WHL Seattle Thunderbirds

T-Birds beat Bruins in overtime

Published on March 11, 2007 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release


SEATTLE, March 11, 2007 - Benn Olson fired a one-timer with 2:54 left in overtime to give the T-Birds a 4-3 win over the Chilliwack Bruins Sunday night in front of 4,096 at KeyArena.

The T-Birds are now 35-19-3-11, and have 84 points in the race for the U.S. Division. The T-Birds remain four points behind the Tri-City Americans, who beat the Kelowna Rockets 5-0 earlier tonight, for second in the division. The T-Birds have four regular season games left this year, including one with Tri-City on Sunday, March 18, at KeyArena.

The Thunderbirds got on the board first at 1:39 of the opening period on the 41st goal of the year from Aaron Gagnon. Thomas Hickey swung the puck from the near boards to Brad Bakken waiting in front of the blue line at the far boards. Bakken found Gagnon stationed in the right crease to redirect the pass past the left skate of Chilliwack goalie Matt Esposito for the early 1- 0 lead. Gagnon is two goals behind Mark Derlago of the Brandon Wheat Kings for the WHL lead. With the assist, Bakken registered his first point of his WHL career. The T-Birds made it 2-0 at 17:06 of the first on a power-play goal from Bud Holloway. Brett Robertson hit Hickey at the near boards. Hickey skated across the slot and into the right face off circle. Hickey looked like he was going to skate into the crease and take the shot, but instead slid a pass across the slot to Holloway for the one-timer from left face off circle. The goal was Holloway's 26th of the year.

Chilliwack (23-40-4-2) outshot Seattle 10-6 in the first.

The Bruins made it 2-1 at 6:50 of the second period on a goal from Mark Santorelli. Oscar Moller and Josh Aspenlind had the assists.

Chilliwack outshot Seattle 10-3 in the second and 20- 9 through two periods.

The Bruins tied the game at 6:01 of the third period on the 30th goal of the year from Oscar Moller. Matt McCue had the lone assist.

The Bruins took the lead at 13:18 of the third on the second goal of the night from Santorelli. Aspenlind and Moller had the assists.

The T-Birds tied the game at 14:22 of the third on the ninth goal of the year from Hickey. Off the face-off in the Chilliwack zone, Gagnon knocked the puck to Hickey stationed in the slot. Hickey took a one-timer that beat Esposito low to make it 3-3. Gagnon was credited with the assist off the face-off. Hickey has seven goals and eleven assists in his last 16 games.

Seattle outshot Chilliwack 10-6 in the third. The Bruins led 26-19 heading into overtime.

Defensemen Benn Olson scored the game-winner at 2:06 of the overtime period. Olson took the Robertson passed and fired a one-timer from the right face off circle that beat Esposito over the shoulder for the 4-3 final. With the goal, Olson increased his point streak to three games.

Seattle outshot Chilliwack 4-0 in overtime. The Bruins outshot the T-Birds 26-23 on the night.

Derek Yeomans stopped 23 of 26 shots and improved his record to 29-12-3-9.

Esposito stopped 19 of 23 shots and his record goes to 13-14-2-1.

The Thunderbirds are back in action on Wednesday, March 14, against the Kamloops Blazers of the B.C. Division. The puck drops in KeyArena at 7:05 p.m.

Check out the Seattle Thunderbirds Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Western Hockey League Stories from March 11, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central