By the looks of it, you would never know Prince Albert is on the tail end of a long road trip through the U.S. Division.
The Tri-City Americans needed every one of the 29 saves by Ty Rimmer to hold off the Raiders 2-1 on Wednesday night before a crowd of 3,106 at Toyota Center.
"This is Bruno's (Campese) team, that comes as no surprise," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller, whose team improved to 4-0 on home ice. "We had a lot of chances, but we also gave up too many. We are fortunate Ty was as good as he was."
Prince Albert, 2-2 on its biennial trip through the U.S. Division, will finish at Spokane on Friday.
"We expended a lot of energy-killing penalties," said Campese, whose team gave Tri-City eight power plays. "We did a good job on the penalty kill. We were able to keep it close. We got down by two and didn't give up."
The Raiders (3-6-0-1) trailed 2-0 heading into the third. After killing off three penalties, they finally were rewarded as Shane Danyluk banged a rebound into the net at 17:51, ending a shutout bid for Rimmer.
"That's tough to see when there is two minutes left and one gets by you," Rimmer said. "They had a tough forecheck going in the third. At the end of the day, we got the win and we will take it."
The Americans were 1-for-8 on the power play, and killed off both penalties in the second period.
The first time the Americans went on the penalty kill was midway through the second, and Tri-City defenseman Zach Yuen ate up a chunk of time on the clock, weaving his way through four Prince Albert players around and behind the net -- and managing two shots on goal in the process -- before the Raiders regained control.
Tri-City gave the Raiders another power play late in the period, but it was the Americans who found the net.
Defenseman Mitch Topping cleared the puck down the length of the ice and PA goalie Cole Holowenko put his stick on the ice to stop the puck, but it ricocheted out front. Brendan Shinnimin picked up the loose puck and beat Holowenko at the right post with 29 seconds left in the period for his first goal of the season and the game-winner.
It took most of the first period for the Americans to find their groove, but once they did, things came together.
Working on their second power play, Yuen made a cross-ice pass to Brian Williams in the left circle, who in turn put the puck over Holowenko's glove for his second goal of the season at 16:42.
Tri-City missed out on two prime opportunities on their first two power plays, failing to connect on passes around the net, and Topping picked up a loose puck at 15:49 and went in on Holowenko, but his shot went off the post.
"We could have done things better," Yuen said. "They outworked us. We came out with a win, but it wasn't a good game for us. We had chances and could bury them. We need to finish our chances."
Holowenko finished with 37 saves, stopping all 16 Tri-City shots in the third to keep PA in the game.
