For the first time in 21-months, the Thunderbirds boarded the team bus and headed north of the border this past weekend. And what a triumphant return it was as the team took both games, winning 6-1 Friday in Kamloops and coming from behind, not once but twice, to defeat the Rockets, 5-4, in Kelowna Saturday.
As a result, the T-birds have won three in a row, earned points in seven straight games and pulled within five points of the top of the Western Conference standings with a game in hand. Yes, that's right, not just within five points of the U.S. Division lead, but the top of the conference standings as well. Merry Christmas indeed!
Both wins were impressive, though in different ways. Friday Seattle put forth a dominant opening period, scoring four times and putting the Blazers on their heels. And when Kamloops appeared to fight back in the second, the T-birds stepped up their game a notch to hold them off and in the third period finished the game off strong.
The following night in Kelowna, Seattle, their blueline depleted by injuries, fell into an early two-goal hole. There was no panic. And when they fell behind a second time late in the third period, there was no panic. They didn't just climb out of that hole, they jumped out. In the second leg of a two game road trek, with many hours spent on the bus, they were stronger at the end of the game then they were at the beginning, scoring two late goals for the win.
One of the quirks of Prospera Place in Kelowna is that the scouts' room is up in the pressbox, adjacent to the visiting radio cubicle. So I get to eavesdrop on some of the conversations taking place before the game between NHL scouts. Saturday night a couple of scouts, who had been in Kamloops the night before, were discussing Seattle's battle with the Blazers. It's funny that they had slightly different takes on the game.
One said it was a dominant start by the T-birds. They came ready to play and capitalized on their chances. The other basically said Kamloops was just as good if not better. They just had a bad start, but he said they got it together later on and he gave them full marks for not quitting. You can probably find truth in both perspectives. Think about that when you see player rankings for the draft. Different teams will view a player differently, depending on when they saw him and who he was playing against.
The one thing they agreed on? The Seattle goalie,Thomas Milic, was exceptional. And he was. Milic made some big saves on a couple of Blazers ten-bell scoring chances on their early first period power play. I think if Kamloops gets one by him there, it's a different game. Milic's early saves settled his team down and the T-birds would not only kill off that power play but strike shorthanded to open the scoring.
In the second period, with the Blazers already on the board with an early goal to cut into the T-birds lead, Seattle took another penalty. Kamloops had a chance to cut the Seattle lead in half and put all the momentum on their side. But Milic stopped a breakaway with an incredible, sprawling, right pad save. The threat was neutralized. Seattle began to push back after that and eventually pulled away with a couple third period goals. In a 6-1 game you don't think of the goalie of the winning team being the difference, but Milic was the key for Seattle.
Have the hockey gods transpired to work against the T-birds? Have they made some kind of pact that when one key Seattle player comes back from injury, they have to lose another? What deal has been made that says the Thunderbirds are not allowed to be whole for more than 24-hours? No sooner do the T-birds get Henrik Rybinski back in the lineup after a seven-game absence, they lose not one, but three player on the weekend. Friday it was Ty Bauer and Sawyer Mynio leaving the game against Kamloops. Saturday in Kelowna, Sam Knazko departed.
Saturday, after the big win in Kamloops and after approximately 20 plus hours on the bus, and after a three in the morning arrival at the hotel in Kelowna, the T-birds could have just phoned it in, especially after falling behind to the Rockets, 2-0, after twenty minutes. After losing the lead in the third period they worked so hard to get, they could have packed it in and said hey, it's not our night. They could have just been satisfied with a weekend road split, taken the two points from the game the night before and headed home.
But they didn't. Even with only five healthy d-men left, including a last second call up in 16-year old Niko Tsakumis, they stayed on course. They didn't mentally check out, they pushed forward. They earned that "W" and put an exclamation point on a winning weekend.
A third of the way into the season and half of Seattle's skaters have reached double digits in points. The T-birds are deploying their depth. The players you expected to be scoring, the Rybinski's, the Roulette's, the Gustafson's, are doing just that but the Davidson's, the Schaefer's and the Sanders' are pulling their weight too. Prior to this season Reid Schaefer and Mekai Sanders had combined for eight points (3g, 5a) in 72 games. Through the first 25 games this season they have combined for 30-points (19g, 11a). That's quite the production from a couple of players selected in the eighth and ninth rounds respectively, of the 2018 WHL Prospects draft.
We saw our first coach's offside challenge of the season as T-bird head coach Matt O'Dette challenged Kelowna's fourth goal. "We were pretty confident with that decision (to challenge). There were five or six of our guys standing right there at our bench who said it was definitely offside, so it was a pretty safe risk, we thought." The goal was not overturned because there was inconclusive video evidence. But because the video was inconclusive, neither were the T-birds penalized for losing the challenge.
There are three possible outcomes to a coach's offside challenge. One, the goal is overturned on review. Two,the goal stands because the video clearly shows the play was NOT offside and the challenging team is assessed a minor penalty and, three, the goal is not overturned, but the challenging team is not issued a minor penalty because the video evidence is inconclusive.
I liked the idea of a challenge by the Seattle coaches in that instance. First, even though the goal was not overturned, the stoppage of play, for what turned into a lengthy review, blunted the Rockets momentum and allowed the T-birds to regroup. After the delay, Seattle came right back and scored to tie the game back up. Secondly, this is the WHL, not the NHL. there aren't 10 different camera angles to review, usually just one and it's not on the blue line. It's going to be hard to consistently find conclusive video evidence, which means the chances of getting assessed a minor penalty on an unsuccessful challenge should be pretty low.
My T-birds Three Stars for the Week:
Third Star: D Kevin Korchinski. The T-birds 2019 first round draft pick had not scored a goal in his first 45-games in the league. He now has three in his last four games. He is getting more and more comfortable, and looking more and more confident eating up big minutes in key situations. Quite appropriate that he has his first two-goal game against Kelowna. The T-birds selected Korchinski tenth overall in that 2019 Draft with a first round pick they obtained in a trade from the Rockets.
Second Star: G Thomas Milic. Milic went 2-0, stopping 56 of 58 shots in the process. Seattle is ranked number one in the WHL on the penalty kill and he's a huge component of that success. Over his last five starts he is 4-0-1-0 with a goals against average of 1.22 and a save percentage of .957. Whether it's a one goal game or a five goal lead, he plays the same way, as if the game is on the line with every shot he faces.
First Star: C Henrik Rybinski. With Rybinski out of the line up for seven straight games recently, Seattle went 2-3-2-0. Since his return from injury the T-birds are a perfect 3-0-0-0. In just 16-games he has posted 19-points (6g, 13a) and is +15. This past week he registered four points (2g, 2a) and was +6. With him in the lineup they are 12-3-1-0, without him they are 4-3-2-0. Every player is on board the T-bird train this season, but he is clearly one of the drivers.
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