T-Birds Double up Americans
KENT, Wash. – the Seattle Thunderbirds used a four goal third period to come back and defeat the Tri-City Americans, 6-3, Friday at the accesso ShoWare Center. The win, coupled with Wenatchee losing, reduced the T-Birds magic number for clinching a playoff berth to four points. The Thunderbirds busy weekend continues with a pair of road games. First up is a game Saturday in Portland against the Winterhawks. Sunday the T-Birds are in Kennewick for a rematch with Tri-City.
“A really good third period,” said head coach Matt O’Dette. “I thought we were a little bit loose the first forty minutes, pressing a little bit and maybe not being as simple as we needed to be. We needed a good third period and the guys dug deep and got it done.”
Seattle started the game fast, with Hayden Pakkala scoring a power play goal at 2:46, assisted by Matej Pekar and Simon Lovsin. Tri-City would respond with two goals to take a one-goal lead into the first intermission.
Seattle (26-32-4-1) tied it up at 2-2 at 7:51 of the second period when Brayden Schuurman tipped in an Ashton Cumby shot. Kaleb Hartmann had the second assist. Once again the Americans responded, scoring at 16:32 to grab a 3-2 lead heading into the final period.
The T-Birds wasted little time tying it back up. Braeden Cootes scored 37 seconds into the third period with the assist going to Coster Dunn. Cootes then set up the game winning goal, winning an offensive zone face off back to Nathan Pilling who blasted home his team leading 33rd of the season at 6:49.
“It wasn’t the best first two periods for our line,” remarked Cootes. “But just sticking with it and getting the job done. It was a good game.”
Dunn gave the T-Birds some breathing room when he scored at 17:15, with Pilling credited with the lone assist. Sam Charko finished off game, scoring into an empty net at 19:45, assisted by Lovsin and Radim Mrtka.
“They have a good goalie,” commented O’Dette. “You have to try to create rebounds on him, traffic, guys going to the paint. I thought we got that going in the third and got rewarded for it.”
T-BIRDS EXTRAS
The T-Birds have just one regular season home game remaining. That is next Saturday against Portland.
Since the January 9th trade deadline, the T-Birds have outscored the opposition 36-19 in the third period.
After not scoring a goal his rookie season, Sam Charko’s empty net goal was his seventh goal of this season.
Boxscore: Tri-City Americans at Seattle Thunderbirds – Friday, March 14, 2025
