Wild Finish Pushes T-Birds Past Wenatchee
KENT, Wash – Nishaan Parmar’s second goal of the season propelled the Seattle Thunderbirds to their first win of the season as they came from behind Saturday to beat the Wenatchee Wild, 5-4, in overtime in their home opener at the accesso ShoWare Center. Seattle is back in action on home ice next Friday when they host the Prince George Cougars at 7:05 p.m.
“That was a big one there, obviously, to get the dub,” remarked Parmar postgame. “The boys worked hard there for that one. It was a good weekend for me, getting a couple goals, but we’re never satisfied. Gotta keep working, keep pushing.”
After a scoreless first period, the teams combined for five goals in the second period. The T-Birds (1-2-1-0) struck first when Brendan Rudolph scored his first goal in the WHL, assisted by Sam Charko and Colton Gerrior at 3:06.
Then, while skating 4-on-4, there were three goals scored in just under a minute, two by Wenatchee and one from the Thunderbirds. The Wild tied the game at the 6:10 mark. A half minute later Coster Dunn restored the lead for Seattle with the assists going to Nathan Pilling and Owen Boucher. Just twenty-six seconds later, the Wild tied the game at 2-2.
“Four on four, it’s not something we’ve worked on yet,” said head coach Matt O’Dette. “It’s something we’ll have to hit in detail. We didn’t’ play that stretch very well and they scored two against us. We’re still checking some boxes, but we’ll get there. We’ll find time to work on those situations.”
After a disallowed T-Birds goal Wenatchee took the lead with a goal at 12:30 of period two. They stretched the lead to 4-2 with a goal early in period three. The T-Birds began their comeback when Arjun Bawa scored his first as a T-Bird at 6:34, assisted by Parmar and Sawyer Mynio.
Just past the midway point of the third period, Seattle took a penalty. Instead of surrendering a power play goal the T-Birds found the equalizer, a shorthanded goal from Sam Charko with Dunn assisting. For Charko it was his first goal in the WHL.
“Thanks to Dunner for that one,” said Charko of the tying goal. “It definitely helped the team. It really got the boys going. I was pumped for that, pumped that I could contribute.”
That set up Parmar’s overtime heroics as he took a pass from Braeden Cootes, deked around a Wenatchee defender and roofed the puck off his backhand.
“It’s nice to get the first (win),” commented O’Dette. “We’ve played decent stretches of hockey over the first three games but not quite good enough to secure a win. But great resiliency from the guys after being down at times tonight during the game. We scratched and clawed our way back and found a way to win in overtime.”
T-BIRDS EXTRAS
The two teams combined to go 0-for-11 on the power play. Wenatchee was 0/6 and the T-Birds 0/5.
Grayson Malinoski secured his first WHL win in net with a 26 save performance.
Sawyer Mynio returned from NHL training camp with the Vancouver Canucks and was in the lineup for the home opener. Goalie Scott Ratzlaff remains at NHL training camp with the Buffalo Sabres.
Boxscore: Wenatchee Wild at Seattle Thunderbirds – Saturday, September 28, 2024 (chl.ca)
