Spokane Skates Past T-Birds
February 29, 2020 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release
SPOKANE - The Spokane Chiefs defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 9-2 Friday night at Veterans Memorial Arena.
The T-Birds play the Portland Winterhawks on Saturday at 6:05pm at accesso ShoWare Center. Single game tickets are on sale online on the T-Birds website and at the accesso ShoWare Center box office. The game is being broadcast on JOEtv Channel 22/Cable 110.
Seattle is now 23-29-4-3. They are in the second Wild Card playoff spot in the Western Conference seven points behind the Kelowna Rockets (27-26-3-3) for the first Wild Card playoff spot. The T-Birds and Rockets will meet on March 6 in Kelowna in their fourth and final game of the season.
Spokane had 2-0 lead midway through the first period on goals from Eli Zummack and Ty Smith.
Seattle cut the Chiefs lead to one at 11:49 of the first on Payton Mount's 13th goal of the season. Jared Davidson stole the puck at the top of the left circle and backhanded it to Mount entering the slot. Mount dished the puck to his right to Keltie Jeri-Leon who took a shot. The puck rebounded off Lucas Parik right to Mount and he snapped it past the goalie.
Smith scored on the power play at 14:25 and Leif Mattson converted on the power play at 19:14 of the first to give Spokane a 4-1 lead after one period.
In the second period Luke Toporowski scored at 9:36 Smith scored at 12:10 to make it 6-1 after 40 minutes.
Toporowski scored at 1:37 of the third period, Owen MacNeil at 4:58, and Noah King at 16:27 to get Spokane's last three goals.
Andrej Kukuca scored his team leading 24th goal of the season at 19:46 of the third on the power play. Kukuca beat Parik with a snapshot from the left circle off an assist from Mount. Ryan Gottfried had the second assist.
The T-Birds are now taking orders for Flex-24 Ticket packages. Fans that purchase the 24-Flex Ticket Package will be able to select any available premium seat for any game, in any ticket combination, during the 2019-20 season.
SCORING SUMMARY
First period - 1, Spokane, Zummack 22 (Toporowski, Smith), 3:47. 2, Spokane, Smith 13 (N. King, Jacobson) 11:37. 3, Seattle, Mount 13 (Davidson, Jeri-Leon), 11:49. 4, Spokane, Smith 14 (Hughes, Beckman), 14:25 (pp). 5, Spokane, Mattson 19 (Smith, Zummack), 19:14 (pp). Penalties - Bauer, Sea (holding), 13:21. McNelly, Sea (interference), 17:35.
Second period - 6, Spokane, Toporowski 24 (Smith, Hughes), 9:36. 7, Smith 15 (Mattson, Zummack), 12:10. Penalties - Mattson, Sea (tripping), 1:27. Bauer, Sea (holding), 10:49. Toporowski, Spo (goaltender interference), 11:41.
Third period - 8, Spokane, Toporowski 25 (Russell, Mattson), 1:37. 9, Spokane, MacNeil 2 (Smith, N. King), 4:58. 10, Spokane, N. King 5 (Smith, Mattson), 16:27. 11, Seattle, Kukuca 24 (Mount, Gottfried), 19:46 (pp). Penalties - Chudley, Spo (kneeing), 18:26. Bauer, Spo (10-minute misconduct), 18:26.
Shots on goal - Seattle 11-7-7 25, Spokane 16-8-15 39. Goalies - Seattle, Lyda 24 shots-18 saves (3-9-0-0), Ross 15-12; Spokane, Parik 25-23 (19-7-2-0). Power plays - Seattle 1-3; Spokane 2-3. Referees - Adam Griffiths, Sean Raphael. Linesmen - Jackson Kozari, Daniel Spore.
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