Kennewick, Wa. For the first time since 2012, the Tri-City Americans are moving on to the second round of the WHL playoffs. Thursday night, Tri-City completed the sweep of the B.C. Division champion Kelowna Rockets. The always rambunctious crowd at Toyota Center was the loudest they have been in quite some time, as the 3,000 faithful had reason to celebrate. Kelowna, and especially their goaltender James Porter, arguably played their best game of the series, but ultimately they didn’t have an answer for Americans forward Morgan Geekie, whose two goals with under a minute to play in the third, completed a hat-trick and propelled Tri-City to a 5-3 victory and the 4-0 series win.
Hot starts. The Americans struggled with that for a vast majority of the regular season. They have more than righted that ship, scoring first in three of the four games of the series, including Thursday night’s contest. Forward Jordan Topping was the recipient of his first goal of the postseason on a great setup by rookie forward Isaac Johnson. Johnson, who has been on fire in the playoffs, with six points in the first three games, drew the attention of several Rockets players behind their net. That extra attention allowed Topping to skate right into the slot and grab a perfect pass from Johnson to bury the one-timer past Porter 7:04 into the contest. That goal, and the fact that Kelowna only registered one shot on goal in the second half of the opening frame, seemingly put the momentum on the Americans side. Total shots for the period were 13-8 for Tri-City.
Dillon Dube. That name doesn’t sit too well with the Tri-City fans. The Kelowna forward and Calgary Flames draft pick, was the recipient of two major penalties and game misconducts in the series. Tri-City fans didn’t think Dube should have been playing on Thursday night. Nonetheless, Dube was on the ice, and despite being booed on virtually every shift, Dube did his best to extend the Rockets postseason. At 4:38 of the second, Dube picked up his first of the playoffs. Kelowna forward Kole Lind carried the puck along the boards behind the Tri-City net and passed out to Dube who was all alone in the slot. Dube settled in and fired the puck on Tri-City goalie Patrick Dea, beating him stick side to tie things up. Over the next several minutes of the period, things stayed fast paced with a lot of back-and-forth play. James Porter made some great saves for Kelowna, and the Americans continued to limit the Rockets chances. At 17:41, Geekie had his first strike of the night to put the Americans back on top. Skating in at the right circle, Geekie simply threw a shot on net that Porter that he had gathered up, but had indeed beat the Rockets goaltender through the five-hole. The 2-1 Americans lead would carry to intermission with Tri-City out shooting Kelowna 12-10 in the middle frame.
The third period, may have been the most exciting period the Americans fans had witnessed all year long. It started early with Maxwell James getting a double-minor for slew-footing at the 2:49 mark. Rockets forward Kyle Topping, the younger brother of Americans forward Jordan Topping, picked up his second of the series with just five seconds left on the first penalty of the double-minor.
Topping, being covered by two Tri-City defenders, collected a pass in the slot and fired a shot past a partially screened Dea to once again tie things up. Tri-City would kill of the second half of the penalty. At 10:03, Tri-City would strike again.
Forward Nolan Yaremko, who has had a great year and series against Kelowna, capitalized on a great individual effort. With four Rockets players right in front of their own net, a Porter rebound slipped through them all, and Yaremko made a fully extended dive for the puck, connecting on his backhand side and flipping the puck up and over Porter while falling down. 3-2 Americans with half a period left to play.
And then, Dube…again. Just 41 seconds after Yaremko’s goal, Dube again silenced the Tri-City crowd with his second of the contest. Skating in to the right circle, Dube collected a Carsen Twarynski cross ice pass and buried it back door on Dea. Tied yet again with just over nine minutes to play.
At around the 19:00 mark, it looked like it was going to overtime. At 19:05, that changed. Geekie, who had made some great moves to get the puck to the net, picked up the loose puck in the middle of traffic in front of Porter and fired a wrister in for his second of the night.
Kelowna took their timeout at that point hoping to rally the troops and find the equalizer to extend their season. 17 seconds after his second of the night, Geekie completed the hat trick and sealed the deal. Skating in to Porter’s right, Geekie again collected a loose puck in traffic and slipped it under the Kelowna net minder. That was it. It was over for the Rockets and just beginning for the Americans.
Tri-City finished the sweep and will advance to the second round to face the winner of the Vancouver/Victoria series. Geekie finished the series with a total of nine goals. That puts him tied for fifth all time for Americans single postseason goal totals…through only four games. Daymond Langkow holds the record with fourteen goals…through eleven games. After advancing to the Conference Finals each of the past four seasons, Kelowna will return home much earlier than expected.
