Four-goal third period paces Thunderbirds to victory over Petes
Kyle Crnkovic scored a hat-trick, and defenceman Nolan Allan’s third-period goal stood up as the winner as the Seattle Thunderbirds doubled the Peterborough Petes 6-3 in round-robin play at the 2023 Memorial Cup presented by Kia.
Seattle scored four times in the third period to break open a 2-2 tie, extending its post-season winning streak to five games in the process.
“In a tournament format, you want to get off on the right foot,” said Thunderbirds head coach Matt O’Dette following the game.
“We didn’t have our best game, but sometimes you have to find a way to win and we did that tonight.”
The OHL champions opened the scoring on a quick transition 1:24 into the game, converting on an odd-man rush through Philadelphia Flyers prospect J.R. Avon.
Seattle pumped 15 pucks at the Peterborough net in period one, coming close on a pair of occasions late in the period on chances by Reid Schaefer and Jeremy Hanzel.
The latter opportunity came with one minute to play in the opening frame: Hanzel pounced on a rebound just outside the Petes crease but was denied by the left pad of goaltender Michael Simpson.
The Thunderbirds outshot the Petes 15-7 in the opening frame.
Seattle evened the score 39 seconds into period two. Captain Lucas Ciona crashed the net on a shot attempt by linemate Brad Lambert from the right wing. Ciona, the Calgary Flames prospect, then tapped in a loose puck inside the blue paint for his side’s first goal of the tournament.
Peterborough went ahead a second time on an end-to-end rush by forward Owen Beck at 14:53, but Seattle answered back less than two minutes later.
Thunderbirds forward Jared Davidson dropped a pass to a trailing Kyle Crnkovic in the high slot, and the Chestermere, Alta. product proceeded to wire a shot into the top corner of Peterborough’s net.
“We kind of had to simplify once we got behind,” Crnkovic noted, “[Thomas Milic] shut the door for us, and once we simplified, and threw it in their zone, I thought we did a good job.”
Seattle went ahead for good at the 10-minute mark of period three, when Crnkovic snapped a puck over Simpson’s right shoulder for his second goal of the contest.
Allan extended the Thunderbirds lead to 4-2 1:22 later, firing a wrist shot from the left wing.
After the Petes closed the scoreline to 4-3 on a power-play, Seattle added insurance thanks to forward Jordan Gustafson. The Vegas Golden Knights prospect sent a wrist shot home from the right circle with 3:15 to play.
Crnkovic concluded the afternoon’s scoring with 1:34 left, tapping in a short-handed, empty-net marker to complete his hat-trick.
“We gave them six gifts,” Petes coach Rob Wilson commented following the game.
“We knew that our game plan would work, we just had to stick to it,” said Thunderbirds captain Lucas Ciona.
“It was nice that some goals started going in.”
Seattle outshot Peterborough 40-26 on the afternoon, with goaltender Thomas Milic turning aside 23 shots.
The Thunderbirds are next in action Monday, May 29 when they continue their round-robin campaign versus the Quebec Remparts (6:00 p.m. PT, Sandman Centre, TSN).
The tournament continues Sunday, May 28 with a matchup between the host Kamloops Blazers and the Petes (3:00 p.m. PT, Sandman Centre, TSN).