The Seattle Thunderbirds have to hate seeing number 32 from the Kamloops Blazers skate with speed and the puck late in the third period in a tie game. Jermaine Loewen scored with 8:03 left to break a one-all tie. A week ago, up in Kamloops, Loewen scored the game-winner against Seattle on another rush up the ice.
After having his 10-game point streak snapped Friday night vs. Everett, Loewen was back to producing on what has been a breakout season for him,
Seattle, meanwhile is now losers of four of their last five. All of those losses have come to B.C. Division teams and all have been by .a single goal.
Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette thought his team showed the effect of their long road trip through B.C. and their fourth game in five nights. “Not to make excuses, but it was a long week. There was a lot of things we could have done better. We did not execute well enough and did not have the energy to pull ourselves back in it.”
Max Palaga got the start for the road-warrior Blazers, who after hosting Everett on Friday, went to Kent Saturday and have to return home to host the Kootenay ICE for a 3pm start Sunday. Palaga turned away 24 of 25, while Seattle’s Matt Berlin was good for 31 stops on 33 Kamloops attempts.
After Connor Zary took a goalie interference penalty, Seattle opened the scoring in the game. Turner Ottenbreit zipped a cross-ice pass over to Dillon Hamaliuk and the 17-year-old forward buried a one-timer over Kamloops goalie Max Palaga’s glove and into the top corner. It was Hamaliuk’s fourth of the year and was the only goal of the first. Hamaliuk has two of those goals over the past three games and continues to get more ice time as the season goes on.
The Blazers responded 6:17 into the second period. They forced Nolan Volcan to give up the puck near his own blue line. This sprung Nick Chyzowski and Brodi Stuart on a two-on-one break. Stuart beat Seattle goalie Matt Berlin for his seventh of the year. The WHL rookie of the month for November has 11 points over his last eight games.
Seattle came out firing in the third period and had some good looks at beating Palaga. Unfortunately for them, the 17-year-old backstop was up to the task.
The momentum then swung in the Blazers favor and it was a familiar foe for Seattle that spelled doom. Carson Denomie sprung Loewen on the break with a nice pass off the boards and the big forward went to the forehand beating Berlin for his 13th marker on the year.
O’Dette thought his team lacked vitality after their initial push in the third. “I thought we would have more energy in the third period but we did not. I think we could have steered that one into overtime but a bad read on that line rush was the difference.”
Seattle’s coach explained the deciding goal by Loewen as a key mistake from one of his team’s most reliable players. “(Austin) Strand came across and we had numbers on that rush. Strand came across from the other side and tried to cut him off but it created some confusion. Bad read there.”
Seattle will take some much needed rest until hosting the East Division’s Saskatoon Blades on Tuesday. The T-birds are 2-1 so far against visiting East Division teams this year.
