Masked men ready to keep shining as WHL Championship Series continues

Kent, Wash. – It’s been a series rife with physicality and emotion, but the margin between the Edmonton Oil Kings and Seattle Thunderbirds has been thinner than a razor’s edge.

The two sides are tied 1-1 in the best-of-seven series, which shifts here to Washington state for Games 3 and 4 Tuesday (7:05 p.m., accesso ShoWare Center) and Wednesday.

In a game of fine lines, it’s natural to thrust a focus on the masked men, but if you ask Edmonton’s Sebastian Cossa or Seattle’s Thomas Milic, they’re ready to be thrust into the thick of what’s been an engaging series thus far.

“It’s been fast-paced, there’s been a lot of traffic, to say the least,” Cossa commented. “There are two good goaltenders in here, so bringing a lot of bodies to the net is a key to success for both teams.”

“I don’t think a lot will change going into Game 3,” Milic added. “A lot of it is just cleaning up habits and dialing in our game plan and keeping up our physical play.”

With two games in the books, both netminders are engaged too as the two teams develop a sense of familiarity.

“There were a lot of question marks going into the series, but it’s nice having played them twice know, we know a bit more about their DNA,” said Cossa.

Cossa and Milic are the two most recent WHL Goaltenders of the Month, but they’ve taken different paths through their times in the League.

To the casual observer, the six-inch height difference between the pair offers a stark contrast in style, but there are other juxtapositions at play here, too.

Cossa was the first netminder taken in the 2021 NHL Draft, going 15th-overall to the Detroit Red Wings. He’s been the backbone of Edmonton’s defensive zone for three seasons, posting a 71-16-4-3 regular season record and earning an invite to Canada’s 2022 World Junior Championship squad in the process.

Milic, a year Cossa’s junior, was a third-round selection by the Thunderbirds in the 2018 WHL Draft but has burst onto the Puget Sound puck scene.

He was named the U.S. Division Rookie of the Year in 2021, earned an invite to the Seattle Kraken training camp in the fall, and now finds himself ranked among the top North American netminders ahead of the 2022 NHL Draft next month in Montreal.

The two puck-stoppers have had vastly different experiences in the 2022 WHL Playoffs, too.

Cossa’s Oil Kings lost one game through the first three rounds. Milic and the Thunderbirds won a pair of Game 7 affairs away from home.

Milic has faced nearly double the number of shots as has Cossa (650 to 339), but through it all has earned a .926 save percentage.

“We’ve had a lot of d-men step up and block shots, and our chemistry has been really good this year,” Milic noted. “I think every game, we get tighter as a group.”

Different paths indeed, but Cossa and Milic’s journeys have led them both to the Evergreen State. The next two nights will help determine whether either goaltender will be one step closer to WHL glory.

The WHL Championship Series continues with Game 3, Tuesday, June 7. TSN will carry the remainder of the series live across it’s network, with Game 3 available on TSN1 and TSN3.