Trevor Crawley

Ice steal Seattle’s thunder

The Seattle Thunderbirds rolled in to Cranbrook, hoping to pick up a win against the Kootenay Ice on Friday night.

Unfortunately, for their sake, they ran into a brick wall and a few other roadblocks.

Kootenay netminder Kurtis Chapman made 37 saves while his team scored by committee in a 4-2 win over the T-Birds, the reigning WHL champions from last playoff season.

“I haven’t started in a while and to know that the boys are behind me keeping the shots to the outside made it an easy one for me,” said Chapman, who has appeared in seven games so far this season since coming over from a trade with the Regina Pats.

Despite a slow first period where the Ice went down a goal, the home squad roared back to score three in the middle frame on their way to a comeback win.

“I thought the first period, they had way too many scoring chances against and I thought Kurtis came up with some big saves for us,” said Ice head coach James Patrick. “I thought the last two periods, we limited opportunities for them, and there were a lot of examples of guys battling on the puck. I’ve talked to the guys, you know, you don’t have to win the puck battle, just don’t let him win it.

“…We’re not the biggest team and I think sometimes teams want to come in and be real physical so I thought this was the best I’ve seen this year as far as manning up and competing, the last two periods, anyway.”

Vince Loschiavo, Colton Kroeker, Peyton Krebs and Cameron Hausinger lit the goal lamp for the Ice, while Zack Andrusiak and Austin Strand hit the score sheet for the T-Birds.

Kootenay directed 30 shots on Seattle goaltender Matt Berlin, who made 27 saves in defeat.

It appeared as if the T-Birds opened the scoring early when an airborne puck was batted down and fired past Chapman, however, it was waved off due to a hand pass.

That didn’t stop Andrusiak from putting his team up on the board for real with just over five minutes left in the first period.

In the intermission, Patrick said he challenged the team to compete harder, while leaders stepped up to get each other going.

“I know they had a number of words themselves, so I think they going themselves going,” said Patrick, “and thenI think there was a bit of accountability from amongst the guys because I just felt you could hear guys correcting guys and saying we have to do better than that, so I felt like they knew what they needed to do.”

Whatever was said in the dressing room must have lit a spark because Loschiavo scored from the slot less than a minute into the second period, finishing a nice pass from Brett Davis.

“We wanted to come out differently than we did in the first and I thought we did,” said Loschiavo. “I thought we had a good first shift then we kept going throughout the period.”

A few minutes later, Kroeker took the puck on a delayed powerplay call, circled around the top of the blueline and flicked a shot on net that beat Berlin over the shoulder.

Krebs tallied the game-winner late in the period, receiving a pass from Bodak and scoring off the rush to put the Ice up 3-1.

“It was a great pass by Bodes,” said Krebs. “Without that play at the middle, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to take the puck and score and I just let my body do the rest of the work. It was a great job from the other player to take the D-man and I just shot it in.”

Krebs currently sits in fourth place in the rookie scoring race, however, two players ahead of him are older CHL import draftees, while rookie leader Kieffer Bellows is a 19-year-old player who transferred over to the Portland Winterhawks from NCAA college hockey.

The Ice continued to hold off the T-Birds in the third period, but let the door crack open late in the affair.

While killing a penalty, Kootenay defenceman Martin Bodak took a shot off his skate that snapped off the blade. Unable to take a stride without falling down, that effectively turned the play into a five-on-three for Seattle and Austin Strand was able to find some space to score.

The tie within reach, the T-Birds pulled Berlin, however, Hausinger stole the puck in the Seattle zone and fired the puck on net that deflected off a stick and just barely slid across the goal line.

It’s the latest win for the Ice, which has flip-flopped in and out of the wins and losses column over the last six games, with a pair of wins earlier this month as their longest streak of victories.

The defensive corps got some help as Ryan Pouliot drew back into the lineup, while Nolan Orzeck, who was called up from the Alberta Midget Hockey League, made his regular season debut.

Patrick praised the young defensman’s game and his poise against WHL-level competition.

“I thought he was really good,” said Patrick. “He was the best young defenceman in training camp, but we just felt for his development at 16 and his size that it was best for him to go back and play 30 minutes a game in midget.

“As far as hockey smarts and positioning — and he’s got good mobility, too — those three things…he was the guy I noticed the most in training camp. He’s also a guy who you hope is going to keep developing, but I have a feeling over the next couple of years, he’s going to be a good player for this team.”