Four of Seattle's last five games have been against two teams, Everett and Kamloops, ranked in the top five of the CHL's Top Ten poll. And while the results haven't gone the T-birds way, they have been in the battle. It was a busy week as well for the Thunderbirds as the five games were played over an 11 game stretch. There wasn't a lot of down time between games.
It was also an untimely convergence of a tough, busy schedule and the absence of key players from the lineup. It began with a hard fought, one goal loss in Everett back on November 13th. Seattle was coming on strong late in the game, but ran out of time in a 3-2 loss.
The T-birds rebounded with a nice, come-from-behind win in Spokane last Friday. The win came at a cost though, as Seattle lost a heart and soul player, Henrik Rybinski, to an upper body injury. Just before a three-games-in-five-nights showdown with two of the top ranked teams in the CHL, Seattle was without their leader.
The Thunderbirds didn't necessarily play poorly in their first game without Rybinski in the lineup, but they didn't play well enough to keep up with the speed and quickness of Kamloops on Saturday in the first of two meetings in four days with the Blazers. As a result Seattle dropped a 5-1 decision. The schedule makers did the T-birds no favors either. Seattle had to travel back from Spokane the night before, while the rested Blazers were waiting for the T-birds in Kent after their Friday night game had been postponed. Ah, life in the WHL.
Then, despite it being their third game in three nights, Seattle was fairly good Sunday up at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett. But late in the second period the officials handed Matt Rempe a major boarding penalty. As a result he missed the rest of the game and had to sit out Wednesday's rematch against Kamloops.
Even without Rybinki and Rempe available for the third period Sunday against the Silvertips, Seattle was the better team over the final twenty minutes. They killed off the major penalty and scored a power play goal of their own to pull within 3-2. They had a tying goal on their stick in front of the Everett net with about 90-seconds remaining. Unfortunately, once again their last, best chance was denied. Close but no cigar.
The T-birds knew going into Wednesday's second game against Kamloops that they would have to play withot their top two centers. Another forward, Sam Oremba was away at the U17 Capital City Challenge in Ottawa. They entered the game down to just 10 forwards. There were no spare parts, so they called up 16-year old defenseman Niko Tsakumis from the Delta Hockey Academy and inserted another 16 year old rookie d-man, a banged up Sawyer Mynio, back into the lineup.
Meanwhile the Blazers were fresh and healthy. They hadn't played since the Saturday win over the T-birds. Instead of traveling back to Kamloops between games, they made a short trip up to Vancouver to rest and practice. A recipe for a T-birds disaster right? Seattle should just fold the tent and live to play another day. But this T-birds team doesn't back away from a challenge and undermanned they battled and stayed within striking distance until the final minutes of the game,falling 4-1.
There are no moral victories in hockey. You don't get points in the standings for playing hard just to come up short. I think though, the Thunderbirds will look back on this busy pre-Thanksgiving stretch and understand it was at this point in the season, not their recent eight-game winning streak, where they came together, developed their team identity and earned the character that will define them the rest of the way.
One shining example of that is their penalty kill. Yes, they'd prefer not to be in the box as often as they are, but if any area of play is a complete team effort, it is on the PK. Everyone has to be willing to make sacrifices for the good of the team, doing what's necessary to disrupt an opponent's power play. Over their last five games Seattle has killed off 18 of their oppenents 20 power play chances, including a couple of lengthy 5-on-3s. The result? The T-birds went into Thanksgiving with the WHL's top ranked penalty kill at 85.6%. They did much of that work with two key parts of the penalty kill, Rybinski and Rempe, unavailable for much of that span.
My T-birds Three Stars for the past five games:
Third Star: C Jordan Gustafson. Last spring was technically his rookie season, but he only got 23-games. He still has not played a full season of hockey at the WHL level, so I still look on him as a rookie. He accumulated five points over his last five games and on the season is a point per game player. He was all over the ice Wednesday night and scored the T-birds lone goal. In the abscense of Rybinski and Rempe, he's been centering the T-birds top line.
Second Star: C/W Jared Davidson. Davidson is another one of those guys every team needs. He plays in all situations. He can play up and down the lineup. He can play the wing on the first line or center your second line. With Rybinski and Rempe out, Seattle needed his versatility. After going goal-less in his first eight games, he now has five in his last ten. he has a deadly shot that will be key to getting more consistency from the T-birds power play.Three of his five goals have been scored on the power play.
First Star: W Conner Roulette. It's almost been a quiet first 18-games of the season for the Dallas Stars prospect. That is, until you look at his numbers. He leads the team points (20), is tied with Gustafson for the most goals (9) and is tied with Rybinski and Kevin Korchinski in assists (11). He's registered a point in all but two games so far. He has points now in five straight games (3g, 3a).
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