Tri-City rallies to beat Everett in home opener
Wearing replica gold and black jerseys from 1988 in their 30th home opener Saturday night, the Tri-City Americans drew a little inspiration from their past to rally for a 5-4 victory over Everett at Toyota Center.
Juuso Välimäki netted his first goal of the season to tie the score at 4-all with 3:15 to play, and Morgan Geekie blasted the game winner in the net with 1:04 remaining in regulation as the Americans avoided going 0-3 to open the season.
“It’s early in the season, but we needed that win after dropping the first two,” Tri-City coach Mike Williamson said. “We reset after the second period, and our veteran guys led the way for us. We did a good job of coming back.”
It was the first game of the season for Välimäki, who rejoined the team earlier in the week after an extended stay at the Calgary Flames camp.
“Winning is always nice,” said Välimäki, who also had two assists. “It was a great team effort in the third period. I had a great time in Calgary, and this is likely my last year here. This is a great group of guys and I’m just trying to enjoy every moment here.”
Tied at 4-all with time winding down, the Americans brought the puck in the Everett zone, and Jordan Topping fed the puck to Geekie at the top of the circles. Geekie beat Carter Hart with a quick shot, bringing the crowd of 4,475 at Toyota Center to their feet.
“It’s a game we needed to win,” Geekie said. “As the game wore on, it got a little worrisome. We turned it up in the third and that helped us. There was a little nostalgia in the rink.”
Isaac Johnson scored the first home goal of the season for the Americans, beating Doorin Luding just 1:58 into the action.
Matt Fonteyne scored the first of his two goals on the night at 4:29 on the power play, putting the puck over Beck Warm’s left shoulder to even the score.
As they did in the first, the Americans scored within the first two minutes of the second as Dylan Coghlan’s blast from the point caromed in and out of the net at 1:39.
A loose puck in Tri-City’s end ended up in the net at 5:41. The Americans could not get their sticks on the bouncing puck, but Orrin Centazzo did, and he beat Warm on a second-chance effort.
Luding went down in his crease at 7:17 of the second after contact with a Tri-City defenseman. Hart, fresh off a win over Kelowna on Friday, came on in relief for the Silvertips. He finished with 23 saves.
Everett took advantage of an odd-man rush 3 1/2 minutes later, and Fonteyne scored his second goal at 10:34 for a 3-2 lead.
Five minutes later, the Americans pulled even as Brett Leason scored low on the glove side of Hart off a give-and-go with Johnson, who had two assists for a three-point night.
Warm, in his second start of the season, finished with 33 saves.
Americans 5, Silvertips 4
Everett | 1 | 2 | 1 | — | 4 |
Tri-City | 1 | 2 | 2 | — | 5 |
First — 1, TC, Johnson 1 (Välimäki, Focht), 1:58; 2, Evt, Fonteyne 4 (Bajkov, Davis), 4:29 (pp). Penalties — Stewart, TC (hooking), 4:22; Topping, TC (roughing), 6:58; Dewar, Evt (unsportsmanlike conduct-embellishing), 13:30; James, TC (tripping), 13:30; Richards, Evt (unsportsmanlike conduct), 14:03; Yaremko, TC (unsportsmanlike conduct), 14:03; Kindopp, Evt (tripping), 19:37.
Second — 3, TC, Coghlan 1 (Johnson), 1:39. 4, Evt, Centazzo 1 (Azhgirei), 5:41. 5, Evt, Fonteyne 5 (Dewar, Davis), 10:34. 6, TC, Leason 1 (Johnson, Välimäki), 15:30. Penalties — None.
Third — 7, Evt, Dewar 2 (Fonteyne, Bajkov), 2:39. 8, TC, Välimäki 1 (Geekie), 16:45. 9, TC, Geekie 1 (Topping, Olson), 18:56.. Penalties — None.
Shots — Evt 16-11-10 — 37. TC 6-14-15 — 35. Power plays — Evt 1-2. TC 0-1. Goalies — Evt, Ludig (9 shots-7 saves), Hart 1-1-0-0 (7:17 of 2nd, 26-23). TC, Warm 1-1-0-0 (37-33). Referees — Mike Campbell and Mark Pearce. A — 4,475.
This story was originally published September 30, 2017 at 11:06 PM with the headline "Tri-City rallies to beat Everett in home opener."