Thunderbirds pull out late victory to beat Americans, extending win streak to 13
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Heading into the home stretch of the regular season, now in the single digit number of games left, the Seattle Thunderbirds continue to fly high as they got a late insurance goal to beat the Tri-City Americans, 4-2. A tight, physical game as both teams were ending brutal stretches of games, Seattle and Tri-City were knotted up at two goals apiece heading into the third period. Defenseman Jeremy Hanzel was able to score a little under five minutes into the final frame, and Jared Davidson added an insurance goal with the empty net to give Seattle their 48th win of the season.
Seattle forward Jared Davidson scores the empty-net insurance goal (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Brad “Lambo” Lambert continues to chip in
Winnipeg Jets prospect Brad Lambert has been absolutely money since joining the Thunderbirds, contributing on the stat sheet points wise in all but two of the 18 games he’s played. In that time, including this game, he’s tallied 27 points and been the definition of “impact” for the Thunderbirds. Lambert continued that level of play, tallying assists on three of the four Thunderbirds goals. The future Jet continues to impress and continues to show his game, whether that be hammering shots towards the nets or distributing pucks to his teammates for goals.
The first of those assists was an absolute soft serve beauty to teammate Luke Prokop net front for the tap in goal. Lambert received a pass from the far wall by Kyle Crnkovic, where Lambert then puck handled slightly to draw in a defenseman before finding Prokop who was left wide open back door also in part because of Dylan Guenther occupying a defender in the crease. On his second assist, Lambert was bringing the puck out of his own zone before finding linemate Dylan Guenther streaking down the ice wide open. The Coyotes prospect did the rest, beating Americans goaltender Nick Avakyan through his five hole. On his third assist and the game winning goal, Lambert got the puck to teammate Jeremy Hanzel at the top of the play, where Hanzel did a puck dangling dance before guiding a heat seeking missile of a puck to the net to score.
“It was a good win, we battled hard even though It was a three-in-three. It was good to get the job done even though the boys were tired. I thought we played great.”
Thunderbirds forward Brad Lambert tallied three assists on the night (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Things are heating up for the Thunderbirds at the right time, can they sustain it?
This current 13-game winning streak for Seattle is excellent and they are still doing so while some of their players are injured, as Tij Iginla, Colton Dach, and Gracyn Sawchyn all were injured scratches for the T-Birds on the day of this contest. It is insane to think that a team with lineups of Crnkovic-Lambert-Guenther, Schaefer-Popowich-Myatovic, Gustafson-Davidson-Ciona, McNelly-Dunn-Sanders can get even BETTER, but that is the case when fully healthy. There is still time for that to happen, with the playoffs not starting for another 26 days, but I can imagine that head coach Matt O’Dette may be cautious with some of his players like Dach when it comes to priorities and decisions as we near the end of the campaign.
“It was a good job by our guys to buckle down and get the job done. It was not an easy game, I thought it was a sloppy game. There was fatigue for both teams and that played a part, but we relied on our good habits, especially in the third period, to get the win.”
Sights and scenes from the win over Tri-City (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Quick notes
Tonight’s attendance was 5,006
Seattle never trailed in this game
Jared Davidson is the Thunderbirds leader in goals scored, adding his 33rd of the year with the empty netter late into the game
Seattle goaltender Scott Ratzlaff picked up his 23rd win of the year, recording 21 saves tonight
Ratz now leads all WHL goalies with 2.00 goals against average.
Teammate Thomas Milic sits in second place, with 2.06. Milic’s .927 save percentage is top in the WHL while Ratz is third at .923.
Forty percent of Thunderbirds defenseman Jeremy Hanzel ten goals this season have been game winners
What’s next?
Following this tight game with a divisional rival, the Thunderbirds will battle the Kamloops Blazers in an epic late season showdown. Two of the best teams in all the Western Hockey League, it’ll be the second time this season that the clubs have played this campaign. In the first contest, Seattle was able to edge Kamloops 2-1 on the road back in November, and the Thunderbirds will aim to for the same winning result when they meet again on Tuesday, February 7th with a 7:05PM PST puck drop at the Accesso Showare Center.