The Erie Otters defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-2 in the Mastercard Memorial Cup at the WFCU Centre in Windsor, Ontario on Saturday afternoon.
The Thunderbirds play the host Windsor Spitfires at 4 p.m. Sunday. The Spitfires defeated the Saint John Sea Dogs 3-2 on Friday in the first game at the tournament.
This was the first game of the round-robin tournament for Seattle and Erie. The T-Birds will play the Saint John Sea Dogs at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the WFCU Centre.
Erie took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal from Alex DeBrincat at 5:40 of the first period. Kyle Pettit and Warren Foegele had the assists.
The T-Birds tied the game 1-1 at 9:01 of the second period. Nolan Volcan passed the puck to Scott Eansor on the right wing as he gained the Erie zone. Eansor skated into the right circle and beat Erie goalie Troy Timpano with a wrist shot on the stick side. Sami Moilanen had the second assist.
The Otters took a 2-1 lead at 17:59 of the second on a goal from Jordan Sambrook. Taylor Raddysh and Erik Cernak had the assists.
Seattle answered right back to tie the game 2-2 at 19:07 of the second. Ryan Gropp worked the puck out of the left corner to Mathew Barzal along the left-wing wall. Barzal held the puck then spotted Austin Strand pinching down from the right point. Strand put a wrist shot over Timpano’s glove to tie the game.
The Otters took a 3-2 lead 1:36 into the third period on a goal from Dylan Strome. Taylor Raddysh and DeBrincat the assists.
Christian Girhiny iced the game for Erie with an empty-net goal at 18:41 of the third. Anthony Cirelli and Kyle Maksimovich had the assists.
Seattle goalie Carl Stankowski had 31 saves on 34 shots.
Timpano made 18 saves on 20 shots.
SCORING SUMMARY
First period – No scoring. Penalties – Harsch, Sea (elbowing), 3:14. Sambrook, Eri (hooking), 14:17. Neuls, Sea (hooking), 17:27. Foegele, Eri (hooking), 17:46.
Second period – 1, Erie, DeBrincat (Pettit, Foegele), 5:40 (pp). 2, Seattle, Eansor 1 (Volcan, Moilanen), 9:01. 3, Erie, Sambrook 1 (T. Raddysh, Cernak), 17:59.4, Seattle, Strand 1 (Barzal, Gropp), 19:07. Penalties – Kolesar, Sea (tripping), 4:01. Strome, Eri (roughing), 4:25. Ottenbreit, Sea (roughing), 4:25.
Third period – 5, Erie, Strome 1 (T. Raddysh, DeBrincat), 1:33. 6, Erie, Girhiny 1 (Cirelli, Maksimovich), 18:41 (en). Penalties – No penalties.
Shots on goal – Seattle 8-6-6 20, Erie 12-17-6 35. Goalies – Seattle, Stankowski 34 shots-31 saves (0-1); Erie, Timpano 20-18 (1-0). Power plays – Seattle 0-2; Erie 1-3. A – 5,259. Referees – Darcy Burchell, Guillaume Labonte. Linesmen – Drew Jackson, Geoff Rutherford.
