The Seattle Thunderbirds had a chance to play spoiler Wednesday night, but Jordan Messier helped the Tri-City Americans remain in control of their playoff destiny.
Messier had two goals and Brendan Shinnimin added three assists as the Americans beat the Thunderbirds before an announced crowd of 6,025 at Toyota Center.
"Portland did us a little favor (beating Everett on Tuesday) and the ball is back in our court," Messier said. "We now have two against Spokane. It will be a big battle. I'm looking forward to it."
The win gives the Americans (46-21-1-2, 95 points) sole possession of first place in the U.S. Division, two points in front of idle Everett and four ahead of Spokane.
The Americans play a home-and-home series with the Chiefs to finish the season. Tri-City is at Spokane on Friday, while the Chiefs visit Toyota Center on Saturday.
On Sunday, Everett plays at Spokane on the final day of the regular season.
"We let the lead slip away and now we have to do it the hard way," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller.
The Thunderbirds (18-39-7-5, 48 points), who have been out of the playoff picture for quite some time, could have thrown a monkey wrench into the race for the division title with a win, but instead lost their 12th straight at Toyota Center.
"We are so banged up, but we played hard and hopefully we keep playing hard until the end," said Seattle coach Rob Sumner, who had two of his best forwards -- Prab Rai and Lindsay Nielsen -- helping out on defense.
After a scoreless first period, the Americans got things going early in the second as Messier scored the first of his two goals at 1:05, redirecting a shot by Brett Plouffe past Calvin Pickard at the right post.
Messier struck again three minutes later as Pickard was 5 feet in front of the crease, giving Messier a wide-open net for his 22nd goal of the season.
"In the first period we were all over them and getting chances, but 'Picks' is a good goalie," Messier said. "The first one, it was a good pass from Plouffe, and the second (Jarrett) Toll shot it off the back wall and I had a wide-open net."
Seattle cut Tri-City's lead in half late in the period as Brenden Dillon's shot went off Alex Pechurskiy's glove, off the crossbar and landed to the left of the goal. Tyler Alos was there to pick up the puck and put it in the net for a power-play goal at 18:18.
"We battled back to make it 2-1, but in the third we had penalty trouble and they got two power-play goals," Sumner said.
Justin Feser and Kruise Reddick scored in the third for Tri-City to put the game away. For Feser, it was his 34th goal of the season, nearly tripling his total of 12 last year.
The Americans held Seattle to just five shots on goal in the third and did not give up a power play.
"Our defense and Alex were really solid tonight," Hiller said. "We challenged them early and didn't give them many chances."
The Americans fired 19 shots at Pickard in the first period, and Adam Hughesman rang a shot off the crossbar, but could not get anything past the Thunderbirds netminder. Pickard, who finished with 42 saves, has never beaten the Americans at Toyota Center.
