Thunderbirds attack explodes late, beating Rebels 6-1 in Guenther’s debut
By Charles Hamaker
Kent, WA – A battle of the second team in the Eastern Conference and the top team in the Western Conference, the latter of the two ended up victorious in “blowout” fashion. I use quotes, as this win for the Seattle Thunderbirds was a bit of an odd one considering that all of the game's goals came in the third period. This game was also the Thunderbirds debut for Dylan Guenther, a highly touted Arizona Coyotes prospect that was announced to have joined Seattle last week.
Seattle’s Kyle Crnkovic celebrated his birthday today (Photo by Liz Wolter)
Crickets through two periods
The first 40 minutes of this top of the standings battle saw both teams unable to put one past either goaltender. Perhaps the more impressive feat of the two, Red Deer’s netminder Kyle Kelsey had made 24 saves throughout the first two periods and even had to deal with a five on three situation by the Thunderbirds in the second frame. Even right out of the gate, Kelsey had to deal with early trouble as Seattle captain Lucas Ciona’s shot nearly opened things up but just glanced off of Kelsey’s right leg pad and nearly trickled in.
Throughout the first 40 minutes, the Thunderbirds had numerous dangerous chances on net. From being wide open in the high slot, juicy rebounds on Kelsey’s exposed side, and the aforementioned five on three opportunity, but the Rebels goaltender stayed strong. Seattle goaltender Thomas Milic had his saves as well, but his defenseman had made sure that Milic didn’t have to deal with much trouble throughout the course of the night. Things seemed to have been building up for that final frame.
The Thunderbirds were in a gritty battle through the first two frames, neither team giving up an inch (Photo by Liz Wolter)
Fireworks shows gets a late start
The scoring in this matchup didn’t start until 46 minutes after the puck had first dropped, as Seattle’s Jared Davidson was able to put back a meaty rebound off of the left leg pad of Red Deer’s Kyle Kelsey. The flood gates opened after that; leading Rebels scorer Kai Uchacz found the back of the net just a minute later on a power play. Seattle's response was heavy, scoring five unanswered goals to close out the game and giving the Thunderbirds a victory that looked resounding on the scoreboard. Davidson scored his second goal of the night, Nico Myatovic tallied two, Brad Lambert continued his points total as a Thunderbird and newly acquired Dylan Guenther introduced himself to the Seattle fanbase.
The third period saw the Thunderbirds open the floodgates, scoring six goals while Red Deer’s lone goal made it seven total in the final frame (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Welcome, Dylan Guenther
The biggest news out of potentially the entire WHL last week was that Arizona Coyotes prospect Dylan Guenther was joining an already stacked Seattle Thunderbirds squad. The Thunderbirds now have 10 prospects who have been drafted to the NHL, eight of them active in this game against the Rebels. Seattle has given up a king's ransom of picks to make this roster a reality, but the goal of doing so is obvious: winning a championship, and the Thunderbirds may be well on their way to doing so.
Seattle’s Dylan Guenther fires a shot off (Photo by Liz Wolter)
Guenther made his impact in his first game as a Thunderbird, recording an assist on Brad Lambert’s power play goal and then scoring himself under two minutes later. The assist on Lambert’s goal was a play that oozed quality, as three different prospects for Seattle connected to complete the Thunderbirds fourth goal of the night. Guenther fed Seattle’s captain Lucas Ciona down behind the goal, and Ciona found Lambert trailing the play in the opposing faceoff circle, scoring on a yawning cage. Guenther’s goal was chaos, as on a four-on-four, he was able to maintain possession of the puck despite having three of the Rebels skaters around him before slapping the puck in.
Dylan Guenther heads off the ice after his first game as a Thunderbird (Photo by Liz Wolter)
Quick notes
Today was Seattle Thunderbirds forward Kyle Crnkovic’s birthday
With the addition of Dylan Guenther, Seattle’s roster now features three of the WHL’s top ten scorers from last season (Kyle Crnkovic, Dylan Guenther, Jared Davidson).
In 21 total games against Red Deer over the last four seasons (three with the Edmonton Oil Kings and now with Seattle), Dylan Guenther has totaled 13 goals and 20 assists.
Guenther scored a goal and added an assist in this game
Seattle’s Jared Davidson scored two goals in this game, pushing him up to 90 career goals.
The Thunderbirds win was Matt O’Dette’s 180th as head coach of the team.
Thunderbirds forward Nico Myatovic scored twice in the win (Photo by Liz Wolter)
What’s next?
The Thunderbirds will turn right around and head down to Portland for another titanic clash with the Winterhawks. The two teams will battle at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on February 11th with a puck drop of 6PM PST. Seattle is looking to avenge its last matchup with Portland, a 5-2 loss at home to the Winterhawks on January 28th. The Thunderbirds have lost their last two battles with Portland, and have only won two of six meetings between the teams this season. A Seattle win helps the Thunderbirds maintain their spot atop the Western Conference while making sure that third place Portland doesn’t gain any ground.