Jordan Topping Doug Love

Topping’s hat trick leads Tri-City to victory over Wheat Kings

Kennewick, Wa. The Tri-City Americans (23-16-6-0, 52 pts.) came into tonight in desperate need of a win. The team had dropped five straight, and with the U.S. Division getting super tight, points are at a premium. The Brandon Wheat Kings (28-13-3-1, 60 pts.) would be no easy opponent to get that much needed win. While Brandon had lost two straight headed into tonight, they are a potent team that can skate and score with anyone in the league. At the end of this tightly-contested matched, it was, however, in fact the Americans that would walk away with the 4-3 overtime win.

Recently, the Americans have gotten off to some very slow starts. Tri-City has given up the first goal in five straight games. To have success, they would need to come out hard against the Wheat Kings. The first got off to a fast paced start with both teams really feeling each other out. One of the bright spots during the Americans recent struggles has been their power play. Coming into tonight, the Americans ranked 5th overall in the league and 4th at home. Tri-City would get an early opportunity to build on that recent success as Brandon center Jonny Hooker was called for kneeing right around the 10:00 mark. Just eight seconds into that man-advantage, Americans forward Jordan Topping his netted his 24th of the season. Defenseman Dylan Coghlan and forward Morgan Geekie were given the assists. It was the first time in nearly two weeks that the Americans played with a lead. Just over a minute later Tri-City would extend that lead. Forward Isaac Johnson has been one of the hardest working players on the ice in recent games and he was rewarded on this evening. Johnson took a great pass from Parker AuCoin to fire a one timer glove side on Brandon goalie Dylan Myskiw. The lead would hold into intermission with Tri-City also outshooting Brandon 15-11 in the opening frame.

Stelio Mattheos (Bryan Heim)

The Wheat Kings made some noticeable changes to their game plan in the second period and it paid off. They tightened up their neutral zone play and kept their feet constantly moving. The Americans weren’t able to get more than one shot on goal through the first half of the period. Brandon on the other hand kept firing fast and furious on Tri-City goaltender Patrick Dea. Americans rookie forward Sasha Mutala was whistled early in the frame for hooking giving Brandon their first power play of the night. With just over a minute gone on the man-advantage, Brandon forward Baron Thompson knocked the puck out of midair just below the crossbar and behind Dea. It was his 13th of the season. The Wheat Kings didn’t let up either after that, spending most of the time in Tri-City zone. Dea was spectacular for the rest of the period keeping the Americans in the lead. Brandon fired 13 shots on Dea compared to the Americans seven shots-on-goal for the period.

The adjustments Brandon made in the second period carried over to the third. They were winning the puck battles, getting sticks into most of the Tri-City passes and shots, and keeping play in the Americans zone for the first half of the third period. That pressure paid off around the eight minute mark when forward Stelio Mattheos netted his 31st of the year while the Wheat Kings were on a power play. It was his second point of the night. After scoring the first two of the night, Tri-City had given up the next two and desperately needed to get the momentum shifted. That shift came at the 12:28 mark when Topping netted his second of the night. After missing high over the bar on a breakaway just moments earlier, Topping made sure this one found the twine after taking a cross ice pass from Coghlan. The Americans had regained the lead despite being outplayed the previous thirty minutes of game time. The question now was, would Tri-City be able to hold that lead. With forty-two seconds left, that question was answered in a rather abrupt way. With Myskiw on the bench for the extra attacker, Brandon’s Evan Weinger was able to clean up a loose puck in front of Dea and scoot the puck in to the net. It was Weinger’s 20th of the season, the second straight season he has hit that mark. The home crowd would be treated to extra hockey for the second game in a row. Fortunately for the Americans, Brandon took a penalty early in the OT frame when Luka Burzan was called for holding. With just over thirty seconds left in the 4-on-3 power play, Topping completed the hat trick for the Americans and ended their 5-game losing streak. Tri-City was able to finally breath a sigh of relief. The Americans outshot Brandon 4-0 in the extra frame while the Wheat Kings held the 38-36 advantage for the game. Tri-City went 2-for-3 on the power play was Brandon converted both of their chances. The Americans will travel to Spokane on Saturday and Brandon will continue its bi-annual U.S. Division trip in Everett on Saturday.

Michael Rasmussen
Rasmussen (photo by Judy Simpson)

Some really good news this week for Tri-City came in the form of power forward Michael Rasmussen being back on the ice with the team during practice. He was seen wearing the yellow no-contact jersey, but he was skating well and firing a few pucks on net. If everything goes well, he should only miss a couple of more games. After tomorrow’s tilt in Spokane, the Americans have a week off, so it should be a good time for them to possibly get a little healthier.