in stone. The silliest complaint I hear is from fans upset by constant roster juggling of the forward lines or the defensive pairings. This happens with all teams on a nightly basis. Line combinations get disrupted by power plays and penalty kills. Benches get shortened in the third period. Trades and injuries constantly affect line ups. A player can get dinged up and have to miss a shift or two necessitating a mixing of the lines. A player gets benched for a couple of shifts because they're making too many mistakes or are just flat that game. It can just be a case of looking to spark the offense or finding the right chemistry to shut down or take advantage of that game's opponent. My concern would be if a coach wasn't mixing the lines up from time to time. It's a chess match within the game and it's the coach's job to move those pieces around to give his team the best chance to win.
A big two games coming up midweek as Seattle travels up to Prince George to face the Cougars twice at the CN Centre. By the time the following Monday rolls around the T-Birds will have played three of their next four games against PG. Seattle currently holds a 10-point lead over Prince George for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They can either hold serve, increase that lead or let the Cougars creep back within striking distance. Seattle cannot take these games lightly. Prince George recently defeated Kamloops, one of the top teams in the league. The stats may not show it but the Cougars are a difficult team to score against. In the same number of games played (47) they have surrendered almost 30 less goals then the T-Birds. Quite possibly they have the best young goaltending tandem in the WHL and you can bet they will treat these games against Seattle as must win, playoff like matchups.
My T-birds three stars for the win in Portland:
Third Star: C Max Patterson. In his last two games against the Winterhawks Patterson has won 33 of his 49 faceoffs, including 13 of 21 Saturday. In a game where the T-birds lost the faceoff battle 34-31, Patterson's work at the dots was critical, especially in the third period with the game tied. He added a big assist on Seattle's first goal by hunting down a loose puck and spotting Jared Davidson in the slot.
Second Star: W Andrej Kukuca. The 20-year old Slovakian scored twice, pulling Seattle back into a tie each time. It sure looked like he got hooked to the ice on another scoring chance in the second period. The first of his two goals may have been the most crucial. Portland had taken a lead just 24-seconds into the second period on the Cross Hanas "Lacrosse" style goal, one that got the crowd out of their seats. Kukuca came right back and silenced them just 19 seconds later. It quickly erased any moment Portland had gained. Kukuca leads the team in scoring with 44 points (18g, 26a) and is on track to equal his numbers from last season when he compiled 57 points on 25 goals and 32 assists.
First Star: G Roddy Ross. Ross continues a string of solid starts that dates back to the game on the 19th of January against Everett. Saturday in Portland he made 43 saves and conservatively, at least a half dozen were flat out highway robbery. He put the cherry on top of the sundae with a three save shootout performance. In doing so, he denied three shooters who combined have registered 65 goals this season. That's what you call staring down the barrel of the gun and winning the duel.
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