Tri-City Americans rout Victoria on the road
After having their four-game win streak snapped Friday night, the Tri-City Americans started anew Saturday, getting goals by five players in a 5-1 road victory over the Victoria Royals.
The Americans (13-7-1-0, 27 points) pulled within three points of U.S. Division-leading Everett, and have a 10-point lead over Seattle and Spokane.
Tri-City will host the Calgary Hitmen on Wednesday in the first of nine consecutive home games.
Morgan Geekie opened the scoring for the Americans at 14:40 of the first, only to see the Royals tie things up with 38 seconds remaining in the period with a goal by Matthew Phillips.
That would be it for Victoria (11-8-2-0, 24 points), which had six power plays, but couldn’t get anything past Tri-City goalie Evan Sarthou, who finished with 24 saves.
Parker AuCoin and Vladislav Lukin added goals for Tri-City in the second period, while Michael Rasmussen and Kurtis Rutledge scored in the third.
Tyler Sandhu handed out three assists on the night, and is ranked second in the WHL with 21.
For Rasmussen, it was his 17th goal of the season, which leads the league.
Americans 5, Royals 1
Tri-City | 1 | 2 | 2 | — | 5 |
Victoria | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | 1 |
First — 1, TC, Geekie 10 (Sandhu, Välimäki), 14:40 (pp). 2, Vic, Phillips 12 (Soy, Walker), 19:22 (pp). Penalties — Yorke, TC (kneeing), 6:33; Walker, Vic (tripping), 12:49; Wotherspoon, TC (tripping), 18:37; Yorke, TC (roughing), 19:04.
Second — 3, TC, AuCoin 8 (Yaremko, Rutledge), 8:43. 4, TC, Lukin 11 (Rasmussen, Sandhu), 11:46. Penalties — Rasmussen, TC (slashing), 9:37; Focht, TC (tripping), 12:09; Wotherspoon, TC (unsportsmanlike conduct), 19:55; Folk, Vic (unsportsmanlike conduct), 19:55.
Third — 5, TC, Rasmussen 17 (Sandhu), 4:18. 6, TC, Rutledge 2 (Wotherspoon, Geekie), 19:45. Penalties — O’Reilly, TC (interference), 11:03; Gagnon, Vic (interference), 14:58; Jeri-Leon (slashing), 18:42; Phillips, Vic (high-sticking), 18:42; Nagy, Vic (slashing), 19:35.
Shots — TC 10-8-8 — 26. Vic 7-8-10 — 25. Power plays — TC 2-4. Vic 1-6. Goalies — TC, Sarthou 2-0-0-0 (25 shots-24 saves). Vic, Myskiw 0-2-0-1 (26-21). Referees — Bryan Bourdon and Sean Raphael. A — 4,251.
This story was originally published November 12, 2016 at 10:06 PM with the headline "Tri-City Americans rout Victoria on the road."