The Seattle Thunderbirds were able to walk out of the Sandman Centre over the weekend with a win, and wrestle home ice advantage from the Blazers, as the series heads to the accesso ShoWare Center knotted at one apiece.
Game one, on Friday night, the Blazers two-headed monster of Logan Stankoven and Luke Toporowski dominated. Stankoven recorded his third hat trick of the postseason, while Toporowski assisted on all three goals.
Matthew Seminoff chipped in with two goals of his own, as the Blazers won comfortably 5-2.
Photo Credit: Allen DouglasCaedan Bankier (#19) fends off the tight checking duo of Kevin Korchinski (#14) and Tyrel Bauer (#6) in weekend action at the Sandman Centre.
Game two, on Saturday, was much different. Stankoven kicked off the scoring with a first period power play marker for his league-leading 14th of the playoffs. However, it was all Seattle from then on. The T’birds got goals from four different players across all three periods, while goaltender Thomas Milic stopped 40 shots on the night as they evened up the series with a 4-1 victory.
It has been an interesting series so far, as the team with the most shots have lost both games. In game one, Seattle peppered 38 shots on Dylan Garand, while Kamloops had only 27. Game two, the opposite, with 41 from the Blazers and only 27 from Seattle.
So far, the Thunderbirds are 1/5 with the man advantage, while Kamloops has gone 3/8.
Puck drop for game three is scheduled for 7:05 pm on Tuesday night. Game four is same time on Wednesday from the accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington.
In the other conference final matchup, the Edmonton Oil Kings took a 2-1 series lead on Monday night, as they won their second OT game, defeating the Winnipeg ICE 4-3.
