Thunderbirds are playoff bound and more

 

When the Western Hockey League announced the cancelation of the remaining regular-season games this year, the 16 teams that will compete for a title were confirmed. The Portland Winterhawks edged the Everett Silvertips by just one point. They had 97 points compared to Everett’s 96.

Down in the 16th spot was the Seattle Thunderbirds, who feature plenty of young talent including Conner Roulette, a rookie from Winnipeg who put together a solid rookie campaign. He secured 39 points (19G) in 54 games.

Qualifying for the playoffs this season continues a lengthy streak that the organization has put together. They’ve made the playoffs for the eighth straight season. They also beat the Regina Pats in the WHL final back in the 2017 playoffs in six games.

Conner Roulette (Photo- Portland Winterhawks/Matthew Wolfe)

Roulette’s 39 points were the third-most on the team. He trailed only Andrej Kukuca’s 57 points and Keltie Jeri-Leon’s 41 points. Payton Mount also had 39 points.

Now, let’s move on to how Seattle has done on this day, March 20 in the past.

The last time the T-Birds played on March 20 was back in 2016 and the team put quite the effort together. Led by Mathew Barzal’s 27th goal of the season, Seattle skated past Portland, 4-1.

Barzal Fun Fact:

Mathew Barzal was again invited to Canada’s U20 WJC camp(Brian Liesse/T-Birds)

Yes, it’s the same Mathew Barzal that currently plays for the New York Islanders. Barzal was an offensive force in all four of his seasons with Seattle. In his first season with them in 2013-14, he scored 14 goals and added 40 assists in the regular season. Moving forward to the playoffs, he tossed in one goal and five assists.

In 202 regular-season games in all with Seattle, Barzal lit the lamp 63 times and he had 215 assists. In 49 playoff contests, he scored 17 goals and added 48 assists.

March 20, 2015: The Ryan Gropp show.

Not one Spokane Chief defender was able to stop Gropp on this night. He scored four times as Seattle pounded the Chiefs, 7-2, in front of 6700+ fans at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, all of which were in aw with what Gropp was doing to their team.

Nolan Volcan, Cory Millette, and Donovan Neuls scored singles in the big victory. In net, Taran Kozun turned away 29 shots.

Gropp moves on:

He ended up scoring 30 times that season, just five short of his WHL career-high. In the 2017-18 season, Gropp graduated from junior hockey and he joined the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League where he would put up 21 points in his first season.

Gropp has now played between Hartford and Maine of the East Coast Hockey League for the past couple of seasons.

March 20, 2011: Reddick the hero.

Kruise Reddick scored his 20th goal of the season, 2:39 into overtime to give the Tri-City Americans a 4-3 win over the Thunderbirds.

Dryden Dow, Jordan Messier, and Justin Feser also scored goals for Tri-City in the win.

Responding for Seattle was Connor Sanvido, Tyler Alos, and Marcel Noebels.

This was a look at some of Seattle’s action on this day in the past and some interesting facts about the storied franchise. Keep it locked here to DUBNetwork for more Today in History for many different teams across the league.