Home is Where the Heart is

The Thunderbirds are halfway through their season longest six game homestand and are 2-0-1-0, earning five of six points.  In fact, the T-Birds are 4-0-2-0 in their last six home games and overall are 6-2-2-0 in ten games so far this season at the accesso ShoWare Center. 

Seattle is set to play eight of their next 12 games on home ice. Currently, they sport a .700 winning percentage at the ShoWare Center.  If they can continue that .700 winning percentage, that would be almost six more wins at home before Christmas, somewhere along the lines of 5-1-2 over those eight games. It would give them the opportunity to go into the break above .500. 

The T-Birds have scored 29 goals at home in their last six home games, or an average about five goals per game in that stretch.  On the other end, Seattle is allowing on average just slightly over two goals against over those same six games.  Shots for are up, shots against are down.  Just about every metric is pointing in the right direction...at home.  

Somehow, some way, the Thunderbirds need to be able to bring that home ice success with them on the road.  As good as their home ice winning percentage is, their road winning percentage of .250 is tied with Swift Current for second worst in the league.  Only Wenatchee struggles more on the road thad do the T-Birds. 

They're going to need to bottle up the home success soon, because coming out of the holiday break, they're going to play seven of eight on the road and those seven roads games will come one after the other. Yep, a seven game road trip and most likely without Braeden Cootes and Radim Mrtka who are most likely to be participating in the World Junior Championships for their respective countries.

That seven game road swing could be the make or break point of the season.

Three Stars for the just concluded week/weekend. The T-Birds played just one game this past weekend, after playing three in five days the previous weekend.

Third Star: D Ashton Cumby. The Chicago Blackhawks prospect has sevnen points on the season and they've all come in his last six games and four of those were picked up in his last four games, including his first goal of the season against the Vancouver Giants. Cumby entered this season with a WHL career plus/minus of -19.  This season he sits at +7.

Second Star: C/W Brock England.  He's still a 16 year old rookie but he doesn't play like one. Fastest T-Bird out on the ice and he uses that speed to create offense.  He registerd six points (2g, 4a) in his first two games since coming back from the U17 Hockey Challenge with a Gold medal. As a result he was named the WHL Rookie of the Week.

First Star: W Antonio Martorana. Marty is off to a terrific start in his thrid full season with the team after injuries slowed down at the start of his 2024-25 campaign.  On the season he is the team's tp point producer with 12 goals and 24 assistst.  Three of his goals are game winners.  He's riding a three game points streak with six points over that span (4g, 2a) and has twelve points (7g,5a) in his last seven games.

Trending in the Right Direction

That was a tough loss Saturday at home against Prince George, especially after the Thunderbirds built a two goal lead with six minutes left in the second period.  There's no solace in saying it was one of the T-Birds better efforts in a contest they lost considering some of their earlier losses have been somewhat lopsided. 

The average margin of defeat for the Seattle this season has been by close to four goals, so losing by one in overtime doesn't seem so bad, especially when you earn a point in the standings. But that's not this team's expectation. They want to win the close ones, especially on home ice and certainly when they have the lead going into the third period.  So rightly, after that loss, point or no point, they were a disappointed group postgame.

For just the second time this season the Thunderbirds held a team without a power play goal.  Doing it against the team that, coming into the game, had the most power play goals in the WHL is no small feat.  That's the good news. The bad news is they had to kill off six Cougars power plays. One of those penalty kills was late in the second and two were in the third period when Seattle is trying to protect their lead.  

In that situation you want to be playing 5-on-5 hockey, or better yet force the opponent to play desperate hockey and draw some penalties and go on the power play yourself. Instead the T-Birds penalties took away their momentum and forced them to defend too much in their own end of the ice, rather than being on the attack. Sure, killing the penalties was great but it also means your top players are spending a lot of energy at the wrong end of the ice at a critical point in the game.

That was the loss. The winFriday over Saskatoon was the best example of not getting frustrated when your work earlier in the game is not being rewarded. In games earlier in the season when that was happening, the T-Brids would start taking short cuts, they'd get off their path and the results were predictable.  Friday, they stayed true to their game plan. They kept up the forecheck. They continued to be direct with the puck, putting lots of shots on goal and jumping on second chance opportunities.

Probably the biggest difference between Friday and Saturday was the T-Birds net front presence. It was there more consistently Friday. The number of rebounds available Saturday, as opposed to Friday, was proably less. Prince George had the better goalie and D-Corps.  But there were chances there against the Cougars. It just meant Seattle had to work a little harder for them.

My T-Birds Three Stars for the Weekend.

Third Star: Grayson Malinoski G (with a slight nod to Marek Sklenicka). Both goalies gave the team a chanc to win. Malinoski kept the game close Friday until the T-Birds broke through in the third period. He's put together two straight solid efforts. After being a tough luck loser in a few of his earlier starts, he's now won two in a row.  Both goalies are young as far as starts and playing time in the WHL but if the T-Birds can't get solid starts from these two most nights, they'll be in games late. By no means are either polished products but they're trending in the right direction.

Second Star: Coster Dunn C. It's been a bit of a slow start for Dunn, yet he still has ten points (4g, 6a) in 13 games.  He hasn't hit his stride but when he starts looking like he did the second half of last season, look out.  He had three assists Friday and could have had a few more.  He is now one point from hitting 100 points for his WHL career. He's at his best when he's winning puck battles that create offense. Some of that popped through this weekend.

First Star: Antonio Martorana W. Three goals and an assist in the two games, including a game winner. He's never going to be the biggest guy on the ice but he's at his best when hunting pucks around the opposing goal, winning pucks among the bigger players. He's in the mold of a Nolan Volcan or a Sami Moilanen in that he plays bigger than he is and has a knack for scoring big goals in big moments. Well over a point per game player thus far this season (1.29) and I think he can keep that up.