The Tri-City Americans (12-12-2-1) played in front of a combined 19,360 fans this past weekend when they played Teddy Bear Toss games in Spokane and Vancouver.
Unfortunately for Tri-City, they dropped both games in front of raucous home crowds. Road games can be tough, but road games in front of huge crowds are even tougher with the home team feeding off all the energy.
Since their 3-0 trip through Alberta, the Americans have dropped eight of nine games, two of those losses came in overtime.
Let’s look at the two games:
Friday, 12/6: Spokane 4 Tri-City 3
This was the first time a home team has won in this season series so far. Spokane is now 3-1 against their division rivals.
This was one the Americans hung around in and had a third period lead despite being outshot 33-13 through 40 minutes.
Adam Beckman kicked off the scoring for the Chiefs, netting the Teddy Bear Toss marker. The dynamic line of Krystof Hrabik, Nick Bowman and Blake Stevenson kept up their strong play of late by tying the game with 1:42 left in the opening frame.
Booker Daniel then gave the Ams the lead 2:45 into the second. Cordel Larson got that right back though as the Chiefs pressed the Americans and their goalie Beck Warm.
Luke Zazula pinched in late in the second period and took a nice feed from Bowman, wiring a shot by Spokane goalie Lukas Pařík. The marker was his first since being acquired from the Kamloops Blazers.
Spokane turned up the pressure in the third and broke through. Eli Zummack and Luke Toporowski both scored to give the Chiefs the come-from-behind win.
Warm stopped 46-of-50 shots. Bowman led the way with two points.
Saturday, 12/7: Vancouver 4 Tri-City 1
This game was at Rogers Arena for the Giants Teddy Bear Toss. Our Stephen Hawco was there and had the recap on DUBNetwork.ca.
Fresh off his two-point night, Bowman was held out of the lineup and was later listed as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury. He joins team captain Kyle Olson as top-six forwards now out of the lineup.
Defenseman Tom Cadieux did return from the injury list. He had not played since November 16th.
Connor Bouchard had the lone Tri-City goal and Warm turned away 49-of-53 shots.
“Obviously big games within our division. We have been playing hard but coming up short. We need to continue with a strong work ethic as the division,” Americans general manager and governor Bob Tory said.
This coming week:
Friday, 12/13 @Seattle Thunderbirds
-Tri-City is 3-0 against the Thunderbirds so far.
Saturday, 12/14 vs Portland Winterhawks
-Teddy-bear toss night in Kennewick. This is only the second game against the Winterhawks so far this season. They lost 6-1 to them in the second game this season.
The Americans also play twice early next week before leaving for Christmas break.
“I’m sure players are looking forward to the Christmas break but we need to finish the job at hand first,” Tory said.
Tri-City plays six games over the next three weeks against Everett, Spokane, and Portland. All three teams could very well be missing their starting goalies among other key players away at the IIHF U20 World Junior Championships.
“All teams lose players to World Junior camps every year. You cannot focus on that rather focus on playing well and it’s an opportunity for players throughout the league to play more in different roles which ultimately makes them and their teams better,” Tory relayed.
Americans sign Feenan
“I feel honoured to be able to sign with Tri-City … After weighing my options, it became clear that Tri-City will provide me with the best opportunity to develop as a player and as a person.” – @ben_feenan
ICYMI ✍️ → https://t.co/0PUEBRRvJy pic.twitter.com/WamA0rMPe1
— Tri-City Americans (@TCAmericans) December 11, 2019
The Americans were busy this week off the ice as well. They signed 2004-born defenseman Ben Feenan to a WHL Education Contract.
Feenan was a sixth-round pick by Tri-City in last May’s Bantam Draft. He has 11 points in 18 games with the Yale Academy of the CSSHL.
Feenan is the second draftee from the 2019 draft that Tri-City has signed. Forward Jake Sloan was inked by the Americans before the season started.
He is the 11th signed blueliner for the Americans.
The American Way…
-Equipment manager Innes Mackie took part in his 3,200th WHL game on Saturday in Vancouver.
-Defenseman Mitchell Brown is back on the injury report. He is listed as out “TBD” with an upper-body injury. He missed two games the week before last after being listed as out “TBD” but played both games last weekend.
