Tri-City Americans misfire on special teams, drop first game of series to Seattle
The Seattle Thunderbirds gave Tri-City plenty of chances Friday night to get in the game, stay in the game, and win the game, but the Americans failed to take advantage of their opportunities.
Tri-City went 0-for-7 on the power play, and Morgan Geekie came up empty on a third-period penalty shot as the Thunderbirds held on for a 4-2 victory in the opening game of their Western Conference first-round playoff series in Kent.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is Saturday in Kent. The series shifts to Toyota Center for Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday and March 31.
Seattle rookie goalie Carl Stankowski, in just his eighth start, finished with 33 saves, including a key stop of Geekie on the penalty shot that would have tied the score.
With the Thunderbirds holding a 2-1 lead after two periods, Austin Strand scored at 4:50 of the third for a 3-1 Seattle lead.
Tri-City’s Austyn Playfair got the goal back 2 1/2 minutes later, intercepting a Seattle pass and beating Stankowski short-handed.
The Americans, who killed off back-to-back penalties, had four short-handed chances to get back in the game. Playfair connected, but Geekie missed the penalty shot and Parker AuCoin was denied.
Tri-City had two opportunities on the power play with under 8 minutes to play, but could not beat Stankowski.
Keegan Kolesar, who scored the first goal of the game for Seattle, also scored the last with 2:14 to play to seal the win.
Rylan Parenteau finished with 27 saves for Tri-City, while Jordan Topping scored in the first period.
Thunderbirds 4, Americans 2
Tri-City | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | 2 |
Seattle | 2 | 0 | 2 | — | 4 |
First — 1, Sea, Kolesar 1 (True, E.Bear), 5:37. 2, Sea, Gropp 1 (Kolesar, E.Bear), 8:50 (pp). 3, TC, Topping 1 (Sandhu, Yorke), 10:10. Penalties — Tyszka, Sea (closing hand on puck), 1:42; Wotherspoon, TC (tripping), 8:35; True, Sea (hooking), 10:56; Eansor, Sea (boarding), 19:02.
Second — No scoring. Penalties — Adams, Sea (checking from behind), 2:57; O’Reilly, TC (cross-checking), 6:22; Moilanen, Sea (high-sticking), 12:28; Lukin, TC (check to the head), 16:49.
Third — 4, Sea, Strand 1 (Moilanen, Hyman), 4:50. 5, TC, Playfair 1, 7:26 (sh). 6, Sea, Kolesar 2 (Neuls, Ottenbreit), 17:46. Penalties — Geekie, TC (tripping), 6:38; Välimäki, TC (high-sticking), 8:25; Wedman, Sea (tripping), 12:13; Kolesar, Sea (hooking), 15:35; Olson, TC (roughing), 15:47; E.Bear, Sea (roughing), 15:47; Fuller, TC (roughing, misconduct), 19:53; James, TC (misconduct), 20:00; Playfair, TC (cross-checking), 20:00; Yorke, TC (misconduct), 20:00; Strand, Sea (misconduct), 20:00.
Shots — TC 12-4-19— 35. Sea 9-11-11 — 32. Power plays — TC 0-7. Sea 1-6. Missed penalty shot — TC, Geekie, 9:39 of third. Goalies — TC, Parenteau 0-1-0 (31 shots- 27 saves). Sea, Stankowski 1-0-0 (35-33). Referees — Sean Raphael and Kevin Bennett. A — 3,359.
This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Tri-City Americans misfire on special teams, drop first game of series to Seattle."