Thunderbirds Spin Past Tri-City – Seattle Thunderbirds - seattlethunderbirds.com
KENNEWICK, Wash. – Conner Roulette scored twice, including the game winner, and added an assist, as the Seattle Thunderbirds skated past the Tri-City Americans Sunday at the Toyota Center. Jared Davidson also chipped in with a pair of goals. The Thunderbirds have won all twelve games against the Americans this season. The two teams meet again Friday at the accesso ShoWare Center in Kent. Game time is 7:05 p.m.
Seattle (39-17-4-2) played another game with a less then full roster, dressing just 17-skaters as three of their top six defensemen were unavailable. "We're really happy with that game," said head coach Matt O'Dette. "We knew we had to have good habits in the game, and I thought we did that. We needed every guy to step their game up, and I thought we did that too."
After a scoreless first period, Tri-City got on the board first with a Tyson Greenway goal at 2:25 of period two. The T-Birds pushed back and drew a penalty on the Americans midway through the period. Davidson converted on the power play to tie the game at 13:46, assisted by Sam Popowich and Nico Myatovic.
O'Dette said he expected a push from a Tri-City team fighting to keep their playoff hopes alive. "They took it to us for a couple of shifts to start the period. Despite getting down, we stayed with it, stayed with the plan, and started to turn the table a little bit."
It took Seattle all of 58-seconds to break the tie. Matt Rempe sent a pass to the high slot that found Roulette coming off the T-Birds bench. Roulette skated in and snapped home his 21st of the season at 14:44. Sam Oremba had the second assist. Roulette said the goal alleviated some of the frustration of hitting a couple of posts earlier in the weekend. "I hit a couple of posts Friday night, kinda frustrating. It's in the back of your head there after you hit the post two times. It was nice to get those goals, playing with Davy and Svej tonight, Remps with a good pass. Just playing with good players."
The Thunderbirds got an insurance goal at the 13:08 mark of the third period when Kevin Korchinski sent Roulette and Davidson up ice on an odd man rush. Roulette slid a pass over to Davidson who found the back of the net.
Roulette finished off the scoring with an empty net goal at 19:48, assisted by Rempe and Lukas Svejkovsky.
The T-Birds converted on their only power play of the game and limited the Americans to just two chances on the man advantage, killing off both. O'Dette said staying disciplined and out of the penalty box was key. "That's part of being efficient when you're playing a three-in-three weekend. You can spread yourself thin if you take penalties and tax yourself down the stretch. We managed to stay out of the box and play a real tidy game."
With three regular defensemen out of the lineup, O'Dette relied on young Niko Tsakumis to give his team good minutes on the back end and said he delivered. "He was solid. We needed him to step up with Bausy (Ty Bauer) getting a rest day and Knaz (Sam Knazko) being dinged up and he slid right in there and played well for us with twelve minutes of ice time."
The win gave the Thunderbirds a sweep of all three of their games this weekend. Next weekend they play just twice. In addition to the home game Friday, the T-birds will be in Portland Saturday to play the Winterhawks.
T-BIRD EXTRAS
The win was the T-Birds 21st on the road this season.
Tyrel Bauer, who returned to the lineup Friday after a 33-game absence due to a lower body injury, was held out of the lineup Sunday. O'Dette called it a maintenance day for their captain. He said they want to monitor his minutes after such a long layoff.
Sam Knazko who was kneed in Saturday's home game, was out with a lower body injury and listed as day-to-day. Seattle also played without Ryan Gottfried, Jordan Gustafson, Lucas Ciona, Gabe Ludwig and Mekai Sanders.
Davidson has goals in all three games he's played since coming off injury. Svejkovsky ended the three-game weekend with eight points (5g, 3a).
Full boxscore: WHL Network
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