Brian Liesse

Seattle beats Portland 6-4, ends losing streak

(Kent, WA) Scoring had been an issue for the Seattle Thunderbirds (8-9-3-0) through their recent seven-game losing streak. In those seven games, they had just eight goals.

Instead of going away from the game plan though, against a team riding in on a seven-game streak of getting at least a point in the standings, they stayed with their identity – blocking shots and taking away scoring chances with brilliant back-checking. They would end up weathering 55 shots from the Portland Winterhawks (13-7-0-2) and beat them 6-4.

“We’ve been pressing here lately. Things have not gone our way and we haven’t been playing our best hockey at the same time,” Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette said.

You would have expected the Seattle Thunderbirds to be the team that came out of the gate fast as they were hoping to end their seven-game losing streak.

Hughes had a career high 51 saves (photo-Brian Liesse)

However, it was the Portland Winterhawks who won the opening faceoff, raced in and got a shot on net. Then they scored two straight to power to a 2-0 lead in the first 7:59 of the game.

“We got the win and guys played desperate. We got down 2-0 right off the hop, but I like how our guys responded. They dug deep, evened the game up quickly there and did enough to weather the storm – they were coming pretty quickly,” O’Dette stated.

Seattle center Matthew Wedman led the way for his team, with countless blocked shots and two big goals.

“We’ve been going through a slump lately and the only way to get through that is to keep playing the way you are playing. Having that defensive side of the game going, I think allows us to improve the offensive part of our game. Defense leads to offense and we knew the slump was going to break at some point,” Wedman said.

O’Dette knows that with first-line center Noah Philp being out of the lineup, the Thunderbirds need a lot from Wedman and their other forwards. They need to get in front of shots and create turnovers.

“Regardless of the bounces and what happens in the blocked shots, back-checks and finished checks. We needed to bring intangibles tonight and for the most part, I think we did that.”

Even with all those blocked shots, the Portland Winterhawks still got a lot of rubber through to Seattle goalie Liam Hughes. The 19-year-old netminder stopped a career high 51 of the 55 shots thrown his way.

Davidson and his first WHL goal (photo-Brien Liesse)

“He played well. When you are clocking in with 50 saves you are doing well. He could have gone the opposite way after that second goal. He was resilient, dug in there and was good the rest of the way,” O’Dette said.

Portland’s first goal was an odd situation where Jake Gricius tried to wrap the puck around Seattle goalie Liam Hughes, but despite it appearing to cross the line, play continued.

Seattle then killed off the penalty and play continued for another five minutes. Play was stopped after a Portland scoring chance, replay officials took a look and ruled the puck had crossed the line.

Portland added another marker to go up 2-0 under six minutes later. While the rest of his teammates changed lines, defenseman Clay Hanus stormed up the ice and sneaked the puck near post on Hughes. The marker was Hanus’ second this year.

The second-year blue liner was asked to play a larger role Saturday night after overage d-man Brendan De Jong was scratched with an apparent neck injury.

Clay Hanus (photo-Ben Ludeman/Portland Winterhawks)

 

Hanus said, “I tried to just play the same game and my game. De Jong and Freadrich have been in the league for a few years. They know what everything is about, and they do a really good job at teaching all of us young defensemen on the right things to do.”

The game was getting away from Hughes and the Thundebrirds and they needed to turn the tide. Probably low on the list of players you would expect to pot Seattle’s first goal was 16-year-old rookie Jared Davidson.

“I won the draw back to our d-man and they went d-to-d. It was a great shot by (Tyrell) Bauer and I was just in the right spot at the right time,” Davidson remembered.

That goal seemed to spark Seattle and they would end up scoring three more in-a-row.

With under four minutes left in the first, Giannuzzi had trouble controlling another rebound and Samuel Huo found the puck, slipping in his third this year.

Wedman had his second two-goal game this year (photo-Brian Liesse)

Seattle likely considered themselves fortunate to be tied at two after a period where Portland had the control of play. A key reason was the play of Wedman. He blocked two shots by Portland players with Hughes on the opposite side the net, surely saving two goals.

Wedman then further added to his amazing night by notching two goals in the second period. Not a bad output considering he had notched just four goals coming in.

His first goal came as he won a corner puck battle, passed to Nolan Volcan and then went to the back post, where he beat Giannuzzi, once Volcan got the puck there.

Then just 37 seconds later, he stormed up the ice on a three-on-one and beat Giannuzzi with a wrist shot.

“He’s competed hard all year. He works hard every night. We know what we are going to get out of Wedman and that is all we can ask of him,” O’Dette said.

Portland had a great opportunity to get a goal back as they were handed back-to-back power plays midway through the period. Seattle was able to kill both of them off.

“Those were big. Their power play is lethal. I thought we did a good job taking away what they were looking for, for the most part. You are not going to hold them down for long if you keep giving them opportunities,” O’Dette said. Portland came after the Thunderbirds to start the third period but Hughes was up to the task in the Seattle net.

Portland head coach Mike Johnston felt his team “looked a little rusty on the power play especially on our breakouts. I didn’t think we had as much energy.” He also said the zone entries “were just okay, we didn’t have enough speed from behind.”

Portland went 2-for-5 on the power play, while Seattle was 0-for-3.

Then disaster struck for the Winterhawks and their young netminder. Giannuzzi came far out of the net to play the puck and tried a long pass that was intercepted. The goalie then struggled to get back in net, while Seattle frantically tracked down a bouncing puck. Ultimately, Andrej Kukuca found the puck and slid it in by a sprawled out Giannuzzi.

Portland did get that goal back though later in the third as Nick Perna’s shot sneaked through Hughes’ five-hole. The goal was his first in the WHL.

Perna said he was “excited to get the monkey off my back, but the main goal is to get the win here, especially against Portland.”

Zack Andrusiak added a marker with 6:30 left and it looked like this was as good as in the win column for Seattle.

Andrusiak scored for the third straight game (photo-Brian Liesse)

Not so fast, as Gricius again poked in a loose puck, for his second of the night with seconds remaining and Giannuzzi pulled for an extra attacker.

The Thunderbirds and Hughes held on for the win though and snapped their losing streak.

Game Notes:

– Attendance for the game was 5,052.

– De Jong missed his first game this season after suffering a neck injury on Friday against Everett.

– John Ludvig is wearing extra face protection after Mike Johnston confirmed “he was cut and has a bruised cheekbone and we want to protect it.”

– Portland continues to rotate their three rookie defensemen through the lineup. Nick Perna and Kade Nolan were called upon tonight. Through the Winterhawks first 22 games, Nick Cicek has played 11 games while Perna and Nolan have seen the ice in ten. Johnston spoke about his young defense, “I think they are all growing. They have only had 10 games or so. For guys like Perna, Nolan, or Cicek, they haven’t had a lot of volume of games in this league. They are still feeling their way; it is a tough league to play in.”