T-birds Power Past Spokane – Seattle Thunderbirds

Spokane, WA. – Jared Davidson won the game and added three assists as the Seattle Thunderbirds halted a two-game loss with a 6-2 win over the Spokane Chiefs at Spokane Arena on Thursday. Matt Rempe started with two goals when the T-Birds won for the fourth time in five attempts at Spokane. The T-birds conclude 2021 with a New Years Eve fight in Portland against the Winterhawks.

Seattle got a 4 out of 7 on the power play. T-birds head coach Matt O’Dette said they made some subtle changes to get their power play going. “We made some adjustments to it. Just changed the chemistry a bit, look a bit different and the guys did it really well. That’s how important power games are. You can spark some momentum by taking your chances. “

Seattle (19-8-3-0) converted on its first power play opportunity at 7:47 a.m. of the opening period. Reid Schaefer scored his 12th goal of the season, with Davidson and Henrik Rybinski taking over the templates. Spokane responded five minutes later to a goal from Yannick Proske, even strong.

The Thunderbirds had an advantage again at the beginning of the second period. Just as the Spokane sentence expired, Sam Oremba tapped in a Davidson pass and brought Seattle back to the top. Sawyer Mynio was credited with the second original. The Chiefs (8-17-2-1) responded with their own power play goal at 5:01 pm, from Bear Hughes’ stick. But with less than a minute left in the second, Davidson spun in the slot and grabbed his 12th of the season, giving the T-Birds the final lead. The assists went to Ryan Gottfried and Coster Dunn.

After Davidson failed to score in the first eight games of this season, Davidson is now runner-up on the team for goals scored. “Everything is going in the right direction for me. My linemates helped me too, so I have to give credit where credit is due, but yes, the puck now just jumps in the right direction for me and goes online. “

Seattle wasn’t finished with its power play and scored three more goals in the third period. The first came a little over two minutes into his period when he ran 5-on-3. Rempe redirected a shot from Kevin Korchinski from the high slot.

Jeremy Hanzel got the second assist, then he scored his own power play goal at 6:45. Gabe Ludwig earned the only assist in Hanzel’s fifth goal. Rempe completed the goal when he deflected a shot from Schäfer at 17:52. Davidson made his third assist.

Rempe is one of those power play changes and parks his 6’8-inch frame in front of the net. “We want to play more shot power, generate a lot of shots. I’m in the front because I’m a big body, these guys, Korchinski, Rybinski are super talented, they made great recordings and they met me. “

Having only fifteen skaters to use in her loss to the Chiefs earlier in the week, O’Dette got some players back and they all contributed to the win. “It’s very difficult to play short and just add four fresh faces to the line-up. That helps spread the minutes and the guys gave us good minutes so it was a nice boost for us.”

Scott Ratzlaff stopped 30 shots and secured his sixth win of the season. The win was his fourth against Spokane that season.

The Thunderbirds’ next home game is Saturday, January 8th when they host the Chiefs at the accesso ShoWare Center. Tickets for the game at 6:05 p.m. are available online at seattlethunderbirds.com

T-BIRDS EXTRAS

Dunn, a 2020 draft pick, made his WHL regular season debut. He was credited with a template for the game’s winning goal, earning his first WHL point. Defenseman Chase Lacombe, who was acquired by the Swift Current Broncos in a deal earlier this week, also made his T-Birds debut.

Defender Sam Knazko will rejoin the team after the end of the Junior World Championships. Knazko played at the tournament with Team Slovakia.

Mekai Sanders missed the game while serving a five-minute suspension from one game.

WHL network