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WHL Seattle Thunderbirds

T-Birds Trip Tri-City in Overtime

October 31, 2021 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release


Kennewick, Wash. - Gabe Ludwig came off his sick bed to score in overtime and the Seattle Thunderbirds defeated the Tri-City Americans, 3-2, Saturday at the Toyota Center in Kennewick. The win was Seattle's fifth in a row and fourth straight on the road. The Thunderbirds are off until next Friday, when they once again travel to Kennewick to face the Americans. It will be the first half of a home-and-home between the two teams. They will be at the accesso ShoWare Center in Kent the following night.

T-birds Head Coach Matt O'Dette was pleased with the way his team responded to a week that included three games in four nights. "I thought we played pretty well. Our habit were in a good place.  I think fatigue started to set in. It's been a long week but we persevered."  Despite the gas take running down, O'Dette said they didn't sit back late in the game. "We continued to try and score. It's unfortunate we gave up that tying goal, but we wanted that second point, there was a lot at stake."

Tri-City opened the scoring at 4:14 of the first period on a power play goal from former T-bird Sam Huo. Seattle tied it midway through the period. Conner Roulette held the puck behind the Tri-City goal and spotted Jordan Gustafson streaking to the front of the net. Roulette put the puck right on Gustafson's tape and he one-timed it in for his team leading sixth of the season. Gustafson now has goals in four straight games. Lucas Ciona had the second assist.

Seattle went to the penalty kill to grab the lead in the second. The T-birds killed off four Americans power plays in the period and scored while shorthanded. Henrik Rybinski stole a puck at the T-Birds blue line and broke up ice, 2-on-1 with Reid Schaefer. A quick give and go pass from Schaefer set up Rybinski for the shorthanded goal at 12:52. The goal was his second of the season.

O'Dette knows the penalty kill was key to winning. "It was really good. They scored on the first one but they got several opportunities from there, a lengthy 5-on-3 that we killed off.  There were timely kills, a late one we had to kill off." The Americans were awarded eight power plays. O'Dette said they have to be ready. "You get penalties, you have to kill them off.  That's what we did tonight."

The T-birds had a third period power play goal disallowed upon video review. Late in the period Tri-City forced overtime when Ethan Ernst tied the game with under four minutes remaining. Two minutes into overtime Nico Myatovic pushed a puck out of the Seattle zone and got it to Ludwig at center ice. Ludwig did the rest.

"I was just flying through the zone trying to give him (Myatovic) an option. I think the pass was going to go to Imper (Eric Van Impe) but I grabbed the puck and everyone on the bench was yelling, shoot the puck. Imper was yelling shoot."  And shoot he did, scoring his second of the season. "I saw the left side open, so I shot there."

Ludwig had missed the previous game in Spokane due to an illness. He was glad to rejoin the team and contribute to a win. "Yeah, it was fun to have an impact on the game. I was happy to help the team win and keep the momentum going. It's a great group of guys, I love playing with them and it keeps me motivated to play hard every night."

T-BIRDS EXTRAS

Through their first seven road games this season Seattle is 6-1-0-0. Last spring, in the pandemic shortened 23-game schedule, the T-birds were 4-7-0-1 in twelve road games. Seattle's last season with a winning road record was their 2016-17 WHL Championship year when they went 19-12-4-1, though they did finish at .500 the following season.

Rybinski's goal extended his scoring streak to four games while Nico Myatovic has an assist in three straight games.

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