Kennewick, Wa. The Tri-City Americans (32-21-7-1, 72 pts.) came into Saturday night looking to win their third straight game for the first time in over three weeks. The Prince George Cougars (20-33-4-4, 48 pts.) came into Kennewick as the team with the worst record in the Western Conference. The Cougars are in the middle of a rebuild of sorts, but always seem to play Tri-City really well. This night, however, the Americans balanced offensive attack was too much for the Cougars who fell 6-1 to wrap up their four game road trip. It was pink ice night in Tri-City as the Americans raised money for breast cancer awareness, and the packed arena left extremely happy with the outcome.
If you blinked, you missed a lot in the first period. The Americans came out tonight firing on all cylinders, and the Cougars just didn’t have any answer to slow down the Tri-City attack. Rookie forward Connor Bouchard, who stands 5-foot-6, decided the somewhat subdued crowd needed something to get excited about early on. What to do? Drop the gloves with Prince George rookie Max Kryski who has nearly six inches of height on Bouchard. Both players fought hard, with Bouchard hitting the ice first, but nonetheless the Tri-City crowd had come alive. That spark seemed to be the ignition for the Americans high octane offense. Less than a minute after the Bouchard bout, forward Jordan Topping opened the scoring. Topping fired a shot from the high slot past Prince George goalie Isaiah DiLaura for his 35th of the season. Just forty seconds later, defenseman Juuso Välimäki found twine on a great unassisted effort. It was Välimäki’s 9th of the season. Just under two minutes later, the Americans found themselves up 3-0 on the strength of rookie forward Paycen Bjorklund’s 2nd of the year. A somewhat weird broken play found DiLaura laid out in front of his net trying to cover the puck. The puck however, found its way to Bjorklund who was all alone to DiLaura’s right. Bjorklund threw the puck towards the Prince George goaltender, where it bounced off and in to the open net. Things quieted somewhat for a few minutes, but Tri-City was in no way done scoring for the period. Välimäki picked up his second of the night, after carrying the puck in close from the point and wristing one home. With just forty seconds left in the opening frame, forward Parker AuCoin put the Americans up by five. A simple set of passes from Isaac Johnson and Nolan Yaremko ended up on AuCoin’s stick where he was able to wrist one five-hole for his 17th of the season. The bleeding was over for the moment as the buzzer sounded to end the period. The Americans outshot Prince George 14-5 in the opening frame.
Scoring wise, the second period was much quieter, but not completely silent. The Cougars replaced DiLaura in net with Tavin Grant to open the middle frame. Things still continued to go Tri-City’s way, however. The Americans went up 6-0 as Välimäki completed the hat trick at the 10:18 mark. Things turned ugly at that point as the frustration on Prince George’s bench boiled over. Defenseman Cameron Macphee was given a game-misconduct after leaving the bench to engage with Tri-City after Välimäki’s third goal. Several other players from both sides ended up in the box with various minors. Play continued at five-aside for about another 12 seconds. Americans forward Maxwell James delivered a thundering hit near center ice on defenseman Austin Crossley. Crossley took exception to the hit and came after James. The act ended up giving the Americans a power play that actually turned into a 5-on-3 chance about thirty seconds later. Prince George was able kill both of those off which seemed to serve as a little bit of a boost for the Cougars. Prince George was the recipient of the next power play opportunity. They were unable to convert on that one, but soon after, they finally solved Americans’ goalie Beck Warm and got on the board. Defenseman Ryan Schoettler netted his 6th of the season with a shot from the circle over Warm’s shoulder. The score took a little bit of wind out of the home crowd, but the Americans were still very much in control of this one. The period came to an end with Tri-City up 6-1. Prince George outshot the Americans 10-9 in the middle frame.
The third period was a much quieter affair all around as Tri-City seemed comfortable protecting the lead and keeping the pace of play to their liking. Shots on net were just 7-5 for the Americans and both teams traded an unsuccessful power play chance in the final frame. The final score held at 6-1. The Americans outshot the Cougars 30-20 and killed off all three Prince George power play opportunities. The Americans themselves were 0-for-3 on the man-advantage. Warm earned the win and second star of the contest by stopping 19-of-20 shots. DiLaura was credited with the loss, giving up five goals on 14 shots before being pulled after the first period. The Americans will continue their long homestead with a match against division rival Portland on Tuesday night in Kennewick. Prince George will return home on Tuesday toped a long six game homestead of their own against Kelowna.
For the second night in a row, the Americans earned a valuable win, but were unable to make up ground on the three teams ahead of them in the division. Spokane, Everett, and Portland all won again on Saturday night, keeping the point differences the same. The Americans did pad their lead over Seattle even more as the Thunderbirds lost to Everett. Tri-City now sits seven points ahead of Seattle. The next four games are all divisional contests for the Americans and will help paint a bit of a clearer picture for playoff seeding.
