"We're playing for our lives here," captain Tyrel Bauer said about the Portland comeback. "Our motto was just one more day, just play one more day, spend one more day with each other. We have a lot of belief in the group."
The Thunderbirds will need to rely on that motto again if they want to stay alive and give themselves a chance to play in the WHL Championships Series. Sunday's game is obviously big and the series has been tight, with neither team having won twice in a row.
With the 2022 NHL Draft looming in July, the Thunderbirds feature three players who could end up being selected in the first three rounds. Defenseman Kevin Korchinski, who scored his sixth goal of the playoffs on Friday, leads the way and he's joined by forwards Reid Schaefer and Jordan Gustafson. The Thunderbirds also have seven other players who have already been drafted or signed to NHL contracts.
Kamloops is led by Logan Stankoven (Dallas Stars) who has scored 17 goals in 15 playoff games so far and has piled up 30 points. The Thunderbirds will have to key on the speedster if they want to stay alive.
In goal, Seattle will go with Thomas Milic who has been lights out in the postseason with a .921 save percentage. Milic was a free agent invite to Kraken training camp last fall but unfortunately was injured before he could attend. Healthy now, he's kept the Thunderbirds in it as the team has advanced.
He faces Dylan Garand who is a 2020 fourth-round draft pick of the New York Rangers. Garand was named to Team Canada's World Junior team this past year but that tournament was canceled due to COVID.
With two quality goalies, goals are going to be tough to come by on Sunday.
What's at stake?
The winner of the series will go on to play the Edmonton Oil Kings who advanced to the WHL Championships Friday by defeating the Winnipeg ICE.
Seattle is hoping to make its fourth trip to the Championship series. The Thunderbirds were last in the Championships during the 2017 postseason and would win their first Ed Chynoweth Cup thanks to Seattle Kraken forward Alexander True's overtime goal in Game 6 against the Regina Pats.
The Thunderbirds were in the final round the year prior, in 2016, but lost to the Brandon Wheat Kings in five games. Seattle's first trip to the Championship series came in 1997 when the Thunderbirds were led by Patrick Marleau's 51 regular-season goals.
They ran into a Lethbridge Hurricanes club that won in a sweep, unfortunately.
The WHL Championship isn't the final destination, however. If the Thunderbirds were to advance and beat Edmonton, they would then play in the Memorial Cup which is an annual tournament between the three CHL Champions (including the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champs) and a host club.
Seattle has made it to the Memorial Cup twice in franchise history. In 1992 they were the host team at the Seattle Center Coliseum under the same roof that the Kraken play under. The Thunderbirds were knocked out by the eventual champion Blazers.
When the Thunderbirds won the WHL in 2017 they advanced to Windsor, Ontario, to play in the Memorial Cup but went 0-3 in the round-robin play and were eliminated.
If they want to head to Saint John, New Brunswick for this year's Cup and make franchise history, they'll have to stay alive Sunday night.
