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WHL Seattle Thunderbirds

T-Birds Race Past Rebels

February 11, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release


KENT, Wash. - Jared Davidson and Nico Myatovic each scored twice, and the Seattle Thunderbirds pulled away late for a 6-1 win over the Red Deer Rebels Friday at the accesso ShoWare Center. Their twentieth home win gives Seattle an overall record of 37-9-1-1. It also keeps them in first place in the Western Conference. The Thunderbirds now head south to Portland to battle the Winterhawks Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at 6:05 p.m.

The win also spoiled the return of former Thunderbirds head coach Steve Konowalchuk. Now behind the bench for Red Deer, Konowalchuk was Seattle's head coach win they won the WHL championship in 2017. Current Thunderbirds head coach Matt O'Dette, who was Konowalchuk's assistant for four seasons said Konowalchuk's Rebels gave them all they could handle.

"It was a hard-fought game. It was nice to see Kono. Obviously, a great mentor for me and he's done a heck of a job there with Red Deer." O'Dette said the final score was not indicative of how close of a game it really was. "It was really tightly contested, not a lot of room out there for both teams. Just a hard-fought game and I think just sticking with it paid off for us."

After a scoreless first forty minutes, all seven goals in the game came in the third period. Davidson scored his first at 6:11 while the two teams skated four aside. Red Deer responded with a 4-on-3 power play goal less than two minutes later from Kai Uchacz.

Davidson got his second of the night, and the game winner, at 13:22, following up a Kyle Crnkovic shot. "Crank directed one at the net there," said O'Dette. "Davey was there for the carom off the blocked shot. Just getting pucks and bodies at the net there. Shots lead to shots. It may not make sense to some people, but you keep doing that, you get rewarded."

Seattle then exploded for four goals in about three and a half minutes. Myatovic skated out from behind the Rebel net at 15:18 and whipped in a backhander. Brad Lambert struck on the power play about thirty seconds later.

Dylan Guenther got his first as a Thunderbird by jamming in his own rebound at 17:05. "We stuck with it. It was a little bit choppy, a little bit sloppy, but there are a lot of new guys here who joined the team recently," said the Arizona Coyotes prospect, "So that's gonna happen, but it's always good to get the win." Myatovic's second of the game at 18:35 closed out the scoring.

Seattle captain Lucas Ciona, who had an assist on the Lambert power play goal, said his team just stuck with the game plan. "It was a tie game most of the night and we finally broke the seal and scored six quick ones there. There's a lot of talent on the power play and it was nice that one finally went in. We were working real hard the whole game. For that last one drop for us and the play to work, that was awesome."

After their road game Saturday against Portland Winterhawks, the Thunderbirds return to the accesso ShoWare Center Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. to host the Tri-City Americans.

T-BIRDS EXTRAS

With two goals Jared Davidson now has ninety in his WHL career. Davidson needs four more points to reach 200 points as a Thunderbird. With his two goals Nico Myatovic now has twenty this season. In his first two seasons with the Thunderbirds, he had only seven.

The win was the 180th as Thunderbirds head coach for Matt O'Dette.

With the addition of Dylan Guenther to the team, the Thunderbirds now have three of the top ten WHL scorers from last season on their roster. Guenther finished sixth in scoring a season ago with 91 points. Kyle Crnkovic was fifth with 94 and Jared Davidson was eighth with 89.

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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.

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