Seattle Thunderbirds hold off Tri-City Americans for key U.S. Division win

The Tri-City Americans got trapped in foxhole Friday night and couldn’t make it to safety before the final horn.

Donovan Neuls scored a short-handed goal at 8:47 of the third period to lift the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 4-3 victory over the Americans before a Military Appreciation Night crowd of 4,996 at Toyota Center.

Seattle (27-15-3-1, 58 points) picked up two big points against the Americans (29-19-3-0, 61 points) in the U.S. Division standings. The teams play again Sunday in Kent.

Tri-City will host Spokane on Saturday, while Seattle hosts division-leading Everett, which dropped a 4-1 home game Friday to Portland.

“Points are going to have a huge importance down the stretch,” said Tri-City coach Mike Williamson, whose team is 0-3 against Seattle this season. “We have five games remaining against Seattle and we need to find a way to get points against them.”

The Americans trailed the Thunderbirds 3-2 heading into the third period, but not for long.

Michael Rasmussen scored his second of the night at 7:38 on the power play, redirecting a shot from the point by Juuso Välimäki, to tie the score at 3.

Tri-City was back on the power play less than a minute later, but it would be Seattle scoring its second short-handed goal of the night to retake the lead.

Neuls knocked the puck away from Rasmussen at the blue line, went in alone on Tri-City goalie Rylan Parenteau, and went top shelf for his 10th goal of the season.

“I just kind of waited him out,” Neuls said of Parenteau. “I saw him bite on the first move and I put it over his shoulder. This was a big game for both of us. We have to take care of our games against them to climb up the standings.”

Rasmussen, who had a three-point, took responsibility for the loss.

“I made a bad move there in the third. I take the blame for this game,” Rasmussen said. “It’s hard when you make a mistake and cost your team.”

Williamson said Rasmussen was not to blame.

“It’s my responsibility,” he said. “I run the power play. Our power play has been terrific, we just had a couple of plays that went against us.”

The Americans found themselves playing catchup all night.

After cutting Seattle’s lead to 2-1 in the first, Americans found themselves down by two goals midway through the second.

With Tri-City working on a power play, Seattle’s Ryan Gropp knocked the puck away from Tri-City’s Vladislav Lukin at the blue line and headed up ice.

Parenteau stopped Gropp with a sprawling save, but Alexander True was there to put the puck int he net for a 3-21 Seattle lead.

Jordan Topping, playing his 150th WHL game, got the goal back for the Americans, beating Seattle goalie Rylan Toth from the top of the right circle for a 3-2 game.

It didn’t take long for the Thunderbirds to find the net Friday night as Ethan Bear scored on a delayed penalty at 1:57 of the first, and with Brendan O’Reilly’s offense a double minor for high-sticking, Seattle went on the power play.

Seconds after Gropp rang the puck off the cross bar, Turner Ottenbreit’s wrist shot from the right circle beat Parenteau at 3:19 for a 2-0 lead.

The Americans looked to get back in the game with a power play at 5:22, but midway through the man advantage, an issue with the glass behind Toth delayed the game about 15 minutes, taking the momentum out of the play.

Tri-City would pull within 2-1 at 17:48 as Parker Wotherspoon zipped the puck across the ice to Rasmussen, who beat Toth for his team-leading 31st goal of the season.

This story was originally published January 27, 2017 at 11:06 PM with the headline "Seattle Thunderbirds hold off Tri-City Americans for key U.S. Division win."