WHL Seattle Thunderbirds

T-Birds Golden against Silvertips

Published on December 18, 2021 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release


Kent, WA. - Goals from five different players propelled the Seattle Thunderbirds past the Everett Silvertips, 5-2, at the accesso ShoWare Center Friday. It was the fifth straight win for the T-birds, putting them just two points back of Everett for first place in the U.S. Division. The Thunderbirds and Silvertips meet again Saturday in Everett in the T-birds final contest before they take a ten-day holiday break. The game at Angel of the Winds Arena gets underway at 6:05 pm.

Thunderbirds Head Coach Matt O'Dette was happy the team found a way to beat Everett, after dropping the first four meetings this season against their division foes. "It's always a rivalry. Emotional games, tight checking games, hard fought games, it's finally nice to beat those guys." Now he wants his team to duplicate the effort Saturday on the road. "We need to follow that up, keep that nice, winning flavor in our mouths going into the Christmas break."

Seattle got a goal from Lucas Ciona early in the first period to open the scoring. Eric Van Impe fed the puck to Conner Roulette who tapped it over to Ciona for his fifth of the season.

The teams traded power play goals in period two. The Thunderbirds doubled their lead on Jordan Gustafson's team leading 13th, snapping a one-timer inside the left post at 11:44. Henrik Rybinski and Kevin Korchinski earned the assists. Everett answered back with a Jackson Berezowski goal five minutes later.

Seattle pulled away early in the third period. Rybinski tallied his seventh of the season when he redirected Ryan Gottfried's shot from the half wall into the net just 90-seconds in. Reid Schaefer had the second assist.

Three minutes later it was Conner Roulette knocking home his own rebound to make it 4-1 T-birds. "I shot for the far side. I saw the high blocker side open. He kind of kicked it right out back towards me and I was able to put it in."

Goaltender Thomas Milic had one assist on the Roulette goal and Gottfried, with his second of the game, had the other. The 20-year-old defenseman now has three assists over his last two games. "That's a key factor for our success, just getting shots on net. The more shots we get, obviously the more scoring chances we're getting. Every shot has a chance to go into the net and there's nothing more you can do than to get shots on net to help your team win."

The Silvertips struck again on the power play at 8:10 thanks to Alex Swetlikoff but Mekai Sanders restored the T-birds three-goal lead with his 9th of the season from Niko Myatovic.

The Thunderbirds next home game is their first game following the Christmas break. Seattle hosts the Spokane Chiefs at the accesso ShoWare Center Tuesday, December 28th at 7:05 p.m. Tickets are available at seattlethunderbirds.com

T-BIRDS EXTRAS

Rybinski has points in four of five games (3g, 4a) since he returned to the lineup after missing seven games with an injury. Overall, he has points in 14 of his last 15 games. Jordan Gustafson is riding a four-game point streak (3g, 4a) while Roulette has six points (1g, 5a) over that stretch.

Roulette had not scored a goal since the last time Seattle faced Everett, back on November 21st, 11 games ago. "It was a great feeling to get back on the board and hopefully we can keep it going from there."

Milic is 6-0-1-0 in his last seven starts, giving up just ten goals in the process.

Thunderbirds defenseman Sam Knazko will play for Team Slovakia at the Word Junior Championship. The tournament, being held in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta, begins December 26th.

Check out the Seattle Thunderbirds Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from December 18, 2021


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