T-Birds Drive Past Americans
November 26, 2016 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release
KENNEWICK, WA, November 25, 2016 - Five different Seattle Thunderbirds scored a goal Friday night at the Toyota Center as the T-Birds defeated the Tri-City Americans 5-2.
The T-Birds play the Victoria Royals Saturday at ShoWare Center at 7:05pm.
Goalie Matt Berlin had a solid game stopping 23 of 25 shots to get his second win of the season.
Mathew Barzal had three assists and Scott Eanso had two assists in the game.
Seattle (12-9-1-1) took a 1-0 lead 43 seconds into the first period. Eansor won a faceoff in the left circle of the Tri-City zone back to Nolan Volcan above the hash marks. Volcan ripped a wrist shot past Tri-City goalie Evan Sarthou low on the glove side for his 10th goal of the year.
The T-Birds extended the lead to 2-0 with a minute left in the first on Sami Moilanen's sixth goal of the season. Volcan pushed the puck up the left boards in the Tri-City zone. Eansor got the puck and skated into the left circle. Eansor cross the puck to Moilanen who one-timed the pass past Sarthou.
Seattle outshot Tri-City 12-7 in the first period.
Tri-City (15-9-2-0) cut the T-Birds lead to one goal at 1:14 of the second period on a goal from Dylan Coghlan. Parker Wotherspoon and Morgan Geekie had the assists.
Ethan Bear put the T-Birds back in front by two goals at 2:37 of the second. Mathew Barzal took a pass from Bear in the neutral zone on the right wing. Barzal carried the puck into right circle of the Americans zone and stopped. Barzal passed the puck to Bear just inside the blue line. Bear took a slap shot with traffic in front of Sarthou to get his sixth goal of the season.
The Americans made it a one-goal game a second time at 10:48 of the second on a power-play goal by Juuso Valimaki. Tyler Sandhu and Sarthou had the assists.
The T-Birds outshot the Americans 8-7 in the second period and led 20-14 in shots after two periods.
Keegan Kolesar scored his first goal of the season at 12:32 of the third period to give the T-Birds a two-goal lead back. Barzal came out of the right corner with the puck and found Kolesar in the slot. Kolesar beat Sarthou with a slap shot with Ryan Gropp in front of the goalie. Bear had the second assist.
Gropp tacked on a power-play goal at 16:57 of the third to get the T-Birds fifth goal. Barzal passed the puck to Jarret Tyszka along the right board. Tyszka found Gropp in the slot. Gropp beat Sarthou with a wrist shot over the blocker in the top left corner.
Both teams had 11 shots on goal in the third period. The T-Birds finished with a 31-25 advantage in shot.
Sarthou made 26 saves on 31 shots and his record is now 3-1-1-0.
T-Birds single game tickets for the 2016-17 season are currently on sale. Fans can purchase single game tickets online or at the ShoWare Center box office.
T-Birds 2016-17 season tickets are currently on sale. Season tickets can be purchased by calling the T-Birds office at 253-239-7825.
SCORING SUMMARY
First period - 1, Seattle, Volcan 10 (Eansor), :43. 2, Seattle, Moilanen 6 (Eansor, Volcan), 19:00. Penalties - Lukin, Tri (holding), 2:44. Bishop, Sea (cross checking), 9:24.
Second period - 3, Tri-City, Coghlan 5 (Wotherspoon, Geekie), 1:14. 4, Seattle, Bear 6 (Barzal), 2:37. 5, Tri-City, Valimaki 10 (Sandhu, Sarthou), 10:48 (pp). Penalties - Eansor, Sea (hooking), 10:27. Bishop, Sea (tripping), 11:55. Yorke, Tri (hooking), 16:03.
Third period - 6, Seattle, Kolesar 1 (Barzal, Bear), 12:32. 7, Seattle, Gropp 4 (Tyszka, Barzal), 16:57 (pp). Penalties - Neuls, Sea (tripping), 10:42. Lukin, Tri (tripping), 16:35. Tyszka, Sea (roughing), 18:29. Geekie, Tri (unsportsmanlike conduct, roughing), 18:29.
Shots on goal - Seattle 12-8-11 31, Tri-City 7-7-11 25. Goalies - Seattle, Berlin 25 shots-23 saves (2-0-0-0); Tri-City, Sarthou 31-26 (3-1-1-0). Power plays - Seattle 1-4; Tri-City 1-4. A - 3,691. Referees - Jeff Ingram, Mark Pearce. Linesmen - Trevor Shively, Daniel Spore.
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