Americans hold on down the stretch to beat Kelowna

Beck Warm didn’t care if he got a shutout, he just wanted a win.

The Tri-City Americans goalie stopped 33 of 34 pucks Tuesday night, and the team blocked a bevy of shots in front of him to hold on for a 2-1 win over the Kelowna Rockets before a crowd of 2,783 at Toyota Center.

“I thought Beck played very well for us,” said Tri-City coach Mike Williamson, whose team is 3-0 on home ice. “We showed a lot of character there toward the end blocking shots and selling out for the team.”

The Americans, who play at Everett on Wednesday, improved to 6-4-0-0 (12 points) and sit second in the U.S. Division behind Portland. Kelowna dropped to 4-4-1-1 (10 points).

Tri-City held a 1-0 lead from the middle of the first period until Nolan Yaremko scored his second of the night at 12:24 of the third, skating across the crease and backhanding the puck over Kelowna goalie James Porter’s shoulder.

“It was a good game,” said Yaremko, who was playing his 150th WHL game. “Our forecheck was going and we were playing good hockey. My linemates (Parker AuCoin and Isaac Johnson) were playing great. If we play that way, we are hard to beat. Parker blocked a lot of shots — he’s a team-first kinda guy.”

With 2:38 left in the game, Tri-City’s Jordan Topping was assessed a five-minute major for boarding, and a game misconduct, for a hit on Kelowna’s Jack Cowell.

While Topping was done for the night, Cowell jumped right out on the ensuing power play. Just seconds into the man advantage, the Rockets pulled Porter for an extra attacker, and Dillon Dube finally beat Warm at 18:25 to make the game interesting at 2-1.

The Rockets still had 1:35 remaining, but could not get the tying goal.

“Kelowna is a good team, but the boys came through, blocking shots,” Warm said. “There had to have been 10 in the last five minutes. The only thing that matters is the win.”

The Rockets held a 12-11 shot advantage in the first period, but it would be the Americans with a 1-0 lead.

On a two-on-two up the ice, Yaremko followed up a shot by AuCoin at 10:24, beating Porter in the slot for his first goal of the season.

Tri-City had a prime scoring chance at 6:02 as Mitchell Brown fed Brett Leason a cross-ice pass off the wall. Porter got his pad down just in time to keep the puck out of the net.

The second period saw the Rockets outshoot the Americans 10-3, but could not get anything past Warm, who had 22 saves through two periods.

At the other end, Michael Rasmussen had a power-play goal waived off 34 seconds into the period because he put it in with a high stick. He had another close call at 12:15, ringing the puck off the cross bar.

“I thought in the second period we gave them a little bit of ice,” Williamson said. “We had quite a few scoring chances. We could have given ourselves an easier time.”

With assistant coach Brian Pellerin away with Team BC at the WHL Cup, former Tri-City and NHL goalie Olie Kolzig was on the bench with Williamson.

“There’s obviously a ton of tradition with Olie and Stu (Barnes),” Williamson said of the team’s co-owners. “He talked to the boys about pride for the team, and tradition. It was fun with him out there.”

NOTES: Tri-City forward Max James served the third of his WHL-imposed four-game suspension. He also will miss Wednesday’s game at Everett. ... The Americans acquired defenseman, Anthony Bishop, 19, from the Victoria Royals for future considerations. Bishop has played 110 WHL games between Saskatoon, Seattle and Victoria.

This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 11:26 PM with the headline "Americans hold on down the stretch to beat Kelowna."