T-Birds Fall In Portland
March 9, 2008 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release
Portland, OR March 8, 2008 The Seattle Thunderbirds fell to the lowly Portland Winter Hawks 4-3 in front of 8,115 fans at Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night.
The win for Portland ended a 22 game losing streak, and was the first time the Winter Hawks were able to defeat the T-Birds this season.
Seattle quickly took the lead 1-0 on a Thomas Hickey goal at 3:10 of the first period. Hickey took a quick snapshot from the blue line and buried the puck in the back of the net past Portland goalie Kurtis Mucha for the T-Birds third power-play goal in two nights. Lindsay Nielsen and Greg Scott provided the assists for Seattle. Taylor Peters tied the game at 1-1 for Portland at 17:08 in the first. Aaron McGill and Jacob Dietrich had the assists for the Winter Hawks.
Portland (9-55-2-1) outshot Seattle 15-7 in the first period.
Portland took a 2-1 lead at 9:34 of the second period on a short-handed goal by captain Jacob Dietrich. Dietrich scored the goal unassisted.
Travis Bobbee gave Portland a 3-1 lead with a power- play goal at the 14:00 mark of the second. Tyler Swystun and Travis Ehrhardt had the Winter Hawk assists.
Portland outshot Seattle 17-9 in the second period and also led in total shots for the game 32-16.
The Winter Hawks scored their second power-play marker of the game at 5:21 of the third period to make the score 4-1. Dietrich had the goal and Ehrhardt had the assist.
The T-Birds narrowed the gap to 4-2 on a goal by Prab Rai at 9:35 of the third. Thomas Hickey attempted a shot from the blue line that was deflected by Mucha to Rai who redirected the puck into the back of the net for Seattle's second goal of the game.
David Richard narrowed the Portland lead to a single point with his goal at 16:47 of the third period. Richard skated into the slot and gathered a nice pass from Thomas Hickey, he then fired a shot past Mucha into the top corner of the net to make the score 4-3 Portland.
The T-Birds (39-22-5-2) outshot Portland 28-5 in the third period, and 44-37 for the game.
Mucha stopped 41 of the 44 shots he faced. His record is now 8-35-1-1.
Seattle goaltender Jacob DeSerres rejected 33 of 37 shots on goal, and his record is now 19-11-0-1
The Thunderbirds return home for the first time in a week to face the Spokane Chiefs on Sunday, March 9th at 5:05 p.m. Seattle then travels to Everett on Friday, March 14, for a pivotal match-up with the Silvertips at 7:35 p.m.
Thunderbird tickets are currently on sale for all 2006- 07 regular season home games. Tickets are priced at $20, $16 & $12. Tickets may be purchased by calling 206-628-0888 or 206-448-PUCK (7825) or online at www.seattlethunderbirds.com. Tickets may also be purchased at all TicketMaster Outlets, the KeyArena West Box Office Monday - Saturday 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM and The Hockey Store located at 14326 124th Ave NE in Kirkland. For additional ticket information on Season Tickets and Group Rates please call 206-448-PUCK.
Western Hockey League Stories from March 9, 2008
- Rockets over Bruins in Shootout - Chilliwack Bruins
- T-Birds Fall At Home To Chiefs - Seattle Thunderbirds
- Giants Weekly Recap - Vancouver Giants
- Blazers Bump Slump; Blank Cougars - Kamloops Blazers
- T-Birds Fall In Portland - Seattle Thunderbirds
- Big first period powers Chiefs - Spokane Chiefs
- Americans Reach Century Mark with 2-0 Shutout of Kelowna - Tri-City Americans
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