Winter Hawks Shoot Down T-Birds
December 31, 2008 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release
Portland, December 31, 2008 - The Portland Winter Hawks defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-2 Friday night at the Rose Garden in the annual New Year's Eve game between the two teams.
The T-Bird will open ShoWare Center on Saturday, January 3, at 7:05 p.m. against the Everett Silvertips. ShoWare Center is located in Kent. There is a Grand Opening Open House scheduled for Friday, January 2, from 4pm to 9pm that is open to the public at no charge. Fans will be able to tour all aspects of the building and entertainment acts are scheduled through the course of the evening.
The Grand Opening weekend of ShoWare center concludes on Sunday, January 4, against the Kamloops Blazers at 5:05 p.m.
Seattle outshot Portland 7-6 in a scoreless first period.
Riley Boychuk scored at 12:10 of the second period to put the Winter Hawks in front 1-0. Colin Reddin and Travis Bobbee had the assists.
Oliver Gabriel scored on a penalty shot at 13:58 of the second to give Portland a 2-0 lead.
The T-Birds outshot the Winter Hawks 15-10 in the second period and led 22-16 in total shots after two periods.
Stefan Schneider scored at 5:37 of the third period to make it a 3-0 lead for the Winter Hawks. Tayler Jordan and Brett Ponich had assists on the goal.
Killian Hutt scored a power-play goal at 10:57 of the third to give Portland () a 4-0 lead. Brock Cornish had the only assist on the goal.
Seattle got on the board at 17:35 of the third period on a power-play goal by Lindsay Nielsen. Brenden Dillon had the puck inside the blue line at center ice. He passed to his right to Greg Scott at the top of the left circle. Scott put a slap shot on goal that Portland goalie Kurtis Mucha stopped. The rebound came to Nielsen in the slot and he beat Mucha with a backhand shot high.
Prab Rai added a power-play goal at 19:15 of the third to get Seattle's second goal. He beat Mucha from the high slot with a quick wrist shot. Jeremy Boyer and Scott had the assists.
Portland outshot Seattle 13-11 in the third period but Seattle held the advantage in total shots 33-28.
Seattle goalie Jacob DeSerres made 24 saves on 28 shots and his record is 5-11-0-0.
Mucha stopped 31 of 33 shots and his record is 8-18- 1-0.
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