The Prince George Cougars have their backs to the wall.
Brad Lambert picked up a goal and five assists and the Seattle Thunderbirds raced past the Prince George Cougars, 8-1, Tuesday at the CN Centre in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series. Seattle now leads the best-of-seven match-up, 3-0. Game 4 is at the CN Centre Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Seattle got it started early, scoring four first period goals. Lambert and Luke Prokop set up the first goal, scored by Reid Schaefer at 1:42. Colton Dach made it 2-0 four minutes later with his first WHL postseason goal. “It’s pretty nice to get that first one there, the first one ever. Definitely gets the monkey off the back. Hopefully they keep going in.” The assists went to Sam Popowich and Jared Davidson.
Seattle scored the next two goals on the power play. Davidson got in on the scoring at 10:42 followed a minute and a half later by Gracyn Sawchyn. Lambert and Kevin Korchinski assisted on both goals.
Lambert stretched the lead to 5-0 with an unassisted breakaway goal 37-seconds into period two. Prince George got their only goal ten minutes later, but Seattle struck twice more before the second period was over. Mekai Sanders got his first of the postseason at 16:03 when a Sawchyn shot ricocheted in off his backside. Dylan Guenther found the back of the net at 19:05. Both goals came with the T-Birds on the power play.
Guenther scored again midway through the third period to finish the offensive onslaught. With his two goals Guenther now has ten in the playoffs and stretched his goal scoring streak to 13-games dating back to the regular season. “I didn’t know I had it (the goal-scoring streak) until I saw it posted online today,” he said. “Always nice to score. I’m playing with good players and I’m burying my chances.”
Lambert assisted on each of Seattle’s last two goals as the Thunderbirds finished 4/4 on the power play and are now 11-for-24 with the man advantage in the playoffs, tops in the league. “The biggest thing is the continuity,” said O’Dette of his team’s recent power play success. “We’re healthy. We’re getting reps in with our units, we’re taking advantage of our opportunities. We either score or give ourselves momentum and it’s been a big factor in the playoffs so far.”
If necessary, Game 5 will be Friday at the accesso ShoWare Center at 7:05 p.m.