Thunderbirds incinerate Ice in 6-3 victory to take series lead in WHL Championship
By Charles Hamaker
Kent, WA – Following an even split in the first two games of the WHL Championship in Winnipeg, the Seattle Thunderbirds looked like the dominant team we’d seen in the regular season as they dominated the Ice with a final score of 6-3. After a rough first two periods to begin this WHL Championship, Seattle has appeared to settle in against Winnipeg, as the Thunderbirds have outscored the Ice by seven goals since then. Things started hot and just heated up from there, as Kyle Crnkovic and Carson Latimer scored for Seattle and Winnipeg respectively before the Thunderbirds rattled off three goals in a span of 45 seconds to establish dominance. With the victory, Seattle takes a two games to one lead in the series.
“When you get behind the way we did, three quick goals in less than a two-minute span, it was a tough hill to climb. If I look at the first two games of the series, I’ve been happy with how we have defended the rush, defended in the D-zone, and we didn’t do those things good enough today... When we got down 2-1, it was like we wanted to make it up in one shift. We started gambling. ”
A fans perspective view of the celebration of Seattle Thunderbirds forward Kyle Crnkovic’s goal to open the game (Photo by Liz Wolter)
Crnk-ing it up
This game wasn’t even thirty seconds in before we got our first goal of the night, as Thunderbirds forward Kyle Crnkovic lifted a shot past Ice goaltender Daniel Hauser off a great feed from Lucas Ciona. Seattle had caught Winnipeg in a two-on-one situation with others on their tail, and the combo of Ciona to Crnkovic executed it perfectly. The Ice weren’t going to be outdone just like that, though, as Conor Geekie (Yes, the brother of Seattle Kraken forward Morgan Geekie) pickpocketed Thunderbirds defenseman Bryce Pickford in his own zone and found teammate Carson Latimer for essentially a two on none situation against Seattle goaltender Thomas Milic. Those two goals within the first two minutes alone would’ve been a wild start to the game, had nothing else happened in the first frame. This game elevated though, twelve minutes later.
After the game seemed to settle down with those first two scores, Winnipeg began to get some chances on Milic, who remained solid between the pipes and denied the Ice. Winnipeg had doubled Seattle’s shot count, and it seemed like they were on the verge of busting through and taking over the game before Seattle tilted the ice in a major way. Ice defenseman Graham Sward was called for interference, sending the Thunderbirds sixth-ranked power play out, where defenseman Jeremy Hanzel took advantage of a Lucas Ciona screen to score. The Thunderbirds captain had positioned himself perfectly in front of Winnipeg goaltender Daniel Hauser, allowing Hanzel to snipe Seattle’s second goal of the game. 23 seconds later, Thunderbirds forward flipped the puck up ice to a streaking Brad Lambert, living up to his “Lambo” nickname, getting behind the Ice skaters before backhanding a goal past Hauser from within the crease. Although not as small as the difference between those goals, Seattle added a third goal just 22 seconds later as Jared Davidson buried a cross ice pass from Nico Myatovic to nearly blow the roof off the Showare center.
“It was a good start. Our crowd is really good, so that helps us get into it. We had a really good shift, tried to get on our path early and we did a good job of that tonight.”
“We’re happy with the win. A very fast-paced start to the game for both teams, up and down the ice quickly. We did a good job the first shift getting one and getting the crowd into it. [The ICE] responded right away and we responded right back, so I really liked our first period. It was an emotional game and we carried that through the final 40 [minutes].”
First period frames, as the Seattle Thunderbirds took a 4-1 lead into the first intermission (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Adding a bit of spice
Following the electrifying first frame that witnessed five goals, the action continued in a somewhat different fashion through the middle period. Seven different penalties were called throughout the next 20 minutes as things got physical and tensions ran high between the two teams. It seemed that Winnipeg was getting frustrated with the course of the game, and they didn’t want to be pushed around anymore physically than they were on the scoreboard. It didn’t help the Ice that the Thunderbirds were able to tack on two more goals, a Dylan Guenther power play goal from the flank and a Jeremy Hanzel hammer from the top of the high slot. Those two goals were split by Zach Benson’s goal for Winnipeg, a tic-tac toe buildup that resulted in a tap in, but it was obvious that things were crumbling for the Ice. Winnipeg was able to add a third goal on the man advantage in the third period, but Seattle was well in control and were able to defend the Winnipeg push through the final 20 minutes.
“I love the passion and compete, guys are fired up out there. We could control our emotions are bit out there in those scrums to stay out of the box. We have a couple four on four situations there where, you’re the team with the lead, you might wanna avoid those. It opens the game up, gives the opposition a little more room to open things up. Could be a little more careful in those situations, but love the compete, the passion, guys sticking up for each other, that was really good out there. ”
Seattle celebrates their two goals in the second period (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Quick notes
Tonight’s attendance inside the Showare Center was 5,505
The Thunderbirds finished 2-for-3 on the power play
The ICE went 1-for-4 on the man advantage
Seattle controlled the faceoff circle, winning 60 per cent of the draws (36/60), led by Davidson who was good on an impressive 81 per cent of his faceoff attempts (13/16)
12 different Thunderbirds hit the scoresheet by registering at least one point during Game 3
With two more points, Seattle’s Dylan Guenther finds himself in the midst of a three-game point streak to start the 2023 WHL Championship Series, having recorded five points (1G-4A)
Winnipeg’s Conor Geekie recorded a game-high six shots on goal
Game 3 marked the first time in 59 appearances throughout 2022-23 campaign (regular season and playoffs) Winnipeg’s Daniel Hauser has allowed more than four goals in a game
While the Thunderbirds three goals in 45 seconds was impressive, it didn’t quite match the WHL record for fastest three goals by a single team in a WHL Playoff game.
That record was set April 19, 1970 when the Winnipeg Jets of the WHL scored three times in 26 seconds against the Flin Flon Bombers. Henry Boucha, Brian Howe, and Jim Hargreaves all found the back of the net from 18:50 to 19:16 of the first period in an eventual 10-1 win for Winnipeg.
Images from the rest of the game, as the Seattle Thunderbirds closed out a victory in game three of the WHL Championship (Photos by Liz Wolter)
What’s next?
Game four of the series is tomorrow, May 17th with a puck drop time of 7:05PM PST back here inside of the Showare Center. With a victory in tomorrow’s game, the Thunderbirds can push this series to the brink of a clinch when game five comes around on Friday, May 19th, but they’ll need to handle business in this game four. Winnipeg head coach James Patrick was very clearly unhappy with his team's performance, and expressed so in the postgame press conference, so expect there to be a big push from Winnipeg in the fourth contest of this WHL Championship.