A day after a massive trade saw some key pieces moved from their roster, the Seattle Thunderbirds showed no quit as they defeated the Victoria Royals 4-1 on Friday night.
The Thunderbirds traded captain Matthew Wedman to the Kelowna Rockets for a 2020 fifth-round pick, 2022 second-round pick, and a 2023 first-round pick. On Friday, Seattle played with some extra motivation. It was something Victoria expected.
“A hundred percent,” said Royals head coach Dan Price postgame. “When you make a trade like that, there’s going to be a surge…other players trying to prove themselves, compete for those vacant minutes. That’s exactly what happened.”
Even with that expectation, the Royals could not contain the Thunderbirds, who also benefited from some favourable bounces.
Victoria native Payton Mount was the game’s first star as he scored twice, including the only goal of the third, and was credited with the game winner. Mount has now collected 10 points (2g-8a) in seven career games versus the Royals.
“Seattle played a great road game,” added Price. “They really got to our net-front, put a lot of pucks there as well. And all four of their goals were scored just right around our net. One of the areas we need to be better tomorrow is defending that space better.”
Victoria fired 36 shots at Seattle starting goalie Blake Lyda, who stopped all but one. Many of the shots came from the outside, and Lyda had little challenge making the stops.
Price acknowledged the lack of presence in front of the Seattle goalie. “We need to be better in front of the net. Their goalie played well, but he also saw a lot of the shots. We have to work hard, earn that space, and take some abuse to do that. We’ve got to get in front of their goalie.”
The Royals came into action riding high, sporting an 8-1-1-0 record in their last 10 games, with a 3-1 victory over their rivals the Vancouver Giants earlier this week. The Thunderbirds suffered a loss in their last game — a 4-1 defeat to the Spokane Chiefs.
After much of an uneventful first period, Seattle opened the scoring late. Henrik Rybinski received a nice pass from Conner Roulette and beat the Royals netminder Brock Gould at 17:20.
The first period ended with a fight between Carson Miller and Zachary Ashton, an undecided wrestle-fest.
Early in the second frame, Gould came up with nice blocker save as Roulette broke in all alone.
Gould’s luck changed from there on out. Seattle added to its lead as Gould was without his stick from a previous scramble, and Payton Mount was able to wrist home a shot for the 2-0 lead at 6:39.
Less than two minutes later, the puck bounced off the backboards to Roulette. The Seattle forward then backhanded puck into the crease, where it went off a Victoria defenceman’s skate and into the net. That bounce gave the visitors a 3-0 lead at 8:18 of the second.
The goal was the end of the line for Gould, as Shane Farkas came into the Victoria net in relief. Despite out-shooting the T-Birds 21-13, the Royals found themselves in a big hole midway through the game.
Farkas has now played in 100 WHL games — 84 games with the Portland Winterhawks and 16 with the Royals.
Late in the period, Seattle pressured for a short-handed goal but couldn’t capitalize on two chances. Victoria came the other way, and some tidy passing between Tarun Fizer and Sean Gulka found Gary Haden in close, who scored his ninth of the season. The power-play goal at 19:31 salvaged a lacklustre period for the home team.
In the third, Seattle added another to make it 4-1, as Mount scored his second of the game off a Farkas rebound at 11:11.
Victoria looked to add another late in the game. The puck bounced high in the air, rested on the top of the net for a split second, then bounced off Lyda’s back and in. However, the goal was disallowed as the Royals were called for interference.
With the win, Seattle’s record now stands at 9-14-2-1, and they continue to alternate wins and losses over their last five games.
The rematch goes Saturday, a Teddy Bear Toss game in Victoria, where a sellout crowd is expected. Puck drop is 7:05 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena.
