WHL Seattle Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds Prevail Late in Battle of the Sound

December 28, 2022 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Seattle Thunderbirds News Release


SEATTLE, Wash. - Lucas Ciona scored a late power play goal, and the Seattle Thunderbirds defeated the Spokane Chiefs, 7-5, Tuesday at Climate Pledge Arena in the second annual Battle of the Sound. With the win Seattle improved to 24-4-1-1 and moved into first place in the Western Conference, a point ahead of idle Portland. The Thunderbirds and Chiefs now travel to Spokane for a rematch Wednesday at the Spokane Arena.

Thunderbirds head coach Matt O'Dette said they were a little rusty coming out of the Christmas break. "A lot of our habits and details weren't there tonight. We weren't quite as sharp or picking up where we left off. We're happy to get the win though and we buckled down in the third to do that."

The two teams combined for six goals in the first period. Seattle struck first when Nico Myatovic redirected in a Ciona shot from the point at the 3:20 mark. Spokane would respond though, by scoring three goals in two minutes, grabbing a 3-1 lead.

The Thunderbirds answered with two of their own to forge a 3-3 tie. Gracyn Sawchyn scored the first of his two on the night at 18:56. Seattle went back on top early in period two when Ciona scored at 4:34, finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with Jordan Gustafson. Once again, the Chiefs answered, scoring twice to take a 5-4 lead into the third period.

"There's a lot to fix," commented O'Dette. "We'll chalk that up to some rust coming out of the break. We weren't happy with the first 40 minutes, but we managed to keep the game within striking distance."

It remained a one goal game until the midpoint of period three when Seattle struck for a second time on the power play. Sawchyn got his second of the game when he snapped home a rebound of a Davidson shot at 9:51. That set up Ciona's late game heroics.

A strong shift by Seattle's third line drew a penalty on Spokane. Back on the power play, Sawchyn made a strong move to the front of the net and fed a backhand pass to Ciona who slid home the game winner. "Not our best game," said the Calgary Flames prospect. "Coming back from the fairly long Christmas break it was nice to get the boots moving again. We snuck a good win out and it was a lot of fun."

Head coach Matt O'Dette liked what he saw from his power play, which finished the night three of five. "You get rewarded by simplifying a little bit, playing direct and putting pucks on the net. That's what we started to do and got rewarded."

After the game in Spokane, Seattle stays on the road. They travel to Kelowna to play the Rockets Friday before returning home to the accesso ShoWare Center New Year's Eve to host the Rockets at 6:05 p.m.

T-BIRDS EXTRAS

Seattle is 6-0-0-1 since Nolan Allan, Kevin Korchinski, Reid Schaefer, and Thomas Milic departed to play for Canada at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championships.

With two assists, Kyle Crnkovic extended his point streak to fourteen games.

Seattle's first goal came on their first shot of the game. It was the third straight game in which they scored on their opening shot.

Jeremy Hanzel finished the night with three assists.

Check out the Seattle Thunderbirds Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from December 28, 2022


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