Thunderbirds use strong third period to take impressive game on victory over Blazers
By Charles Hamaker
Kent, WA – To begin this year's Western Conference final, a rematch of this round last year in the WHL Playoffs, the Seattle Thunderbirds and Kamloops Blazers were in a tight battle through two periods. Once we reached the final frame, everything changed as the Thunderbirds were able to find the cracks in the Blazers play and tack on three insurance goals to end game one of the series with an emphatic victory. Both teams made their way to this point by sweeping the first two rounds, but obviously something had to give in today’s contest, with Seattle the one coming out on top.
The physicality level between the top two teams in the WHL’s Western Conference was high (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Maintaining the blaze
As seen before, the Blazers attack is as dangerous as any in the Western Hockey League, as was displayed in the last time that these teams met in the regular season when Kamloops tallied six goals against this Seattle team. The Thunderbirds defense, one of the best in the league, had been able to somewhat handle the Blazers pressure prior to that, but that final regular season meeting left some wonder to what we may see when the teams inevitably met in the postseason. In game one at least, it seems that Seattle is going to be up to the task for a Thunderbirds team looking for hardware as goaltender Thomas Milic and the defenseman pairs held Kamloops to the one goal they got in the second period on a rush. Other than that score, Milic remained stellar in between the pipes and the defenseman pairings in front of him were able to mitigate the shots by the Blazers to less and less as the periods went on.
Seattle shows out in third
The Thunderbirds did get two goals throughout the first two periods of this game, as Jared Davidson got a puck right in the garden spot on the assist from Colton Dach behind the net and Nico Myatovic took advantage of a two-on-one situation off an assist from Jordan Gustafson. It was a fine lead to have going into the second intermission, but the Blazers goal with a little under four minutes left in the second period made this game a bit tight for everybody not cheering on Kamloops inside of the Showare Center. Taking into account what this Blazers team can do, the Thunderbirds and their fans wanted more than just that slim margin of error to lean on if they were going to take the first game of the series, and they sure got that in the final 20 minutes.
The Thunderbirds brought heavy, heavy pressure in the final twenty minutes from the time that their first shift hit the ice after the second intermission. In a three-on-two opportunity, spicy Dylan Guenther handled the puck around Kamloops goaltender Dylan Ernst for the third goal of the game to begin a three-goal period for Seattle. Next, Jared Davidson and the Thunderbirds caught the Blazers in a change and Davey was able to snipe his second goal of the night top corner over the right shoulder of Ernst.
Seattle Thunderbirds celebrations came a plenty in the third period, after the first few frames were tight (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Quick notes
Thunderbirds forward Jared Davidson has tied Alexander True for second in franchise history with 20 playoff goals, one behind Scott Eansor.
Davidson has put up two or more points in five consecutive games, as well as in seven of his past eight outings during the 2023 WHL Playoffs
Seattle and Kamloops are the first two WHL Clubs to meet in a Conference championship series having both swept their way through the first and second rounds since the Brandon Wheat Kings and Calgary Hitmen met in the 2009 Eastern Conference Championship
Thunderbirds took part in the last repetitive Conference Final back in 2016 and 2017 defeating the Kelowna Rockets both times. The Eastern Conference hasn't had the same matchup in sequential years since 2009-10.
This is the second time the T-Birds have started the playoffs with nine straight wins. The feat was accomplished in 2017 as well.
The Thunderbirds wore a patch on their jerseys to commemorate the late Doc Blue, a legendary team doctor that recently passed away.
Seattle Thunderbirds goaltender Thomas Milic was named the WHL goaltender of the month for his play (Photos by Liz Wolter)
What’s next?
The Thunderbirds will host game two of this series tomorrow, April 30th with a changed puck drop time of 4:05PM PST. The original time when this series became official was 5:05PM PST but was changed just a few days ago leading up to this game one matchup. Seattle will look to build upon this victory that saw them finish strong against Kamloops before the series heads to Canada in the Blazers barn. The Showare Center will surely be rocking once again for game two, to cheer on the Thunderbirds as they look to take a two-game lead in these Western Conference Finals.