Thunderbirds late push not enough to overcome penalty riddled contest in loss to Royals
By Charles Hamaker
Kent, WA – This 2023-24 campaign for the Seattle Thunderbirds will prove to be full of learning moments and hard lessons, and that will include tonight’s 5-4 loss to the visiting Victoria Royals. Despite four power play goals, winning the shots on goal battle, and getting a strong effort from Scott Ratzlaff, personal mistakes and a penalty riddled game saw the Thunderbirds drop this contest and fall to an even .500 winning percentage on the season. There are definite positives to take away from tonight’s game for Seattle, but obviously not enough for a win to be registered in their column, and it’ll be a game that they will look to learn from as best they can and move forward with as this young group continues to progress and move forward.
“We take a step forward and then we take two steps back. We had a really good first, then we get easily frustrated when we’re not getting as much to show for it as we think we should.”
Pregame sights and scenes ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds loss to the visiting Victoria Royals. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
Seattle strikes first, but mistakes compound
The Thunderbirds were able to get things rolling in their favor somewhat early into this contest, getting on the board to begin this contest a little under five minutes in. Though they’ve struggled on the man advantage to begin the season (Ranked 15th in all of the WHL), the Seattle power play gave the Thunderbirds an early lead. Defenseman and Colorado Avalanche draft pick Jeremy Hanzel unleashed a wicked one-timer from the point that ripped through traffic and got by Royals netminder Braden Holt. Seattle’s rotation on the power play ultimately left Hanzel open as he moved up into the slot, and he had more than enough space to unleash the one-timer that got tonight’s scoring started. Following their power play goal to open things up, the Thunderbirds continued to pressure Holt and Victoria, owning the shots on goal statistic, but they wouldn’t be able to add on to their lead before the Royals got on the board.
Victoria took advantage of an odd bounce and ran with it, as the Royals first goal was a big example of simply getting pucks to the net. Defenseman Nate Misskey launched a puck on the Thunderbirds net, and while the trajectory was a bit odd as it careened up and over Seattle goaltender Scott Ratzlaff, it became the first score of the game for the Royals. An odd, arching shot that seemed to make contact with someone/something on its way towards Ratzlaff and the net, and all the Thunderbirds netminder could do was attempt his best to get up in order to block the shot, which he wasn’t able to do. A tough situation, that was compounded as nearly immediately after that goal and the play reset that followed, Victoria was able to get back into goal scoring position. The Royals had gained entry relatively easy into the Seattle zone, and Victoria forward Ben Riche was able to get a shot past Thunderbirds defenseman Sawyer Mynio that Ratzlaff couldn’t particularly see for the second goal in just 17 seconds.
“We’ve been talking about setting aside a little bit more of our focus and priorities to the defensive side of things. We’ve seen some progress but didn’t have that tonight.”
All four of the Seattle Thunderbirds goals in tonight’s game came on the power play, with two of them from defenseman Jeremy Hanzel. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
A tough night for the Thunderbirds, with penalties and mistakes cancelling out some big performances
Going into the first intermission down by a goal, Seattle had shown that they could apply pressure to Victoria and goaltender Braden Holt, so if they were able to maintain the sort of performance that they saw in those first 20 minutes, they should be able to get back on the board to tie things up and regain the momentum of this game. That didn’t account for penalties, which continued to muddy this game up, including two power plays that the Thunderbirds second ranked penalty kill successfully handled and one that leaked into the second intermission, that Seattle also handled. The Thunderbirds had to deal with two power plays during that middle frame, including a too many men call, and as we know penalties disrupt the flow of the game. It was a physical contest, with both teams routinely pushing and shoving after the whistle had been blown, and it was Victoria who scored the next goal to add to their lead and make this game seem out of reach given how the pace of tonight had gone in their favor. Royals forward Dawson Pasternak, late into the period and on the power play, brought the puck end-to-end and finished things off by tucking a goal in near side on Ratzlaff, having it leak through. Considering the poor luck (and not so great officiating) that had taken place, it would’ve been easy for the Thunderbirds to get frustrated.
It would’ve been even more understandable for Seattle to throw in the towel after Victoria scored their fourth goal of the night just 27 seconds into the third and final frame, as the Royals caught the Thunderbirds somewhat flat footed going through the neutral zone before Reggie Newman was found wide open back door to tap home an easy one past Ratzlaff, who had no chance. Down by three goals, it seemed like Seattle would need to recreate a certain comeback effort that we saw earlier in this 2023-24 season, and that all began with a too many men penalty against Victoria. Jeremy Hanzel recreated his power play magic from the first period, unleashing a monster one-timer from the faceoff circle to Braden Holt’s left to give the Thunderbirds their second goal of the night and cut their deficit down to two. That little amount of space given on the man advantage had proven twice tonight to be just enough for Hanzel to hammer the puck home.
The Victoria Royals put up five goals on the Seattle Thunderbirds and goaltender Scott Ratzlaff. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)
The positive momentum for Seattle saw a brief pause as Victoria found an answer to the Hanzel goal, finding the back of the net six minutes later as Austin Zemlak took advantage of two skaters (One for Victoria and one for Seattle) screening Scott Ratzlaff on a chaotic possession to re-extend the Royals lead back to three goals. In tonight’s game, it had seemed like one step forward and two steps back, even if one of those steps back wasn’t particularly their own fault. Despite the struggles, Seattle remained resilient and that sort of resiliency was on display with their next goal. Defenseman Sawyer Mynio broke his stick during a power play and had to retrieve a new one from the bench before rejoining the play. Immediately after retrieving that stick, Mynio came rushing into the zone and was sauced a perfect pass as he entered the high danger area from teammate Eric Alarie, slamming the puck past a Victoria skater and goaltender Braden Holt to get Seattle back within two. The push continued for the Thunderbirds, who got another power play goal to get them within one as Gracyn Sawchyn completed his four-point night with a one-timer that had come off the pads of Holt thanks to a one-timer from Mynio on the other side of the ice. Within one for the first time since that second period, the Thunderbirds were unable to complete the comeback as they couldn’t get the tying fifth goal, and dropped tonight’s contest to Victoria.
It’s another tough learning experience for the Thunderbirds, with good signs showing
This loss is frustrating in more than a few ways for Seattle. The penalties against at times were questionable from tonight’s officiating crew, which in turn stressed their penalty kill to an extent and messed with the flow and pace of this game. Goaltender Scott Ratzlaff played a strong game and made more than a few saves to keep the Thunderbirds somewhat in this game but was left in tough positions and hung out to dry on a few of the Royals goals. All of the Seattle goals came on the man advantage, showing a bit of frustration offensively with their five-on-five play. There are positives to look at in this game as well, with the Thunderbirds power play that hasn’t been great scoring on four of five power play opportunities. The penalty kill, ranked second in the WHL coming into this game, remained strong as they killed off five of six opportunities. Seattle, despite the lack of an even strength goal, did dominate the shots on goal in this game and won that margin in the first and third period. Before overreactions take place regarding this team, it needs to be remembered just how young they are and the adjustments that will be made on an individual level and a team level in order to push forward past frustrating defeats such as tonight.
Quick notes
Attendance at the accesso ShoWare center for tonight’s Victoria Royals at Seattle Thunderbirds game was 3,693
Thunderbirds defenseman Jeremy Hanzel had a three-point night, tallying two goals and one assist.
Both of his goals came on the power play
Thunderbirds defenseman Sawyer Mynio had a four-point night, tallying 1 goal, and three assists.
He assisted the first three goals of the night for Seattle.
Thunderbirds forward Gracyn Sawchyn had a four-point night, tallying 1 goal, and three assists.
The three Stars of tonight’s game were
1st: Seattle D Sawyer Mynio
2nd: Seattle D Jeremy Hanzel
3rd: Victoria F Austin Zemlak
Royals forward Dawson Pasternak was given a 10-minute misconduct with 2:03 left to play
What’s next?
Following tonight’s home loss to the Victoria Royals, the Seattle Thunderbirds will remain home for as they finish out a three-game homestand. Seattle will host the Tri-City Americans on Friday, December 8th with a puck drop time of 7:05PM PST. This will be the second time this season that the Thunderbirds and Americans have met so far this season, with the last contest being an ugly five-goal shutout victory by Tri-City. Seattle will look to wash away this penalty-riddled game against Victoria before their meeting with the Americans, as Kraken draft pick Lukas Dragicevic and Tri-City come to the ShoWare Center for this Pacific Division matchup. The tools are there for the Thunderbirds to be a good team, it’s just about finding that consistent effort offensively and finding a way to remain disciplined, whether that means the officials are making the right calls or not.
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