Lukin scores in SO to lift Tri-City Americans over Spokane Chiefs
Vladislav Lukin scored the game-winner in the shootout to help the Tri-City Americans to a 5-4 victory over the Spokane Chief before a crowd of 10,118 at Spokane Arena.
Jordan Topping also scored in the shootout for the Americans, who finished their 12-game series against Spokane with a 10-2 record.
Tri-City (40-28-3-0, 83 points), which has won two games in a row, will host U.S. Division champion Everett on Sunday in the regular-season finale.
Tri-City sits one point back of Portland in the standings. An Americans win and a Winterhawks loss Sunday would have Tri-City playing Prince George in the playoffs. An Americans loss would have them matched up with Seattle in the first round.
Spokane, which is on a nine-game slide and missed out on the playoffs, will play at Portland on Sunday.
Spokane jumped out to a 2-0 lead just 4 1/2 minutes into the game with goals by Keanu Yamamoto and Jaret Anderson-Dolan.
The Americans got one goal back at 15:34 when Parker AuCoin made good on a penalty shot.
Ty Smith would score on the power play at 17:53 to give the Chiefs a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period.
Topping and Lukin would score back-to-back goals in the second period to pull into a tie with the Chiefs.
Anderson-Dolan would score his second of the night at 8:54of the third, only to see Tyler Sandhu knot the score at 4-all at 13:12.
In overtime, Spokane had a power-play after Parker Wotherspoon went to the penalty box. The Chiefs had two shots on goal in the extra session, one of which was stopped by Tri-City goalie Rylan Parenteau with a diving save.
Parenteau finished with 35 saves and picked up his 25th win of the season, tying a career best when he was with Prince Albert last year.
Americans 5, Spokane 4 (SO)
Tri-City | 1 | 2 | 1 0 | — | 5 |
Spokane | 3 | 0 | 1 0 | — | 4 |
First — 1, Spo, Ke.Yamamoto 24 (Zummack, Toporowski), 1:39. 2, Spo, Anderson-Dolan 38 (Ke.Yamamoto, Smith), 4:31. 3, TC, AuCoin 21, 15:34 (ps). 4, Spo, Smith 5 (Anderson-Dolan, Ka.Yamamoto), 17:53 (pp). Penalties — Wotherspoon, TC (hooking), 2:24; Välimäki, TC (hooking), 11:50; Geekie, TC (cross-checking), 17:46; Yorke, TC (slashing), 19:56; Cole, Spo (unsportsmanlike conduct), 19:56.
Second — 5, TC, Topping 25 (Coghlan, Sandhu), 5:39. 6, TC, Lukin 26 (Sandhu, Wotherspoon), 15:50 (pp). Penalties — Ostir, Spo (tripping), 14:56; Helgesen, Spo (hooking), 19:56.
Third — 7, Spo, Anderson-Dolan 39 (Elynuik, Ka.Yamamoto), 8:54. 8, TC, Sandhu 23 (Topping), 13:12. Penalties — O’Reilly, TC, minor-major (holding, fighting), 10:34; McIndoe, Spo, major (fighting), 10:34.
Ovetime — No scoring. Penalty — Wotherspoon, TC (hooking), 2:37.
Shots — TC 10-14-10-1 — 35. Spo 16-7-14-2 — 39. Power plays — TC 1-2. Spo 1-5. Shootout — TC 2 (Geekie NG, Topping G, Lukin G). Spo 1 (Woods G, Ke.Yamamoto NG, Anderson-Dolan NG). Goalies — TC, Parenteau 25-15-1-0 (39 shots-35 saves). Spo, Buskey 0-3-0-0 (35-31). Referees — Adam Griffiths and Jason Nissen. A — 10,118.
This story was originally published March 18, 2017 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Lukin scores in SO to lift Tri-City Americans over Spokane Chiefs."