Portland holds off Tri-City Americans 4-3 in Western Hockey League action
The Western Hockey League’s U.S. Division standings got a little tighter Wednesday night with the host Portland Winterhawks handing the Tri-City Americans a 4-3 loss at Memorial Coliseum.
Henri Jokiharju had a goal and two assists to lead Portland (20-17-1-0, 41 points). The Winterhawks pulled within two points of the Americans (20-16-3-0, 43 points), who have lost four of their past five games.
Everett leads the U.S. Division with 56 points, followed by Tri-City, Portland, Seattle (40 points) and Spokane (36), which hosts Tri-City on Friday.
The Americans took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period with goals by Morgan Geekie and Parker AuCoin, but the Winterhawks countered with back-to-back goals to take a 3-2 lead at the end of the second.
A goal by Colton Veloso at 16:55 of the third gave Portland a 4-2 lead.
Tri-City’s Michael Rasmussen scored with 30.8 seconds remaining in regulation to make it 4-3, but the Americans ran out of time.
Evan Sarthou finished with 38 saves for Tri-City, which was a woeful 0 for 7 on the power play.
Winterhawks 4, Americans 3
Tri-City | 2 | 0 | 1 | — | 3 |
Portland | 1 | 2 | 1 | — | 4 |
First — 1, Por, Texeira 8 (Jokiharju), 1:33 (pp). 2, TC, Geekie 20 (Topping, Leason), 2:16. 3, TC, AuCoin 12 (Sawchuk, Wotherspoon), 5:01. Penalties — Wotherspoon, TC (roughing), 1:11; Yorke, TC (roughing), 1:11; McKenzie, Por (roughing), 1:11; Jokiharju, Por (tripping), 3:00; Iverson, Por (hooking), 12:54; Iverson, Por (interference), 15:25; Rasmussen, TC (tripping), 16:37; Iverson, Por (misconduct), 17:34; O’Reilly, TC (misconduct), 18:20; Yaremko, TC (roughing), 18:20; Glass, Por (slashing), 1820; McKenzie, Por (misconduct), 18:20; Weinger, Por (roughing), 18:20.
Second — 4, Por, De Jong 6 (MacEachern), 1:38. 5, Por, Jokiharju 6 (Iverson, Hughes), 17:17 (pp). Penalties — Glass, Por (boarding), 2:45; Coghlan, TC (roughing), 12:17; Ginnell, Por (roughing), 12;17; Sandhu, TC (tripping), 13:43; Wotherspoon, TC (tripping), 16:16.
Third — 6, Por, Veloso 9 (Jokiharju), 16:55. 7, TC, Rasmussen 26 (Sandhu, Lukin), 19:30. Penalties — Glass, Por (interference), 5:37; Jeri-Leon, TC (hooking), 8:54; Wotherspoon, TC (slashing), 18:21; Hughes, Por (hooking), 18:21; Sharp, Por (roughing), 18:21; Topping, TC (roughing), 19:19.
Shots — TC 13-12-11 — 36. Por 14-13-15 — 42. Power plays — TC 0-7. Por 2-5. Goalies — TC, Sarthou 5-4-2-0 (42 shots-38 saves). Por, Bullion 5-5-1-0 (36-33). Referees — Ward Pateman and Shane Warschaw. A — 6,148.
This story was originally published December 28, 2016 at 10:32 PM with the headline "Portland holds off Tri-City Americans 4-3 in Western Hockey League action."