T-Birds Drop Final Road Game in Portland
PORTLAND, Ore. –The Seattle Thunderbirds fell into an early five goal deficit and could not recover, falling 7-4 to the Portland Winterhawks Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The loss snapped the T-Birds four game winning streak. Seattle closes out the 2023-24 season Sunday at the accesso ShoWare Center. The game against Portland begins at 5:05 p.m.
“Not the start we were looking for,” said head coach Matt O’Dette of the first period. “I thought we had some good early shifts but one of the keys against Portland is to not give them the easy ones, the high-quality chances. Unfortunately, there was a ten-minute stretch there that didn’t go well for us.”
The Winterhawks scored five times on their first thirteen shots in the opening period. The first goal came at the 2:03 mark and the fifth at 14:35. The fifth goal chased Thunderbirds starting goalie Spencer Michnik to the bench.
“The message for the final forty minutes was to continue to fight, continue to compete and show pride in the jersey,” explained O’Dette. Seattle did that, outscoring the Winterhawks 4-2 over the final two periods.
The Thunderbirds (27-38-2-0) got second period goals from Simon Lovsin and Jeremy Hanzel to pull to within three goals at 5-2. Portland responded with two more of their own to leave the ice after two periods up 7-2.
Seattle’s Kazden Mathies scored shorthanded early in the third period to make it 7-3, and Jordan Gustafson added a power play goal late to close out the scoring. For Gustafson it was his eighth goal in 13 games since returning from injury one month ago.
“It’s definitely a lot more fun being in the lineup and stringing together some good games and building some momentum,” said the Vegas Golden Knights prospect. “It’s not super easy when you’re in and out (of the lineup) but I think our team has a good thing going here right now. A lot of our teams been banged up throughout the year, but we’ve got a lot of our guys back now and its fun playing with them.”
Despite the setback, O’Dette said he was proud of his team for not quitting after falling into the five-goal hole. “These are tests where we have the opportunity to show what we’re made of,” he remarked. “We’re evaluating our players to see whose got that fight in them, that push back is what we’re looking for.”
A bright spot for the Thunderbirds was their special teams play as they went 2-for-4 on the power play and killed off for penalties and added a shorthanded goal.
T-BIRDS EXTRAS
Seattle ended the road portion of their schedule with an 11-23-0-0 record away from home.
Braeden Cootes has points in seven straight games and is coming off back-to-back two assist efforts.
Despite the loss, Seattle has scored nine goals against Portland in their last two meetings. The T-Birds had scored only 16 goals against Portland in their first seven meetings.
Boxscore: Seattle Thunderbirds at Portland Winterhawks – Saturday, March 23, 2024 (chl.ca)