Thunderbirds advance to Memorial Cup final with 4-1 victory over Peterborough
WINNIPEG, CANADA - MAY 12: Brad Lambert #11 of the Seattle Thunderbirds plays the puck during first period action against the Winnipeg ICE in Game One of the 2023 WHL Championship Series at Canada Life Centre on May 12, 2023 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Ca
The Seattle Thunderbirds will play in the Memorial Cup final for the first time in team history after beating the Peterborough Petes 4-1 on Friday night to advance to the championship game on Sunday.
The Thunderbirds will face the Québec Remparts, who are the champions of the Québec Major Junior Hockey League.
"It's obviously special, but it's not done yet," head coach Matt O'Dette said. "We want to win the ultimate prize. Obviously that was our goal from day one. We fell short last year in the (WHL) finals and we've been driving toward this all season. Proud of the group and the drive to get here, but we've got one more job to do."
Brad Lambert, Colton Dach, Kyle Crnkovic and Nico Myatovic all scored for Seattle and Thomas Milic delivered 27 saves in net to carry the Thunderbirds to the Memorial Cup final.
Crnkovic earned player of the game honors for the second time in four games played in the Memorial Cup.
"I thought we played well," O'Dette said. "The majority of the game we played with good habits and the way that we need to play to be successful."
Seattle unleashed an onslaught against Peterborough goaltender Michael Simpson with 46 shots on net. Simpson valiantly held strong for the first 35 minutes of the game before the Thunderbirds finally managed to breakthrough. A dominant third period effort then put the game away.
The Thunderbirds out-shot the Petes by a 14-5 margin in the opening period with Simpson making several big stops.
The shot chances continued to come quickly early in the second as well. A Jared Davidson chance rebounded off Simpson with Lucas Ciona getting a follow-up shot on net. Simpson turned away both. Luke Prokop and Myatovic added chances in short order as well as Simpson continued to keep the net empty for Peterborough.
Ciona had another chance from between the circles three minutes in that was the most dangerous look of them all. Avery Hayes sent the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty as Peterborough tried to relieve the pressure only to allow a power play chance instead.
Seattle continued to pepper the Peterborough net with Simpson managing to survive. He came through with two big stops on prime looks by Davidson to keep it scoreless.
"Their goalie played fantastic," O'Dette said. "It wasn't easy to get pucks by him."
Simpson finished with 43 saves on 46 shots for Peterborough.
A Ciona drive on the net nearly missed connecting and the Petes created a 2-on-1 rush chance the opposite way for one of Peterborough's best chances of the period. However, Brennan Othmann couldn't get a clean finishing touch on Owen Beck's pass as the puck missed target.
Eventually, the Thunderbirds finally broke through on their 31st shot of the night. A Myatovic shot deflected off Reid Schaefer in front of the net and deflected to a closing Lambert on the backside of the net. Lambert's backhand chance deflected off Simpson and slipped through his frame into the net for the 1-0 Seattle lead.
It was the first goal of the tournament for Seattle's top line of Lambert, Schaefer and Dylan Guenther, all three of which are first-round NHL draft picks.
After holding a 31-16 advantage in shots on net through the first two periods, the Thunderbirds continued to attack early in the third.
Crnkovic delivered a perfect pass to a driving Colton Dach as he slammed the puck into an open net with Simpson caught vulnerable as Seattle took a 2-0 lead just 1:28 into the third period.
Othmann – a first-round pick of the New York Rangers – answered back for Peterborough just over a minute later. A loose puck in Seattle's zone allowed Beck to find Othmann wide open in front of the net. Othmann slipped the puck through Milic's legs to give the Petes life.
Milic had to deliver some key saves down the stretch for Seattle. Stops against Samuel Mayer and J.R. Avon were particularly critical saves to maintain the T-Birds advantage.
"We gave up some real high quality chances and he was able to shut the door and give us a chance to win," Crnkovic said of Milic.
Crnkovic then scored his fifth goal of the tournament for Seattle to extend the lead. A bouncing puck led to Simpson going down on his read with the puck nearly in his lap. Crnkovic managed to chip the puck through Simpson and it just crossed the goal line before being raked out by Simpson's glove, but it was enough for a 3-1 Seattle lead.
Four of Crnkovic's five goals have come against Peterborough. He had a hat trick for Seattle in the team's tournament opener last week.
"With a good goalie like that, you're not going to be him on shots. If he can see it, he's going to stop it," Crnkovic said. "Trying to get to the net, cause havoc and try to get some bounces."
The Petes pulled Simpson with less than 2:30 left to play looking to create a rally. Instead, the puck immediately spit free to Myatovic for an empty net goal that sealed away a victory for the Thunderbirds and their first trip to the tournament final.
Seattle lost in the semifinals of the 1992 tournament to the Kamloops Blazers in their only appearance in the Memorial Cup semifinal. The Thunderbirds didn't make it out of round-robin play in their only other tournament appearance in 2017.
The Thunderbirds would be just the third U.S. based team to win the Memorial Cup if they defeat the Remparts. The Portland Winterhawks (1983, 1998) and Spokane Chiefs (1991, 2008) have both won the championship twice.
The Thunderbirds lost 3-1 to the Remparts during round-robin play, which is their only loss of the tournament. The game will be at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.
"There's some things in that game we can do better," O'Dette said of the loss to Québec. "I thought we played a fairly decent game, but not well enough in some areas. The one that stands out is not getting to the net and getting on the inside. They do a great job defending. They don't make it easy. Really good defensive team."