T-Birds Clipped by Kelowna
WHL Seattle Thunderbirds

T-Birds Clipped by Kelowna

Published on December 6, 2025 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release


KENT, Wash. - Antonio Martorana scored twice but the Seattle Thunderbirds couldn't hold a two-goal lead and fell, 5-3 to the Kelowna Rockets Friday at the accesso ShoWare Center. The game kicked off a busy three games in three days for Seattle. The T-Birds are in Portland Saturday to play the Winterhawks before returning home Sunday to host the Spokane Chiefs at 5:05 p.m.

Seattle (11-11-2-0) built a 3-1 lead after two periods but surrendered the game's final four goals to suffer their third straight defeat. "They made a push back in the third, we made some mistakes," explained head coach Matt O'Dette of the final twenty minutes. "Execution stuff that ended up in the back of the net. Some of the defensive details that were in place the first forty minutes went missing in the third."

After a scoreless opening period, the T-Birds broke on top with Martorana's first of the night at 4:48 of period two. Radim Mrtka and Coster Dunn had the assists. The Rockets tied it less than a minute later with a power play goal.

The Rockets were back on the man advantage shortly after their tying goal but Coster Dunn scored an unassisted shorthanded goal at 8:04 to give Seattle the lead back. The goal was Dunn's tenth of the season.

The Thunderbirds then added to the lead. With Mrtka and Braeden Cootes assisting, Martorana scored a power play goal with a minute left in the period. Seattle then started the third back on the man advantage. Instead of the T-Birds adding to their lead, Kelowna killed off the penalty and scored shortly after to cut the T-Birds lead in half. Less than five minutes later the Rockets tied the game. At 11:22 they took the lead.

Seattle made a late push for the equalizer, drawing a penalty with two minutes remaining. The T-Birds pulled their goalie to skate 6-on-4 but turned the puck over at the Rocket's blue line and Kelowna dumped it from there into the empty net to close out the scoring.

"We didn't manifest anything good in the third, didn't build off our second period momentum," said O'Dette. "A lot of positives in the first forty minutes. We executed our game plan, but in the last twenty we didn't close out the game the right way."

T-BIRDS EXTRAS

Each of Seattle's losses in the three-game losing streak have been by identical 5-3 scores.

The T-Birds finished 1-for-6 on the power play and are now 1-for-13 with the man advantage in their last three games, all losses.

Thursday the T-Birds traded 2008 born center Colton Gerrior to the Vancouver Giants for a pair of draft picks.

Check out the Seattle Thunderbirds Statistics

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



Western Hockey League Stories from December 6, 2025


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