The Portland Winterhawks defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 7-3 Saturday night at the Moda Center in Portland in the season-opening game for both teams.
The T-Birds’ home is this 7:05 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, against the Winterhawks at the ShoWare Center.
Trailing 1-0, Seattle tied the game 37 seconds into the second period. Scott Eansor came across the blue line with Donovan Neuls on his right. Eansor took a shot that came off Portland goalie Michael Bullion’s left pad right to Neuls, who put the rebound past the goalie to tie the game.
The Winterhawks took the lead back at 4:25 of the second when a Carter Czaikowski shot redirected off Alex Overhardt and past Seattle goalie Rylan Toth.
The T-Birds tied the game 2-2 at 5:46 of the second. Bryan Allbee sprung Luke Orsmby on a breakaway with a pass up the middle of the ice. Ormsby came down on Bullion and tried to beat the goalie five hole. Bullion made the save but the puck trickled to the goalie’s left. Ormsby followed up his shot poked the puck past the outstretched leg of the goalie.
Ryan Hughes put the Winterhawks up 3-2 at 14:24 of the second when he scored from the low slot.
Neuls scored 31 seconds into the third period to tie the game 3-3. Neuls took a pass from Nolan Volcan and cut through the slot left to right. He got Bullion to go down and tucked the puck inside the right post for the tying goal.
Cody Glass gave the Winterhawks a 4-3 lead at 12:19 of the third. Brendan DeJong scored a power-play goal at 14:53 of the third to make it a 5-3 Portland lead.
The T-Birds pulled Toth for an extra attacker with over two minutes left in the game. They had several chances, including two from Sami Moilanen in close, but were not able to get the puck past Bullion.
Skyler McKenzie scored an empty-net goal with 52 second left in the game and then Brad Ginnell scored the final Portland goal at 19:40 of the third.
Portland outshot Seattle 12-10 in the third period and 35-30 in the game.
Toth stopped 28 of 34 shots in the loss.
Bullion made 27 saves on 30 shots.
Next up: Vancouver
The T-Birds travel to Vancouver to play the Giants on Friday at the Langley Events Centre at 7:30pm.
Single-game tickets for the 2016-17 regualr season are on sale. Fans can purchase them online or at the ShoWare Center box office. Season tickets can be purchased by calling the T-Birds office at 253-239-7825.
SCORING SUMMARY
First period – 1, Portland, Texeira 1 (Hughes), 16:21 (pp). Penalties – Sharp, Por (roughing), 12:24. Bensmiller, Sea (roughing), 12:24. Texeira, Por (cross checking), 12:36. Bishop, Sea (slashing), 14:41. Allbee, Por (hooking), 17:24.
Second period – 2, Seattle, Neuls 1 (Eansor), :37. 3, Portland, Overhardt 1 (Czaikowski, Veloso), 4:25. 4, Seattle, Ormsby 1 (Allbee), 5:46. 5, Portland, Hughes 1 (Glass, Weinger), 14:24. Penalties – Schuldhaus, Sea (high-sticking), 15:06.
Third period – 6, Seattle, Neuls 1 (Volcan), :31. 7, Portland, Glass 1 (Weinger, Jokiharju),12:19. 8, Portland, DeJong 1 (Hughes, Weinger), 14:53. 9, Portland, McKenzie 1 (Texeira), 19:09 (en). 10, Portland, Ginnell 1 (Colin), 19:40. Penalties – Bench, Sea (too many men-served by Ormsby), 13:27.
Shots on goal – Seattle 10-10-10 30, Portland 9-14-12 36. Goalies – Seattle, Toth 34 shots-28 saves (0-1-0-0); Portland, Bullion 30-27 (1-0-0-0). Power plays – Seattle 0-1; Portland 2-4. A – 8,705. Referees – Mike Campbell, Jason Nissen. Linesmen – Nick Bilko, Jarrod Bowman.
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