Tri-City Americans rested and ready to go against Kootenay and Everett

As the Tri-City Americans head for the homestretch this season, they are left with the uneasy notion that every other team in the U.S. Division has games in hand — anywhere from three to six.

They can take comfort in the fact that of their 24 remaining games, 15 are in the friendly confines of Toyota Center, where the Americans are 13-5-2-0 this season.

You can play what if and run through plot scenarios, but Tri-City coach Mike Williamson said it will come down to taking care of business.

“I like our schedule,” Williamson said. “We have a good balance of home games. We don’t have as many games, and other teams can make up some ground, but we don’t have three in three nights or four games in five nights. We can keep guys healthy. If we were chasing and needed points for the playoffs, we’d be more concerned. We just need to take care of what we can do.”

Tri-City (28-17-3-0, 59 points) returns from a six-game trek through the East Division where it went 6-0. The Americans play their next four games on home ice, starting Friday against the Kootenay Ice (11-27-7-1, 30 points), who are last in the Central Division and have lost six in a row to the Americans.

“They’ve got nothing to lose,” Williamson said. “They will play hard. They are coming off a big win. (Kurtis) Rutledge is there, and he’ll have some motivation playing against his former team. Hopefully we get off to a good start.”

The Americans will play host to U.S. Division-leading Everett (28-6-7-1, 64 points) on Saturday. The Silvertips, who will play five games this week, have six games in hand on Tri-City and a five-point lead in the standings. The teams have split their six games this season.

Seattle, which is third behind Tri-City in the division standings, trails the Americans by seven points and also has six games in hand.

“We always keep on eye on it, but ultimately we have to take care of our games,” Williamson said. “We want to make sure we establish ourselves at home in the second half.”

While Tri-City has won eight of its past 10 games, Everett in 5-2-2-1 over the same span of games, including a 2-1-1-0 record with Carter Hart in net. Hart leads the WHL in goals against average at 1.94.

The Americans had success on the road, thanks in large part to their special teams. They were 8 of 25 on the power play 32 percent, and killed off 25 of 27 (92 percent) opposing power plays.

Tri-City ranks third in the WHL on the power play (26.9 percent) and is No. 2 on home ice at 32.1 percent, just behind the top-ranked Regina Pats. The Americans also are tied for fourth with Kamloops in the penalty kill at 82.7 percent and are fourth in home games at 84.2 percent.

The Americans’ success on the power play is spearheaded by Michael Rasmussen, who is tied for the first in the WHL with 14 power-play goals, and veteran forward Tyler Sandhu, who is tied for first with 22 power-play assists.

Morgan Geekie has tossed in 11 power-play goals and leads Tri-City in scoring with 56 points. Rasmussen leads the team with 30 goals.

“Special teams will continue to be important,” Williamson said. “As you get to the end of the season, there tend to be fewer power-play opportunities. We need to be good 5-on-5. The biggest thing is we haven’t been predictable on the power play. We have done different things. We have had a lot of shots from the point. Our defensemen are willing to shoot the puck, and it makes it tougher to defend.”

After two weeks on the road, Williamson gave his players a lighter work schedule this week, but it was needed.

“We used the week mostly to get the guys some rest,” he said. “The mental and physical rest was good for them. We had a couple of practices, but with the weather not as much as we had planned.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2017 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Tri-City Americans rested and ready to go against Kootenay and Everett."