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nelson951
03-17-2006, 11:22 AM
Notebook: Close games are T-birds' favorite kind
By Jim Riley

Special to The Seattle Times

There's one big reason the Seattle Thunderbirds are in second place in the U.S. Division and on the verge of wrapping up home-ice advantage for the first round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.

Seattle is 23-5-1-3 in games decided by one goal.

"Part of it is that we don't score a lot, so we had better be good in one-goal games," coach Rob Sumner said. "We're confident and comfortable playing in close games."

Thunderbirds captain Aaron Gagnon knows what Seattle's overall record (33-30-1-5) means about the games that aren't close.

"That shows that when we've lost, we've lost by quite a few," Gagnon said. "It's good, though, because there are always a lot of one-goal games in the playoffs."

The T-birds are four points ahead of the third-place Portland Winter Hawks, whom they play Friday at KeyArena and Saturday in Portland. Seattle closes out the regular season Sunday at KeyArena against the Everett Silvertips.

Although there's still a minute possibility that Tri-City could finish ahead of Portland in the division standings, chances are Seattle and Portland will meet in the first round of the playoffs.

Seattle is 7-1-1-1 against Portland this season, but lost to the Winter Hawks 6-5 in a shootout last Saturday when it let a two-goal lead slip away in the third period. Portland has also outshot Seattle 337-286 in the 10 games between the teams.

Gagnon, who has seven of his 22 goals against Portland this year, said the Winter Hawks remain the T-birds' biggest rival.

"It's always big-time when we play against Portland," he said. "These last two games in the regular season are huge for both teams to set the tone for the playoffs. We'd like to take all the life out of them if we can."

Gagnon's line with Lladislav Scurko and Bud Holloway has been clicking, with Holloway scoring at least one goal in the last five games, the longest goal-scoring streak by a Seattle player this season.

Holloway also has been especially good against Portland, scoring seven of his 21 goals against the Winter Hawks. He's also had three game-winners against Portland — two in overtime and one in a shootout.

Portland is nearly as good as Seattle in one-goal games (17-5-3-5). The Winter Hawks have won two in a row and are 9-3-0-3 in their last 15 games.

Gagnon expects the intensity this weekend to be ramped up now that the playoffs are nearly here.

"Players who are going to move on in their hockey careers show up in the big games," Gagnon said. "To be a great player you have to be a great player in the playoffs."