Seattle Thunderbirds lose third straight game

KENT — For the Seattle Thunderbirds, that sick feeling on Friday night wasn't all about the flu that wiped out 14 players on the team's recent trip through the Canadian prairies.

No one missed the game against the Spokane Chiefs with the illness, but it clearly was a factor as the T-birds started fast but faded in a 3-1 loss in Western Hockey League action.

"I think we're mostly through the flu bug, but it really, really pounded us," Seattle coach Rob Sumner said. "It was just like dominoes the way our guys fell. We're getting better, but I think we had quite a few guys with half a tank."

The Thunderbirds, who took two full days off from practice earlier this week to recover from the virus, took the lead on a power-play goal from Sena Acolatse at 17:13 of the second period. Kyle Beach responded with his 14th goal of the season for the Chiefs less than a minute later.

Blake Gal scored the game-winner for Spokane at the 11:24 mark of the third period, and Mitch Wahl scored into an empty net with just over a minute left to end any comeback hopes for Seattle.

"Both teams played hard, and with half the team sick you have to give our guys credit for the way we battled," Acolatse said.

Sumner drew up a game plan that called for his team to get the jump on the Chiefs early. Except for not actually scoring, it went perfectly as the T-birds outshot Spokane 14-7 in the first period with five good scoring chances.

"It makes it frustrating when you feel you've really played well and aren't rewarded for it," Sumner said. "We don't have a lot of offensive confidence yet. We're playing much better defensively, but we gave up both of their goals on flat-out defensive mistakes."

Seattle, which went 1-3-1-1 on its trip north, fell to 4-12-1-2 on the season.

"We're coming really close against some really good teams, but close isn't good enough in the standings," Sumner said. "We have to find a way to get a little better, and that's what we plan on doing."

At Calgary 3,

Everett 2 (OT)

Joel Broda scored 57 seconds into overtime for the Hitmen. Chris Langkow and Tyler Maxwell scored for Everett (10-5-1-0).