(Everett, WA) The Seattle Thunderbirds closed out the weekend with a game against their cross-town rivals, the Everett Silvertips.
Seattle drew an early power play and was rewarded. Matthew Wedman received a pass behind the left goal line from Henrik Rybinski. With a quick pass between his legs through the blue paint, Brendan Williamson found the back of the net for his first WHL goal.
“It was good, you know. The first time I was trying to get it to Weds (Matthew Wedman) on the back door, but the goalie got in front of it. Thankfully, it got back to me for the goal. It was nice and, thankfully, it went in,” said Williamson of his first goal of the preseason.
The goal was made that much more special as it came against the team that traded him at last year’s deadline.
“It was good, gave me some added energy and made me want to beat them that much more. It was fun. I know a couple of buddies on that team. It was good, I liked it”
Everett answered shortly after with a wrist shot goal from Jake Christianson. The rival teams traded periods of offensive pressure throughout most of the period. However, Seattle found themselves in a familiar position, as they took three straight penalties, giving Everett an opportunity to really take over the period and build momentum.
Forward Mathew Rempe was ejected early after a scrum in front of the Everett bench, and overage forward Jaxson Kaluski was helped off the ice with an apparent injury toward the end of the first.
“I think obviously our first forty minutes wasn’t great. Losing two forwards early in the game kind of cut down our bench and put a lot of minutes on some of our guys. I’m happy with the third and the response there. We picked it up and implemented more of our game plan that wasn’t happening in the first forty minutes,” said head coach Matt O’Dette of the first two periods of the evening’s contest.
The second period was the Roddy Ross show as he turned aside an Everett onslaught, including a ten bell, sprawling save on a three-on-one Everett opportunity halfway through the frame. Ross appeared to be in midseason form, as he shut the door on the Silvertips to keep the two clubs level at one through forty minutes.
“(Roddy Ross) was great. I mean, typical Roddy game. He killed a lot of plays by being square to the puck — getting those freezes when we needed them. He had several big saves when we only had a few good chances against them,” O’Dette said of Roddy Ross’ play.
Seattle managed to retake the lead in the third period by way of a short-handed marker from forward Keltie Jeri-Leon. Graeme Bryks won an offensive zone faceoff to Jeri-Leon who beat Braden Holt low to the blocker side.
Everett tied the game late on the power play on a goal from Gage Goncalves.
Everett scored the eventual game-winner in overtime on a wrist shot from Ronan Seeley, giving Everett the 3-2 victory to end the tournament.
Despite the loss, head coach Matt O’Dette was pleased with the Thunderbirds’ effort over the weekend.
“If this is the regular season and you get a five-point weekend, you’re obviously going to take that. There’s a lot to work on, but I liked the way we played. We played hard, played with that Tbird identity,” said O’Dette of the three-game weekend.
Seattle will head to Tri-City next weekend for two more games before their final preseason contest when they host the Everett Silvertips at the Accesso ShoWare Center on September 10th.
