The Seattle Thunderbirds defeated the Kelowna Rockets 7-2 on Friday night at the ShoWare Center in Kent, WA.
Seattle’s Zack Andrusiak scored less than a minute into the game. Nolan Volcan followed up a few minutes later, after intercepting a pass and beating goaltender Brodan Salmond with a shot that gave Seattle a 2-0 lead.
Noah Philp scored about six minutes into the second period, further extending the Thunderbirds’ lead.
Midway through the second period, Kelowna’s Dillon Dube finally found the net during a power play for a score of 3-1. Cal Foote and Kole Lind assisted.
Volcan responded with a power-play goal of his own for Seattle. Turner Ottenbreit also scored, making it 5-1 for the T-Birds heading into the third.
The Rockets then replaced Salmond with Cole Tisdale.
Just under seven minutes into the third period, Blake Bargar made it 6-1 Seattle.
Conner Bruggen-Cate replied for Kelowna to try to close the gap, but Volcan went for the hat trick during Seattle’s power play to take the game.
The final score was 7-2 for the Thunderbirds.
Seattle outshot Kelowna 33-29.
Kelowna will be back on home ice Saturday night to take on the Victoria Royals at 7 p.m.