Thunderbirds tame Cougars in 4-1 win to open second round of WHL Playoffs
By Charles Hamaker
Kent, WA – The Seattle Thunderbirds began their second-round matchup of the playoffs with a victory over the Prince George Cougars, a four to one victory at the Showare center to kick things off. Forward Dylan Guenther continues to incinerate opponents during this playoff run, adding two more goals to bring his postseason total to seven across five games and nine points overall. Thunderbirds goaltender Thomas Milic stopped 23 of 24 shots on the night, as Seattle held the Cougars scoreless after the first frame. Tonight’s game, and perhaps the rest of this playoff run, is dedicated to local writer Andy Eide who passed away today. Eide was instrumental in coverage of the WHL in the area and the process of making the Kraken a reality. I want to pass my respects on to Eide, his family, and those closest to him. The world, let alone the Seattle area, lost a great soul today.
Seattle forward Dylan Guenther’s night through pictures (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Spicy Dyl continues to bring the heat, starts things off for Seattle
Arizona Coyotes prospect and Thunderbirds forward Dylan Guenther has done nothing but produce for Seattle ever since he put the uniform on. First, in the regular season, it was 29 points over 20 games and now in the playoffs the nine points in five games. The former Edmonton Oil King’s tenacious attacking style on opposing goaltenders continued, finding the back of the net just under two minutes into this contest. Prince George goaltender Ty Young made a solid save on an initial shot, but Guenther was able to collect the puck and wrap around just fast enough to get past Young’s outstretched leg. Later into the period, Guenther pounded the puck through a Cougars skaters' legs over the shoulder of Young in net on the power play for the second goal of the night.
Thunderbirds goaltender Thomas Milic pounces on the puck (Photo by Liz Wolter)
Birthday boy Milic has quality start
Seattle starting goaltender Thomas Milic continued his excellent run in 2023, after being named the U.S. Division goaltender of the year and Del Wilson Memorial trophy nominee. After Thunderbirds forward Dylan Guenther scored the first two goals of the game, with one of them on the power play, the Cougars were able to find an answer on the man advantage of their own. With the extra skater on the ice, Prince George was able to spread out the Thunderbirds and get Koehn Ziemmer open on the backdoor for an easy tap in goal past Milic off the cross-ice pass from Hudson Thornton. Following the power play goal, Milic was totally zoned in as he made numerous stunning saves. Whether they came off his own rebound, in a two on one situation, or on hard slap shots, Milic dazzled all night long and displayed why he’s a nominee for the top goaltender in all the WHL.
Postgame scenes after the final buzzer sounded (Photos by Liz Wolter)
What’s next?
Game two of the series is tomorrow, April 15th inside the Showare Center with a puck drop time of 6:05PM PST. The Thunderbirds will look to build off their positive momentum from this game one victory over the Cougars. Following tomorrow’s game, this second round series flips over to Prince George for games three and four April 18th and 19th respectively. Considering that Milic got the start in today’s game, we’ll see Scott Ratzlaff in goal for Seattle in game two.