Tri-City Americans take hot streak on the road

After a successful three-game homestand, the Tri-City Americans are taking their game on the road in the Central Division.

Tri-City (24-25-2-1, 51 points), which went 2-0-0-1 last week on home ice, also is 7-2-0-1 in its past 10 games. The Americans will play at the Kootenay Ice Tuesday, at Lethbridge on Friday, at Red Deer on Saturday, and will finish the trek at the Edmonton Oil Kings on Monday.

“Our guys have stepped up and elevated their level of play,” Tri-City coach Mike Williamson said. “We talked about the importance of these home game and the importance of points. The guys seemed to be hungry to get points and to climb and secure a playoff spot.”

The productive week has the Americans within three points of No. 8 Portland and five points back of No. 7 Kamloops in a race for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. They may need a little help along way to attain that goal, but for right now, they are helping themselves.

“We’ve put ourselves in position where we can see those teams,” Williamson said. “We are going out on the road for four tough games, so it will be important every night to get points. Those teams (ahead of us) may have a bit of an easier schedule while we’re gone, so we’ll have to take care of our thing.”

Kootenay (9-40-4-0), with 19 games left on the season, will finish below .500 for the first time since 1998-99. But Williamson is not chalking up the win just yet.

“Kootenay is not having a great season,” Williamson said. “They have had a lot of injuries to some key players. They work hard and have surprised a couple of teams — they beat Lethbridge, the No. 1 team (in the Central Division), the other night. We have to continue to get better and play our game. We are not in a position to take any team lightly.”

After Kootenay, the trip doesn’t get any easier.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes (37-16-0-0, 74 points) lead the Central Division and the Eastern Conference and have the third-best record in the WHL. Red Deer (34-16-1-2, 71 points) is right on Lethbridge’s tail.

“They are two of the top teams, for sure,” Williamson said. “Lethbridge is an extremely fast-paced offensive team and is exceeding everyone’s expectations this year. They are playing with a lot of confidence and excitement. That will be a good test for us. Red Deer has really loaded up for the Memorial Cup. They have an extremely deep lineup in all positions. There won’t a lot of time and space in that game. We will have to take things a game at a time and hopefully give ourselves an opportunity to get points.”

Against Lethbridge, the Americans will see a familiar face in Justin Gutierrez, who spent the past three season suiting up for Tri-City.

Gutierrez has 22 goals and 49 points for the Hurricanes. He had 18 goals and 59 points in three seasons with the Americans.

“Gutz was a big part of our team the last few years and is a good buddy to a lot of us,” said Tri-City defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, who ranks sixth in scoring among defensemen in the WHL with 46 points (10 goals, 36 assists). “It will be weird seeing him on the other side, but once you step on the ice, there are no friends.”

While Parker Bowles continues to lead the team in goals (29) and scoring (69 points), the rest of the team has stepped up its game. Jordan Topping has points in five of his past six games, while Tyler Sandhu has a four-game point streak with four goals and four assists.

“Tyler has really stepped up,” Williamson said. “We saw it right after Christmas break, a jump in his step. We talked about it a little bit and it didn’t necessarily equate to points right away, but he had that extra step and looked confident, and he’s stepped up to help get us some points. He’s playing key minutes for us. Everyone has stepped up and played well over this last little while, and that has allowed us to reduce everybody’s minutes. We are playing at a high pace and getting contributions from everyone.”

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 8:50 PM with the headline "Tri-City Americans take hot streak on the road."