Tri-City Americans down 2-0 to Seattle in first round of playoffs
The Tri-City Americans find themselves in a bit of pickle after the first two games of their Western Conference playoff series with the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Seattle handed Tri-City a 5-2 loss Saturday in Kent to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
Games 3 and 4 of the series will be at Toyota Center Wednesday and Friday. Both games will start at 7:05 p.m. Tri-City is 23-11-2-0 on home ice this season, including two wins over Seattle.
The Thunderbirds, who won the opening game 4-2 on Friday, scored three goals in the last 5 minutes of the game to break a 2-2 tie and seal the win.
Matthew Wedman scored the game-winner at 15:03 of third. Donovan Neuls and Aaron Hyman scored late goals for Seattle, which outshot the Americans 41-30.
Trailing 2-0 after the first period, the Americans got a goal by Parker AuCoin at 16:21 of the second period, then Max James tied the score at 2-all with a power-play goal at 6:52 of the third period.
Tri-City goalie Rylan Parenteau stopped all 17 Seattle shots in the second period to keep Tri-City in the thick of things. He finished with 36 saves.
Seattle rookie goalie Carl Stankowski finished with 28 saves in just his ninth WHL game.
Thunderbirds 5, Americans 2
Tri-City | 0 | 1 | 1 | — | 2 |
Seattle | 2 | 0 | 3 | — | 5 |
First — 1, Sea, Volcan 1 (Strand, Tyszka), 8:55 (pp). 2, Sea, Eansor 1 (Hyman, Kolesar), 17:14. Penalties — Adams, Sea (elbowing), :32; Välimäki, TC (interference), 7:04; Gropp, Sea (slashing), 18:28.
Second — 3, TC, AuCoin 1 (Focht), 16:21. Penalties — Adams, Sea (interference), 12:44; Wotherspoon, TC (roughing), 19:43.
Third — 4, TC, James 1 (Sandhu, Välimäki), 6:52 (pp). 5, Sea, Wedman 1 (Strand, Adams), 15:03. 6, Sea, Neuls 1 (Bear, Gropp), 15:29 (pp). 7, Sea, Hyman 1 (Tyszka, True), 19:42 (pp). Penalties — Moilanen, Sea (boarding), 2:15; Moilanen, Sea (hooking), 5:13; Yorke, TC (charging), 15:10; James, TC (cross-checking), 19:35.
Shots — TC 9-10-11 — 30. Sea 11-17-13 — 41. Power plays — TC 1-5. Sea 3-4. Goalies — TC, Parenteau 0-2-1 (41 shots-36 saves). Sea, Stankowski 2-0-0 (30-28). Referees — Nick Swaine and Jeff Ingram. A — 4,502.
This story was originally published March 25, 2017 at 11:11 PM with the headline "Tri-City Americans down 2-0 to Seattle in first round of playoffs."