Kent, WA – The Tri-City Americans (0-1-0) entered their season opening match against the Seattle Thunderbirds (1-0-0) as the eighth ranked CHL team. Seattle reminded them that what is on paper, doesn’t matter once the puck is dropped. The Thunderbirds skated away with the 4-3 victory in front of 6,104 rowdy fans at the ShoWare Center on Saturday night. The building was buzzing as the Thunderbirds raised their 2016-17 WHL championship banner to the rafters.
The Americans came out fast and strong in the first period. Jordan Topping opened the scoring with a wrist shot at 5:47 of the opening period on the power play. Morgan Geekie, who returned from Carolina Hurricanes training camp this week, had a great feed through the crease to set up
Topping on his first goal of the night. The Americans were off and running. It didn’t take long for Seattle to remind the Americans that they are still the reigning WHL champions, however. At 9:33, Sami Moilanen scored his first of the season after a Tri-City turnover in their defensive zone. Just 1:08 later, Zach Andrusiak gave the Thunderbirds the 2-1 lead after beating Americans’ goaltender Beck Warm. Seattle was showing that even though they are a young team with a new head coach, they can still use their speed and ability to capitalize on opponents’ mistakes like they have in the past. Fortunately for the Americans, they were able to settle things down and tie the game up after Topping scored his second of the game at 17:38 of the opening frame. Topping, who is an overage player, figures to be a big part of the Americans high powered offense this season. The teams entered the first intermission tied at 2.
Early in the second, it looked as if Tri-City was going to hit their stride and start to pull away. Parker Aucoin scored an unassisted shorthanded tally at 2:33 of the frame after intercepting a Seattle pass and burying the puck on Seattle net minder Matt Berlin’s glove side. Just under five minutes later, Seattle once again tied the game up on an Elijah Brown tally. Seattle’s Austin Strand added his second helper of the night on Brown’s goal. The team’s skated into intermission tied at 3.
It didn’t take long for the deciding goal to be scored in the third period. Just 48 seconds into the frame, Jake Lee scored his first ever WHL goal on a slapshot from the right point that seemed to surprise everyone on the ice, including Warm who was partially screened by an American and Thunderbird player. The goal would be the eventual game-winner. The Americans kept the pressure on for most of the remainder of the period, but Seattle’s shot-blockers and strong goaltending by Berlin were too much.
Warm ended the night for the Americans with 25 saves on 29 shots. Berlin finished the contest for Seattle with 31 saves on 34 shots. The Americans power play went 1/5 on the night, while their penalty killing unit finished perfect killing all 5 Seattle power play opportunities. Tri-City will continue their short season opening road trip at Everett on Sunday the 24th.
The Americans opened the season without NHL draft picks Michael Rasmussen, Jusso Valimaki, and Kyle Olson. Rasmussen and Valimaki are still in training camp with their NHL teams and Olson is recovering from a preseason injury. Americans head coach Mike Williamson said he does expect Olson to return soon. Dylan Coghlan, Isaac Johnson, and Morgan Geekie all made their season debuts with the team after spending the last couple of weeks at NHL training camps.
