Five players score in T-birds’ romp
It’s been an eventful career so far for Seattle Thunderbirds rookie Josh Lazowski.
On his second shift in the Western Hockey League, Lazowski separated his shoulder. On his first shift after coming back, Lazowski scored a goal to lead the T-birds to a 5-1 win over the Saskatoon Blades.
Lazowski’s goal came at 3:01 of the first period to give Seattle the lead, and the T-birds put the game away with four goals in the second period.
“It was only my second game, so I wasn’t getting too impatient to score that first goal,” Lazowski said. “I just got to the net and got the rebound. I haven’t played too much, so there hasn’t been too much pressure on me.”
Lazowski, 16, is a rookie from Leduc, Alberta. He was a healthy scratch in Seattle’s first two games this season and suffered his shoulder injury in Kelowna on Sept. 5. He was cleared to play last week.
He went hard to the net when he hit the ice Friday, and batted in a rebound of a shot by Prab Rai.
Rai had three assists and five players had goals for Seattle (6-1-2-1). Colton Gillies had the lone goal for Saskatoon (3-10-1-0), losers for the sixth consecutive time. The loss ended a five-game winless trip through the U.S. Division for the Blades.
“We’ve really emphasized that we need to have all four lines going,” Rai said after collecting his sixth, seventh and eighth assists of the season. “We need to give our top players a little break playing three games in three nights.”
The T-birds are in Spokane tonight and return home on Sunday for a game against Brandon.
Goaltender Riku Helenius had 29 saves for the T-birds in a game not nearly as lopsided as the score would indicate.
Thomas Hickey had an assist on Seattle’s fourth goal and now has a point in all 10 of Seattle’s games this season.
“It’s always nice to see a guy get his first goal, and it’s always nice to have balance in your scoring,” Seattle coach Rob Sumner said. “Lazowski is a talented player with great vision. We think he’s a promising young guy, and now he should have some confidence to earn more ice time.”
Jim O’Brien had the winner in the second period, and Lindsay Nielsen, Greg Scott and Isak Quakenbush added goals for Seattle in the period.