Kennewick, Wa. The Tri-City Americans (25-16-7-0, 57 pts.) were coming off of one of their most impressive wins of the season. On Saturday night, the Americans fought back from a 4-1 deficit to beat the rival Spokane Chiefs in overtime. How they followed up that win on Sunday could be a big step in the right direction for the Americans as the playoffs start to loom. The visiting Seattle Thunderbirds (26-18-4-2, 58 pts.) have been one of the hottest teams in the league lately. Seattle wasn’t supposed to do this well this season, but strong defensive play and sound basic hockey have put them right in the thick of things in the tightly contested U.S. Division. Seattle had won six of their last seven coming into tonight including a shootout win on Saturday against division leading Everett. It would be a good test for Tri-City as these divisional games start to take on even more importance this late in the season. Despite the close final score, Tri-City dominated the matchup in almost every facet of the game to earn to 3-2 win.
The Americans haven’t matched up real well against the Thunderbirds this year. It has been a struggle at times for Tri-City to solve the Seattle defensive scheme which has limited the amount of quality chances the Americans have been able to put up against Seattle. In the first period tonight, however, Tri-City seemed to find a way to match up better. They were able to force the play to the inside and get several quality chances. The big story of the first period was the play of Seattle goaltender Dorrin Luding who stopped all 13 Americans shots. Americans goalie Patrick Dea was impressive as well in stopping all 11 Seattle shots, even though Seattle had far fewer quality scoring chances. The Americans power play unit, which entered the night tied for second best in the league, got two chances in the first. Both units did extremely well, but once again Luding was a wall in the Seattle net. Tri-City ended the first with eleven seconds of carryover power play time into the second.
The Americans weren’t able to convert on the carryover power play, and Seattle made some adjustments which opened up the game a bit for them early on. Forward Matthew Wedman got Seattle on the board at the 3:43 mark of the middle frame with his 11th of the year. Some simple play on the outside found the Americans defense pressing the puck hard to Dea’s right. Wedman was able to get open in the high slot and send a wrister into the net. That goal didn’t seem to be the spark that Seattle was looking for to really open things up. The Americans stuck to their game plan and continued to generate some great chances in the Seattle end. One of the best was forward Michael Rasmussen picking up the puck at the Thunderbirds blue line and feeding a pass to a streaking onside Nolan Yaremko. Yaremko was one-on-one with Luding and rang one off the post. Luding continued to shut the door on all 10 shots the Americans fired in the second. Both teams traded a single power play opportunity, but the score remained 1-0 Seattle headed to the break. The Americans held the shot advantage 23-20 total for the game.
The third period would end up being a pretty lively affair. Both Dea and Luding had some stellar highlight saves to continue their strong play. Tri-City was finally rewarded for it’s strong performance seven minutes in to the final frame. Forward Isaac Johnson, who has been dominant with his smart play on the ice for several games now, made an impressive move just inside the Seattle line to break free from a Thunderbird defender. He then fed a perfect pass to forward Riley Sawchuk who buried his seventh of the season. It was Sawchuk’s second goal in as many nights. Rookie defenseman Liam Belcourt also earned an assist on the play giving him his first WHL point. Luding had done a good job all night at killing off Tri-City’s potent power play. Halfway through the third period, the Americans were 0-for-4 on the man-advantage. With the Americans already killing off a questionable boarding penalty of their own, Seattle forward Matthew Wedman was whistled for boarding as well. Both teams skated four aside for just under a minute and then Tri-City found themselves on their fifth power play of the night. They made this one count. Forward Morgan Geekie made an incredible play from the slot and absolutely ripped one bar down over Luding’s shoulder for the unassisted tally. Tri-City now found themselves up 2-1 with just over seven minutes left in the game. Seattle found themselves in a great position with just over four minutes left, as forward Michael Rasmussen was given a minor penalty for a face-off infraction. The Tri-City penalty killing unit has been playing very well lately. They have only given up one power play goal in the last three games. Seattle would get a few looks on this man-advantage but Tri-City once again was able to kill it off. With time running out, Seattle pulled Luding for the extra attacker with around two minutes left. Sawchuk took advantage with a shot from the blue line to score his second of the contest and third in two nights. Seattle would make things interesting as forward Zack Andrusiak picked up his 23rd of the year with just under shirt seconds left to play. Seattle once again had the extra attacker and was able to crash the Tri-City net allowing Andrusiak’s shot to find its way through traffic and in. That would be it, though. Tri-City held on for the 3-2 victory and the important 2 points in the standings. The Americans finished the night going 1-for-5 on the power play while their penalty kill stopped all four Seattle chances. They also outshot Seattle 35-31.
The Americans will host Victoria on Wednesday, while Seattle will have a few days off before hosting Victoria next Saturday in Kent. With the win, the Americans move up into fourth place in the U.S. Division. They are tied for points with Spokane but have two games in hand on the Chiefs. They are just a point back of Seattle with two games in hand for the third place spot.
