For the Reporter
The Seattle Thunderbirds defeated the Victoria Royals 5-4 Tuesday night in their last game before the holiday break.
The T-Birds are 14-15-2-2 on the season, while Victoria falls to 17-17-2-0.
Taran Kozun made the start for Seattle and got his 13th victory of the season, improving to 13-10-2-2. Kozun stopped 22 of 26 shots. In net for Victoria was Coleman Vollrath, who managed to make 40 saves on 45 shots in a losing effort. Vollrath is now 14-11-2-0 on the season.
Justin Hickman gave Seattle the lead with the game’s first goal at 1:25 of the second period. Keegan Kolesar screened Vollrath during the T-Birds’ first power play, helping take the goalie’s vision away for a point shot from Ethan Bear. Bear’s shot rebounded to Ryan Gropp, who took a whack at the puck before Justin Hickman put it away for the first goal of the game. Gropp and Bear had the assists on the power-play goal.
Lane Pederson took a shot from high in the zone that blew past a diving Victoria defenseman and made it over Vollrath’s outstretched glove to make it 2-0. The goal came at 2:15, just under a minute after Hickman’s goal gave Seattle the lead. Calvin Spencer and Nick Holowko had the assists on the goal.
The T-Birds added a third goal soon thereafter, scoring on the power play once again. Bear took a point shot through plenty of bodies that ended with Kolesar tipping the puck past Vollrath. Hickman had the secondary assist on the goal. It was Seattle’s second power play goal on as many chances in the game.
Victoria scored to make it 3-1 at 6:15. Travis Brown had the goal, his 13th of the season.
The Royals cut the deficit further as the period wound to its close, scoring at 18:47.
Victoria tied the game at 11:49.
Another goal came for the Royals just eight seconds later, giving the visitors the lead for the first time in the game.
Donovan Neuls tied the game with 3:45 left, making it 4-4 with his third goal of the year. Neuls screened Vollrath, who was still able to stop a shot from the boards by Scott Eansor. The rebound went high in the air, where Neuls knocked it down and past Vollrath. Eansor had the only assist.
Seattle scored on a delayed penalty to take the lead. Gropp cut to the net, where he was able to tip in a shot that had bounced through the crease to make it 5-4. Hickman tipped the initial centering pass into Vollrath, where it rebounded out to Gropp. Hickman and Kolesar had the assists on the goal at 17:27.
Shots in the final frame were 16-11 Seattle.
Next up: Portland
The T-Birds returns from the break to host the Portland Winterhawks at 7:05 p.m. Dec. 27.
T-Birds single game tickets for the 2014-15 season are available online at the T-Birds website and at the ShoWare Center box office. The ShoWare Center Box Office is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday game days at 10 a.m. and Sunday game days at noon.
Season tickets can be purchased by calling the T-Birds office at 253-239-7825.
SCORING SUMMARY
First period – No scoring. Penalties – Hauf, Seattle (high-sticking), 6:06. Eansor, Seattle (tripping), 18:17.
Second period – 1, Seattle, Hickman 8 (Gropp, Bear), 1:25 (pp). 2, Seattle, Pederson 4 (Spencer, Holowko), 2:15. 3, Seattle, Kolesar 11 (Bear, Hickman), 5:21 (pp). 4, Victoria, Brown 13 (Walker, Chase), 6:14. 5, Victoria, Carroll 21 (Chase, Soy), 18:47. Penalties – Gagnon, Victoria (delay of game), :38. Crunk, Victoria (major-fighting, 10-minute misconduct), 4:17. Allan, Seattle (major-fighting), 4:17. Gagnon, Victoria (roughing), 5:15. Carroll, Victoria (interference), 6:31. Ibragimov, Victoria (roughing), 9:19. Gropp, Seattle (cross-checking), 9:19. Khaira, Seattle (interference), 12:14. Chase, Victoria (roughing), 16:35.
Third period – 6, Victoria, Soy 8 (Chase, Brown), 11:49. 7, Victoria, Fisher 4 (Brown, Gagnon), 11:57. 8, Seattle, Neuls 3 (Eansor), 16:15. 9, Seattle, Gropp 14 (Hickman, Kolesar), 17:27. Penalties – Chase, Victoria (major-spearing, game misconduct), 19:42.
Shots on goal – Seattle 10-18-17 45, Victoria 5-10-11 26. Goalies – Seattle, Kozun 26 shots-22 saves (13-10-2-2); Victoria, Vollrath 45-40 (14-11-2-0). Power plays – Seattle 2-5; Victoria 0-3. A – 5,099. Referees – Mark Pearce, Sean Raphael. Linesmen – Tim Digby, Aaron Mills.
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