Noah Philp had four goals to lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 9-6 Western Hockey League win over the Kelowna Rockets at Prospera Place in British Columbia on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Philp registered the T-Birds’ first hat trick of the season with his first four goals of the young season.<\/p>\n
Andrej Kukuca and Zack Andrusiak each had a goal and two assists and Jake Lee and Dillon Hamaliuk each had three assists for Seattle (4-1-1-0). Simon Kubicek had two goals in the win.<\/p>\n
Seattle took a 1-0 lead at 6:49 of the first period on Philp’s power play. Dillon Hamaliuk charged to net, crossing the puck to Philp, who redirected the puck past Kelowna goalie James Porter’s outstretched left leg.<\/p>\n
Kukuca put the T-Birds up 2-0 with his second goal of the season.<\/p>\n
Philp scored a second power-play goal at 14:50 of the second to give Seattle the two-goal lead, 3-1. Lee passed the puck to Payton Mount on the right boards. Mount hit Philp in the right circle with a pass. Philp snapped the puck past Porter low for the goal.<\/p>\n
Philp got the hat trick at 15:51 of the first. Hamaliuk carried the puck into the Rockets’ offensive zone on the left wing. Hamaliuk dropped the puck for Philp in the left circle, and he snapped the puck over Porter’s blocker.<\/p>\n
Andrusiak chipped the puck over Porter’s left shoulder for his fourth goal of the season with eight second left in the first. Owen Williams had the second assist.<\/p>\n
Roman Basran replaced Porter in Kelowna’s net to start the second period. Porter had seven saves on 11 shots.<\/p>\n
Jaxan Kaluski extended the lead to 6-2 at 6:44 of the second period. Kaluski intercepted a pass in the slot, made a move and then passed to Samuel Huo on the goal line. Huo quickly sent it back to Tyler Carpendale, who had skated into the slot. Carpendale took a shot that Basran stopped, but Kaluski was the left post to knock in the rebound for his first goal of the year.<\/p>\n
Simon Kubicek scored his first goal of the season at 13:32 of the second to give the T-Birds a 7-4 lead.<\/p>\n
Philp scored his fourth of the game at 14:27 of the second on a four-on-three power play. Philp had the puck to the right of Basran and centered it to Andrusiak in the high slot. Andrusiak took a wrist shot that deflected right to Philp. Basran went down to stop Andrusiak’s shot and was out of position as Philp snapped the puck past the prone goalie. Kukuca had the second assist.<\/p>\n
Seattle had a 29-21 advantage in shots after two periods by outshooting Kelowna 17-13 in the second period.<\/p>\n
Kubicek scored on the power-play at 9:12 of the third to get the T-Birds ‘ninth goal. Andrusiak had the puck in the left circle and sent it to Kubicek at the midpoint. Kubicek took a slap shot with traffic in front of Basran and beat the goalie low on the stick side. Kukuca had the second assist on the goal to give him three points on the night.<\/p>\n
Seattle outshot Kelowna 37-33 in the game.<\/p>\n
Seattle goalie Liam Hughes had 27 saves on 33 shots and his record is 4-1-0-0. Basran played two periods and had 21 saves on 26 shots and his record is 0-5-0-0.s<\/p>\n