Kyle Crnkovic hat trick carries T-Birds to 6-3 win over Peterborough Petes in first game of Memorial Cup

Kyle Crnkovic scored a hat trick for the Seattle Thunderbirds as they beat the Peterborough Petes 6-3 in their first game of the Memorial Cup on Saturday afternoon.

Crnkovic scored both the tying and go-ahead goals for Seattle before adding an empty net tally with 1:33 left to play to seal the first victory for the Thunderbirds in the Memorial Cup in over three decades. Lucas Ciona, Nolan Allan and Jordan Gustafson also scored for Seattle with Thomas Milic making 23 saves on 26 shots on the night in net for the Thunderbirds.

Seattle out-shot the Petes – the champions of the Ontario Hockey League – by a 40-26 margin in the game and scored four times in the third period to pull away to victory.

"You want to get off on the right foot," head coach Matt O'Dette said. "Every game is magnified. You can't ease your way into the tournament. So getting the win is important. We didn't have our best game, but sometimes you have to find a way to win and we did that tonight."

The Thunderbirds did have to play from behind early after allowing the opening goal less than two minute into the contest.

Brad Lambert lost the puck at the top of the Petes zone as J.R. Avon and Connor Lockhart sprung free on a breakaway chance. Avon deked to his backhand as Thomas Milic made an initial stop only for the puck to trickle across the goal line to give Peterborough the 1-0 lead just 1:24 into the game.

The Petes thought they'd taken a 2-0 lead just over six minutes in. A Lockhart shot chance from the left circle buried itself into Milic's frame despite Milic not seeing the shot attempt. 

Seattle had their best chance for the equalizer with just over five minutes left in the opening period. Lambert and Reid Schaefer had a two-on-one chance only for Petes goaltender Michael Simpson to stop Schaefer's shot to preserve the advantage through 20 minutes of play

The Thunderbirds out-shot Peterborough by a 15-7 margin in the first period but were unable to find the net.

Lucas Ciona then got Seattle on the board just 40 seconds into the second period. A Lambert shot slipped through Simpson with Ciona able to shove it across the goal line to tie the game at 1-1.

Seattle had a pair of power play chances in the period that they were unable to convert while in search of a lead. Instead, Owen Beck put Peterborough back on top shortly after his penalty for kneeing Ciona expired. Beck took the puck by himself end-to-end and snapped a wrist shot from the right circle past the blocker side of Milic to give the Petes a 2-1 advantage.

Less than a minute later the Thunderbirds answered again. Kyle Crnkovic ripped a puck off the crossbar and into the net off a pass from Jared Davidson on a rush chance to tie the game at 2-2 heading into the second intermission.

"I think we just kind of had to simplify once we got down," Crnkovic said. "We were giving them some pretty good chances off of our turnovers. So once we simplified and kind of threw it into their zone and pressured, I thought we did a good job."

The Thunderbirds ramped up the offensive pressure in the final period as they kept finding chances and time in the offensive zone. The pressure eventually led to a Petes mistake as Crnkovic capitalized for his second goal of the game to give Seattle the lead. Gavin White fanned on a pass attempt along the boards that fell to Crnkovic. He skated in and went bar down off the crossbar for the second time in the game to give Seattle their first lead of the day.

Just over a minute later, Allan gave the Thunderbirds some breathing room. Allan was unchallenged as he skated into the Peterborough zone up the left wall. His shot from the left circle slipped through the legs of Simpson to make it a 4-2 Seattle lead with 8:36 left to play.

Bryce Pickford was called for a hooking penalty with 7:17 remaining to give Peterborough their first power play chance of the game. Avery Hayes converted with a power play goal as his shot mirrored that of Allan's and slipped under the left pad of Milic to cut Seattle's lead to 4-3 with 6:04 remaining.

Gustafson restored the two-goal advantage nearly three minutes later. Gustafson took a pass from Kevin Korchinski and beat Simpson with a shot to his blocker side as he slid across the goal crease. Gustafson just recently returned to Seattle's lineup for the final game of the WHL Championship series against the Winnipeg Ice as he missed eight games due to injury.

"He played really well. We're kind of easing him back in coming off of injury," O'Dette said. "We had a guy go down so we had to rely on Gus a little bit more. He's just a team player. He's going to be ready for any situation. … He does a little bit of everything for us. Just a tremendous player."

Then with Schaefer in the penalty box for a tripping penalty, the Petes pulled Simpson to create a 6-on-4 chance as they tried to rally. Gustafson nearly scored again on a partial breakaway chance with the empty net only for Peterborough to briefly recover. But Crnkovic jumped a pass attempt from Brennan Othmann and skated free for a clean finish on the empty net to seal away the victory for the Thunderbirds.

Simpson made 34 saves on 39 shots for Peterborough.

Seattle earned a spot in the Memorial Cup by winning the Western Hockey League title with a 4-1 series victory over the Winnipeg Ice last week. The Thunderbirds will face the Quebec Remparts in their second game of the round-robin tournament on Monday night. The Remparts, led by NHL Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy, beat the Kamloops Blazers 8-3 in the opening game of the tournament on Friday night. The Remparts are champions of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). 

The Thunderbirds and Blazers will meet on Wednesday night to conclude round-robin play.

It's just the third appearance in the Memorial Cup in team history for the Thunderbirds. They lost all three games they played after winning the WHL title in 2017. Their lone victory in the tournament came over Verdun Collège Français of the QMJHL in the 1992 tournament when Seattle earned entry as the host site for the event.