T-Birds Strike First Against Kamloops
KENT, Wash. – Jared Davidson scored twice and added an assist as the Seattle Thunderbirds beat the Kamloops Blazers, 5-1, Saturday at the accesso ShoWare Center in Game One of the Western Conference Championship Series. Game Two of the series is back at the accesso ShoWare Center Sunday at 4:05 p.m.
Davidson now has seven goals in the playoffs, including six in the last five games. His first goal of the night was the first of the game and came with three minutes left in the opening period. He said getting a good start was key after a ten-day layoff. “It was nice to get some rest but being able to start the game quickly was very important for us. It’s always good to start the game quick and play with the lead instead of chasing.”
Thunderbirds head coach Matt agreed. “We know that Kamloops is a really good, fast starting team,” he said. “We had to be ready to go and get off on the right foot, especially on home ice.”
Seattle doubled their lead in the second period. Jordan Gustafson and Nico Myatovic broke up ice on a 2-on-1 rush and Gustafson fed Myatovic for what stood as the game winner. It was Myatovic’s second of the postseason. “I saw Gus win the battle in the neutral zone, so I just tried to find an area,” he explained. “Of course, he put it right on my tape and I put it on net, and it ended up going in.”
The Blazers got back to within a goal before the second period ended, thanks to Olen Zellweger. Kamloops then had a chance to tie with a power play midway through period three. Instead, Seattle came up with a key penalty kill. Gustafson said he knows that will be a big part of the T-Birds game going forward in the series.
“We know that they have a really good power play,” he remarked. “We definitely have to stay disciplined, stay out of the box. I think we did a good job of that tonight and our team takes a lot of pride in our ability to kill off penalties.”
O’Dette echoed Gustafson words. “Penalty killing was really good. That’s the thing about special teams, you have to come with kills at the right time, at key moments of the game and our PK did that at key moments in this game.”
Shortly after the penalty kill, Reid Schaefer intercepted a Blazers clearing attempt at the Kamloops blue line. He fed the puck to Brad Lambert who got it to Dylan Guenther for the Thunderbirds third goal. Four minutes later Jeremy Hanzel sent a puck up ice to Davidson who skated in and fired home his second of the night.
Seattle finished off the scoring with a Gracyn Sawchyn power play goal with just over four minutes remaining.
T-BIRDS EXTRAS
Before the game the Thunderbirds held a moment of silence for long time team physician, Dr. Alfred Blue, who passed away last weekend.
This is the second time Seattle has started a postseason with nine straight wins. They did in 2017 as well, on their way to winning their only WHL Championship.
Dylan Guenther now leads the WHL with eleven playoff goals.
Thomas Milic earned the win with 24 saves. It was his franchise-best 23rd postseason win, dating back to last season.
The start time for Game Two has been moved up one hour to 4:05 p.m. O’Dette says his team needs to be ready. “We’re expecting a response (from Kamloops) tomorrow. They’re going to come out hard and we have to be ready for that. We need to duplicate the effort.”
Boxscore: WHL Network
