Red, White and Blue Report: Tri City and Seattle heating up

With roughly 30 games left in the season we are starting to see some separation in the U.S. Division standings.

The Everett Silvertips continue to lead the division, as they have all year, but the two teams directly behind them have been red hot. The Tri-City Americans and Seattle Thunderbirds are both sitting on fat, six-game win streaks as the weekend’s games approach. Everett haven’t exactly been slouches either which leaves the Portland Winterhawks and Spokane Chiefs looking like they’re going to be fighting it out for a playoff spot.

The Americans are coming off an historic Eastern swing that saw them be perfect. Six games, six wins, including a dramatic come from behind win over the Regina Pats. Seattle’s six wins have all come against division opponents which has allowed them to solidify themselves in third place and to within 12 points of Everett.

Tri City is breathing down Everett’s neck — only back by five points — but the Silvertips do have six games in hand.

Points are a premium at this point and oddly enough, this weekend only features two inter-divisional games. One of them is huge as Seattle will be in Everett for their third match up in the past week.

Here’s the latest news in the Red, White and Blue division.

Everett Silvertips (28-6-7-1)

The Silvertips have lost three straight to their rivals in Seattle and while they are probably not happy with that, the damage was mitigated as they earned points in two of those games. Carter Hart is back from the World Juniors and immediately picked up a shut out on the road in Kamloops. The next night against Seattle he did everything he could to earn two points and turned in a brilliant performance in an overtime period that saw Seattle get all eight shots. He kept them at bay as long as he could until finally surrendering a goal with just 16 seconds left. Everett has a tough schedule the rest of the way and will be playing a three-in-three this weekend starting with another test against Seattle. This one is back in Everett and surely the Tips will be looking to get a bit of revenge for the last three. The Silvertips continue to feast on the power play. They potted three power-play goals in a MLK Day matinee win over Kelowna and are sixth in the WHL. If you can stay out of the box you may, and we stress may, have a shot to beat them. Everett has picked up 33-percent of its goals this year from the power play. You combine that with the league’s top penalty kill and its clear to see how the ‘Tips have built their lead in the division.

Tri City Americans (28-17-3-0)

The sweep out East was historic as no other U.S. Division team has pulled off such a feat before and it set up the Americans to contend down the stretch. Both Everett and Seattle have games in hand with Tri City so they’re going to have to stay on their toes and keep moving forward. They host Kootenay Friday night and then will face Everett in Kennewick on Saturday night so the opportunity to keep the pressure on the Silvertips is right in front of them. The strong season the Americans are having is starting to garner attention. They had two players show up in the top ten of NHL’s Central Scouring mid term report for the 2017 draft. Michael Rasmussen (30-21-51) is ranked sixth while defenseman Juuso Valimaki (12-27-39) came in at number nine. With all the trades that went down last week at the deadline, the move that Tri City general manager Bob Torry made earlier to get goalie Rylan Parenteau has turned out to be one of the best. With the Americans, the former Prince Albert Raider is 17-7-1-0 and his save percentage has improved from sub .900 with the Raiders to .909 once he joined the Americans.

Seattle Thunderbirds (24-14-3-1)

Mathew Barzal’s return to the Thunderbirds has them flying high. Six straight division wins and they are now 12-2-2-0 with Barzal in the lineup this year. They have beaten Everett three straight times and will look to make a huge statement Friday night when they travel to play the Silvertips again. It’s not just Barzal who’s been on fire. His linemates Ryan Gropp and Keegan Kolesar were playing good hockey before Barzal’s return and his return has been like dropping a match into gasoline. That top line has combined for seven goals and 19 points over the last four games. Seattle’s leading scorer Scott Eansor has been out with a minor injury the last couple of games and it will need to get him back if they want to try and catch the Silvertips. The Thunderbirds caught a break this week as their Wednesday night game in Spokane was postponed due to inclement weather on the I-90 pass. That would have been Seattle’s fourth game in five nights but now it will head into Friday’s tilt with the Silvertips well rested.

Portland Winterhawks (22-20-1-1)

The up and down season continues for the Winterhawks and they currently have a three-game losing streak — although they did pick up a point in Wednesday’s shootout loss in Prince George. They have a pretty tough schedule this weekend as they’ll stay in British Columbia to play Kamloops on Friday before moving on to play the Kelowna Rockets on Saturday. They are holding off Spokane for the last Western Conference playoff spot by three points and it’s looking more and more like one of those two will end up missing the post season. Cody Glass continues his amazing season and he popped up to eighth in the NHL Central Scouting rankings. Glass has thrived playing for Mike Johnston. He has 21 goals in 43 games. Can he get to 40? Despite losing 4-3 to Prince George on Tuesday, the Winterhawks had to be enthused by the play of rookie goalie Shane Farkas. The 17-year-old rookie made his first WHL start and stopped 34 shots against a good Cougars squad.

Spokane Chiefs (18-20-5-2)

Things have been trending the wrong way in Spokane of late. They’ve lost seven of their last ten and find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture. They can get it back but time is running out. The good news is that Kailer Yamamoto (28-31-59) was ranked 17th in this week’s NHL mid season draft rankings. Defense and goaltending have been a problem over the last week for the Chiefs. In their last four games they have given up 21 goals and that’s not going to get them into the playoffs. The Chiefs only play once this weekend when they host Kootenay but then have to play Seattle next Tuesday. They need points badly if they wish to stay alive in the race.