CHILLIWACK, B.C. -- A little home-ice puck luck was just what the Chilliwack Bruins needed.
The Bruins got two goals from Ryan Howse and Lucas Gore kept a tight seal on the goal as Chilliwack climbed back into its first-round series with the Tri-City Americans with a 5-1 victory Tuesday night at Prospera Centre.
"We hit their goalie often and we had a lot of really good chances, but we didn't finish," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller, whose team outshot the Bruins 49-31 but was 1-for-9 on the power play. "We couldn't score on our power play. We had enough chances to win."
Tri-City still leads the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 is tonight at Prospera Centre, while Game 5 will be Friday at Toyota Center.
The Americans lost forward Neal Prokop just 1:02 into the game when he lost an edge and went down in the corner to the left of Gore. He broke his left femur and is done for the remainder of the postseason.
"He's had a great season," Hiller said of Prokop, who scored 22 goals for the year. "It's disappointing for him and us. We've got guys to step in and play his minutes."
The Bruins, who dropped the first two games of the series 4-2 and 8-1 at Tri-City last weekend, were in control from the start.
Chilliwack's power play was clicking in the first period, going 2-for-3 as the Bruins took a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
"I thought we played real well down there. We just didn't have any puck luck," said Bruins coach Marc Habscheid. "It's game on now. We've just got to hold home ice and go from there. We are not here to participate. We are here to win."
Enjoying a 2-0 lead after the first, the Bruins tacked on two more goals in the second, starting with a soft shot by Dylen McKinlay that had the puck glancing off Drew Owsley's glove and into the net just 58 seconds into the period.
Seven minutes later, the Bruins got another easy one as Owsley misplayed the puck in the crease. As he tried to cover up, Jamie Crooks was able to poke the puck into the net for a 4-0 lead.
Owsley was replaced by Alex Pechurskiy after Crooks' goal gave Chilliwack four goals on 13 shots.
"Drew got off to a great start in the series," Hiller said. "There were a couple of those tonight he'd like to have back. He'll be fine."
Tri-City had its chances through two periods with a 27-19 shot advantage and five power plays, but the Americans kept coming up empty.
Howse scored his second of the night at 8:08 of the third, coming down the right side and beating Pechurskiy to make it 5-0.
"We just wanted to come in and work hard," Howse said. "We were down 2-0 and didn't want to make it 3-0. (Today) will be the biggest game of the series other than Game 7. We don't want to be down 3-1, and I'm sure they don't want it to be 2-2."
Brendan Shinnimin ruined Gore's shutout at 11:27 of the third with a power-play goal, but the Chilliwack netminder had an outstanding game with 48 saves.
Kevin Sundher got things rolling in the opening period for the Bruins as he found an open net behind Owsley at 6:10. Howse topped things off at 18:43, again finding daylight behind Owsley, whose defense was spread too thin.
The Americans outshot the Bruins 15-10 in the first and held a 10-2 shot advantage early on. Brooks Macek had a breakaway just 2:32 into the game, but Gore shut him down.
Annie Fowler: 582-1574; afowler@tricityherald.com
