Kennewick, Wa.
A long, grueling WHL regular season came to an end last night for the Tri-City Americans (38-25-8-1, 85pts.) and the Seattle Thunderbirds (34-28-8-2, 78pts.). Both teams are headed to the postseason and matchups have been set, so pride was the only thing on the line. But pride is huge, especially for mental strength heading to the postseason. Tri-City rested forwards Michael Rasmussen and Maxwell James and defenseman Dylan Coghlan. Seattle sat defenseman Turner Ottembreit, forward Nolan Volcan and a few others. Both clubs were in playoff preparation mode, but there was still a game to play. Tri-City put together an impressive sixty minutes and walked away with the 5-2 victory, finishing the season on a high note by winning six of their last seven.
A spirited affair it was in the first. Heavy hitting and a nastiness from both teams set the pace for a great rivalry game. Tri-City was determined to take the play to Seattle early and the effort paid off. Just 3:55 in, forward Nolan Yaremko, who would go on to win the “hardest working player” award, netted his 21st of the season. Defenseman Jake Bean fired a shot from the left point, and Yaremko was their to bury the rebound behind Seattle goaltender Dorrin Luding. Seattle did have an answer back though as former American Zack Andrusiak netted his 36th of the season at the 5:05 mark. Despite the tie score, Tri-City far outplayed the Thunderbirds in the opening frame. Luding made some incredible saves for Seattle to keep the score tied. Tri-City outshot Seattle 13-7.
The second was even more of an entertaining period with a little bit of everything. A disagreement in front of the Tri-City net ended up with three simultaneous scrums on the ice. When the dust settled, five players, three for Seattle and two for Tri-City headed to the penalty box with various roughing and misconduct calls. Tri-City got the power play, it’s fourth of the game, but was unable to convert. The scrum seemed to just electrify Tri-City even more as they stepped up the attack. One note, after the media timeout, Beck Warm replaces Patrick Dea at net. The move was more than likely a chance to get Warm some ice time as he has been out with injuries lately. At 13:41, defenseman Jake Bean absolutely lasered a shot upper corner on Luding. It was Bean’s 12th of the season and second point of the night. With under ten seconds left in the period, the Americans, and more specifically Nolan Yaremko, struck again. Yaremko again buried the rebound off of an odd-man rush. It was Yaremko’s fourth multi-goal of the season and first since January 15th. The Americans again dominated the shot battle, firing 11 shots to Seattle’s 5.
The dominance continued in the third for the Americans, with a little bump along the way. At 7:13, on their sixth power play of the night, a nasty turnover just outside the blue line ended up on the stick of Seattle forward Dillon Hamaliuk, who skated in all alone and buried the short handed snap shot on Warm. The lead was down to one, and things looked like they could have gotten interesting. Instead, Seattle seemed to fall back asleep and let Tri-City have their way. Just forty-four seconds after Hamaliuk’s goal, forward Parker AuCoin picked up his 18th of the year, on the power play, to put the Americans back up by two. AuCoin wasn’t done. At 15:10, again on the power play, AuCoin picked up his second of the night. The shot was a bit of luck for AuCoin, who had thrown the puck on net, where it bounced off of Seattle defenseman Jarret Tyszka and in behind Luding. The goal capped off a great team effort for the Americans. They outshot Seattle 42-20, including 18-8 in the third. Tri-City was 2-for-8 on the power play and killed off both of Seattle’s man-advantages. Now, the second season begins.
Tri-City will travel to Kelowna on Thursday to open their first round series against the B.C. Division champs. The last playoff meeting between these two was in 2015 with Kelowna sweeping the Americans before going on to win the Chynoweth Cup as WHL champs. Both teams are different now, splitting the season series 2-2, with all of the games being decided by a single goal. Seattle will open their series against Everett next weekend.
