Kent, Wa. To say that things haven’t gone the way the Tri-City Americans (32-24-8-1, 73 pts) have wanted them to lately would be a major understatement. Coming into Tuesday nights contest with the Seattle Thunderbirds (31-25-8-2, 72 pts.), the Americans had just a 3 point lead in the standings over their divisional rivals. Tri-City has been shut out 2 of their last 3 games, and their power play has been misfiring at a dismal 4.17% over the past eight games, going 1-for-24 in that span, with their last power play goal coming against Seattle a couple of weeks ago. A win in Seattle would have gone a long way to turning things around heading towards the postseason. Unfortunately, the Thunderbirds went up 4-0 before Tri-City turned the switch on. The Americans fell 4-3, but can definitely take some positives away from this game and build on them.
Tri-City hasn’t scored first in a game since February 24th against Prince George. Their opponents have come out of the gate ready to go, and Tri-City hasn’t been able to match that early intensity. It was a similar story on Tuesday. The Americans found themselves getting shots, but not a whole lot of quality chances. Seattle loves to make teams expend a lot of energy trying to get to the net, wear them down, and then capitalize on their own opportunities. That first opportunity came at the 5:19 mark of the first. Defenseman Jarret Tyszka sent in a soft shot that Tri-City net minder Patrick Dea stopped and gingerly sticked to the corner. Tyszka picked up the loose puck and sent it out to defenseman Austin Strand who was alone inside the blue line. Strand ripped a shot at the top of the circle to beat Dea glove side. It was all the scoring that would happen in the first. The Americans won the shot battle 12-10 but were behind where it counted most.
A lively second period, marked with lots of penalties to both teams, saw the Thunderbirds build on their lead. A double minor to Americans forward Michael Rasmussen for slew-footing early the period found Seattle on their second power play opportunity of the evening. With just a few seconds left on that man-advantage, a failed clearing attempt by Tri-City found the puck on the stick of forward Zack Andrusiak. Andrusiak skated in all alone on Dea and made some nifty moves to finally lift the puck backhand and over Dea for his 31st goal of the season. Andrusiak continues to build his point totals in a career year for him. The former Americans player had just six goals in sixty games last season. He has thirty-one in sixty-two games this year. At 9:15 of the second, again on the power play, Seattle extended that lead to three. Forward Nolan Volcan was given credit for the unassisted goal, but it was Americans forward Maxwell James who was unfortunate enough to have the puck deflect off his skate and in to the wide open Tri-City net. The play started with Seattle forward Matthew Wedman carrying in and making a perfect cross-ice pass to Volcan who fired the one-timer. Dea made the initial save off of his left skate, but the rebound bounced out to James and deflected in to give Volcan his 30th of the season. It marks the first time Volcan has reached the thirty goal mark. Seattle outshot Tri-City 17-10 in the middle frame, and had a firm grasp on the game.
The third period turned out to be the best period that Tri-City has played in quite some time. It didn’t start out great though, as Seattle extended their lead to 4-0 at the 1:00 mark. A shot from the point from defenseman Turner Ottenbreit found its way through traffic where Wedman was able to get the deflection and redirect the puck past Dea for his 16th of the season. It was at that point that the Tri-City offense came alive. At 5:25, the Americans would get their first power play goal since February 21st. Already on the power play, and with a second delayed call coming against Seattle, the Americans made some great passes deep in the Thunderbirds zone, that ended up on the tape of forward Morgan Geekie at the left hash marks, where he ripped a shot five-hole on Seattle goaltender Liam Hughes. Under a minute later, again on the power play, the Americans would strike again. Forward Michael Rasmussen picked up his 25th of the season and first in five games to cut the Seattle lead to two. At the 15:31 mark, Tri-City would make things really interesting by cutting the Seattle lead to just one. Forward Jordan Topping carried the puck behind the Seattle net and made a pass to defenseman Dylan Coghlan, who was positioned in the slot and took the shot. The initial shot was blocked, but after a scrum in front of the net, the puck squirted free and was picked up by rookie forward Sasha Mutala who banged home his 9th of the year. Tri-City continued its barrage on Hughes for the remaining few minutes, but the Seattle net minder was able to close the door on the tying goal. Seattle would hold on for the 4-3 victory moving them to within one point of the Americans for fourth in the U.S. Division. Tri-City outshot Seattle 21-6 in the third and 43-33 for the game. The good news, despite the loss, was that the Americans power play was 2-for-5 on the night. Seattle was 2-for-7 on the man-advantage. Despite the way the game started and the ultimate outcome on the night, Tri-City showed a lot of fight in battling back in the third. It is a period that the Americans can build off of as the regular season winds down and heads into the playoffs. Tri-City will return home on Friday to host Vancouver and begin a three game in three nights weekend. Seattle will host Spokane on Friday at home.
