The Calgary Hitmen closed their five-game homestand against the Tri-City Americans with a shootout loss on Friday.
After a back and forth 60 minutes of hockey, the Hitmen and Americans remained tied at three. Unfortunately for the Hitmen, Beck Warm’s 46 saves along with Kyle Olson’s two-point performance led the way for the Americans.
The first frame of this contest saw Tri-City open the game on a strong note with five shots within the first five minutes while limiting Calgary to little offensive zone time.
After James Malm was sent to the box for holding while on the forecheck, the Americans struggled immensely on the power play, recording no shots despite a ringer off the crossbar. After Calgary regained full strength, Tri-City returned to their strong play with creative pass completions and speedy flow. Despite the pressure the Americans were applying, it was Calgary who struck first when Jonas Peterek found Egor Zamula wide open in the slot. Zamula picked up his own rebound and made no mistake by putting it past Beck Warm for the lead. Calgary took that 1-0 lead and a 16-14 edge in shots into the intermission.
In the early stages of the second, Calgary came out with a very different energy and maintained a good portion of the play within the Tri-City zone. Carson Focht was gifted the best opportunity in the first half of the frame when he received a nifty behind-the-back pass and wristed a shot that hit the right post and bounced away.
Minutes later, Adam Kydd was sprung on a breakaway off a sneaky pass from Zamula that was stopped by Warm. Immediately following this sequence of events, Sasha Mutala went the other way on a two-on-one and laid a beautiful saucer pass on the stick of captain Kyle Olson. Olson made no mistake, snapping the puck high blocker side on Jack McNaughton to tie the game at one with 13:25 remaining in the period.
Soon after the Olson goal, the tone of the game changed drastically as the physicality and chippy play ramped up. Blake Allan and Jayden Platz dropped the mitts following a post whistle scrum that resulted in several penalties. Even later in the frame, Jett Woo was sent off for roughing after the defenseman engaged in pushing behind the play. At this point, it became clear that Olson had quickly become public enemy number one for the Hitmen. The period ended with a tie score and an Americans power play with over a minute and a half transferring over to the final frame.
The third period began with a rather slow start with few shots coming from either team. It wasn’t until the 14 minute mark that Tri-City began to pressure Calgary.
The Americans were able to cash in on their offensive zone time when Bryan McAndrews wristed a hard puck on net that was deflected and swatted by Nick Bowman past the sprawled McNaughton to take the lead for the Americans. The Hitmen responded well to the goal, providing offensive zone pressure of their own while continuing to put pucks on Warm. With under seven minutes remaining and on the power play, Woo sent a hard cross seam pass to Mark Kastelic who wired it past Warm to tie the game at two. The pressure from Calgary did not let up, ultimately leading to yet another goal. Focht picked up his second point of the night and 11th goal of the season when he jammed a puck past Warm mid-skirmish. The Hitmen carried this lead late into the third until, with a vacant crease, Tri-City capitalized when Connor Bouchard found the puck on the doorstep and tied the game with just 21.7 seconds remaining.
McNaughton made his presence known under a minute into overtime after a Zamula turnover resulted in an outstanding save by the netminder off a doorstep shot. As the play went on, teams exchanged control of the puck, as well as close calls as Orca Wiesblatt and Krystof Hrabik both ripped shots off the crossbar. Despite an action packed five minutes of three-on-three, the extra time solved nothing.
Neither of the first-round shooters were successful. However, after a failed attempt from Malm, Bouchard solved McNaughton. Carson Focht was unable to beat Warm who secured the victory for the Americans.
The Hitlist:
- Kyle Olson recorded a goal and an assist in his 200th career game.
- Calgary out shot Tri-City 49-38 while going 1-for-4 on the man advantage.
- Beck Warm recorded his third 35+ save win of the 2019/20 season.
