Americans come back big from break with 6-2 win over Portland
Parker AuCoin and Michael Rasmussen each scored a pair of goals, and the Tri-City Americans exploded out of the Christmas break with a 6-2 win over the Portland Winterhawks in WHL play Tuesday at Toyota Center.
AuCoin scored his goals just over three minutes apart to end the second period and start the third, helping the Americans (20-15-3-0, 43 points) turn a tie game into a comfortable margin.
Rasmussen’s 24th goal of the season came 3:32 into the second to tie the game at 1. He scored against at 16:13 of the third to slam the door shut. Tyler Sandhu and Vladislav Lukin added third-period goals as well.
Evan Sarthou stopped 23 of 25 shots in goal for Tri-City, which travels to Portland on Wednesday for a remaTRIh on the Winterhawks’ home ice.
Americans 6, Winterhawks 2
Winterhawks | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | 2 |
Tri-City | 0 | 2 | 4 | — | 6 |
First — 1, Portland, McKenzie 23 (Glass, Iverson), 2:57. Penalties-Veloso Por (tripping), 6:07; De Jong Por (cross checking), 8:03; Topping TRI (roughing), 13:38; Clayton Por (roughing, roughing), 15:33; Yorke TRI (roughing, roughing), 15:33; Overhardt Por (boarding), 17:22.
Second — 2, Tri-City, Rasmussen 24 (Lukin, Sandhu), 3:32 (PP). 3, Tri-City, AuCoin 10 (Coghlan), 19:07. Penalties-Gilliss Por (tripping), 2:01; Hobson Por (tripping), 7:30; De Jong Por (delay of game), 13:36.
Third — 4, Tri-City, AuCoin 11 (Olson), 2:14. 5, Portland, McKenzie 24 (Jokiharju, Glass), 5:40 (PP). 6, Tri-City, Sandhu 9 (Rasmussen, Yorke), 13:41. 7, Tri-City, Rasmussen 25 (Coghlan, Wotherspoon), 16:13 (PP). 8, Tri-City, Lukin 15 (Wotherspoon, Coghlan), 18:50 (PP). Penalties-Yorke TRI (elbowing), 5:08; MacEachern Por (tripping), 14:56; Clayton Por (roughing), 16:48; Yaremko TRI (roughing), 16:48; MacEachern Por (slashing), 17:18; Quigley Por (roughing), 18:12; Kehler Por (10-minute misconduct), 18:50; De Jong Por (holding, 10-minute misconduct), 19:12; AuCoin TRI (roughing), 19:12.
Shots — Portland 9-8-8-25. Tri-City 11-12-9-32. Power plays — Portland 1x2; Tri-City 3x9. Goalies — Portland, Kehler 15-12-0-0 (32 shots-26 saves). Tri-City, Sarthou 5-3-2-0 (25 shots-23 saves). A — 4,080
This story was originally published December 28, 2016 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Americans come back big from break with 6-2 win over Portland."