Sandhu scores twice as Tri-City Americans top Everett 5-3
The Tri-City Americans helped themselves to two big points Saturday night and got a little help along the way to stay in the race for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Tyler Sandhu had two goals and an assist, and rookie goalie Nick Sanders stopped 36 of 39 shots to back the Americans to a 5-3 victory over the Everett Silvertips at XFinity Arena.
Tri-City (31-31-2-1, 65 points) is four points back of No. 8 Spokane, which lost 4-1 at Prince George, and five points behind Portland, which dropped a 2-1 game at Seattle. The Americans host the Thunderbirds at 5:05 p.m. today.
The Americans jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period with goals by Michael Rasmussen and Jordan Topping, but the Silvertips (36-22-4-3, 79 points) turned the tables in the second.
Everett scored three unanswered goals in the first 11:54 of the second to take a 3-2 lead. Sandhu scored the first of his two goals at 14:10 to tie the score, and Morgan Geekie gave the Americans the lead for good at 15:21.
Sandhu struck again with 46 second left in the game to secure the win.
Sanders, who picked up his seventh win of the season, stopped all 17 shots he faced in the first period and 11 in the third.
Parker Bowles had three assists, giving him 131 for his career, moving past Darrell Hay (128). Bowles ranks 16th all-time for assists, and is one back of Tyler Schmidt and Blake Evans (132).
Bowles also moved into a tie with Evans for points scored (218), which ranks 16th all-time.
Americans 5, Silvertips 3
Tri-City | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | 5 |
Everett | 0 | 3 | 0 | — | 3 |
First — 1, TC, Rasmussen 16 (Rayman, James), 5:35. 2, TC, Topping 30 (Bowles, Sandhu), 6:58. Penalties — Bowles, TC (cross-checking), 3:21; Rayman, TC (cross-checking), 10:34; Bajkov, Evt (cross-checking), 19:59.
Second — 3, Evt, Fonteyne 14 (Stadnyk, Millar), 2:27 (pp). 4, Evt, Winkler 7 (King, Laurencelle), 10:54 (pp). 5, Evt, Fonteyne 15 (Juulsen), 11:54. 6, Sandhu 18 (Bowles), 14:10. 7, TC, Geekie 11 (Välimäki), 15:21. Penalties — Lukin, TC (roughing), 1:27; Yaremko, TC (boarding), 9:19.
Third — 8, TC, Sandhu 19 (Carlo, Bowles), 19:46. Penalties — None.
Shots — TC 8-9-8 — 25. Evt 17-11-11— 39. Power plays — TC 0-1. Evt 2-4. Goalies — TC, Sanders 7-3-0-1 (39 shots-36 saves). Evt, Hart 34-22-1-3 (25-20). Referees — Sean Raphael and Kyle Kowalski. A — 5,901.
This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 10:46 PM with the headline "Sandhu scores twice as Tri-City Americans top Everett 5-3."