While Drew Owsley was putting on a goaltending clinic at one end of the ice, the Tri-City Americans were giving him plenty of goals to hang his hat on at the other.
Owsley finished with 28 saves and Brendan Shinnimin had a hat trick and an assist to lead the Americans to an 8-1 victory over the Chilliwack Bruins on Saturday night at Toyota Center to take a 2-0 lead in the first round of the WHL playoffs before a frenzied crowd of 3,505.
"It could have been 4-1 Chilliwack after the first," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller. "I thought Ows was the difference. He was just on from the get-go. They outchanced us early, but he was solid from start to finish."
Chilliwack coach Marc Habscheid was equally impressed with Owsley's performance.
"We had a couple of breakaways, a couple of posts and we were outchancing them," Habscheid said. "Owsley was solid and kept them in there the first half. We were all over him and he made some unreal saves."
The best-of-7 series moves to Chilliwack on Tuesday and Wednesday for Games 3 and 4. The Americans were 0-2 at Prospera Centre during the regular season.
Holding a slim 1-0 lead after the first period, the Americans poured on the goals in the second, notching three in a span of 4:49 for a 4-0 lead.
Jordan Messier got things going as he got the blade of his stick on the puck and rolled it in the net past Lucas Gore at 7:01.
Kruise Reddick followed 31 seconds later as he came down the right side of the ice and blasted the puck Gore.
Working on a power play, the Americans charged the net with Gore out of position and Shinnimin was able to shove the puck under Matt Delahey covering in the crease at 11:50. The play was reviewed, and the goal was awarded.
Shinnimin, who also scored the first goal of the game, finished off his hat trick at 3:34 of the third, finding an open net behind Braden Gamble, who had replaced Gore at the start of the third, for a 5-0 lead.
"It was a grind," Shinnimin said. "I don't think 8-1 was a good indicator of the game. They outworked us for a good part of the game and Owsley made some great saves to keep us in it early."
The Americans, who scored all four of their goals on the power play in the third, got a pair from tough man Todd Kennedy and one from defenseman Eric Mestery for an 8-0 lead at 13:14.
"Jim put a lot of faith in me on the power play," said Kennedy, who scored his first-ever playoff points. "It's good for our line (Mason Wilgosh and Adam Hughesman) to net a few. It kind of shows I can do more than grind it out and have a little personal success for once."
The Americans showed their depth with five different players scoring goals and Justin Feser and Hughesman adding three assists apiece.
"It's nice for a guy like TK who works so hard to bang in a couple," Hiller said of Kennedy. "Shinnimin has been good for us all year. He's pretty tenacious."
The Bruins avoided the shutout with less than six minutes to play when Roman Horak scored on a penalty shot, beating Alex Pechurskiy, who had relieved Owsley 3 1/2 minutes earlier. Pechurskiy finished with seven saves in nine minutes of work.
The Americans didn't waste time getting their offense going Saturday. Shinnimin scored 1:25 into the game on the power play, catching the puck, putting it on the ice and banging it home past Gore.
The Bruins outshot the Americans 13-9 in the period, but Owsley was impressive. He denied Shane Neigum on a breakaway at 4:10, made a beautiful glove save on a shot by Horak at 10:02, swept a puck shot by Ryan Howse out of the crease behind him with his glove at 14:30, and finished the period with back-to-back stops on Neigum at the top of the crease with 1:30 to play.
"I got a couple of big saves early and that helps," Owsley said. "I'm playing with a lot of confidence right now -- I got into a bit of a comfort zone out there."
