Tri-City Americans throttle East-leading Moose Jaw
The Tri-City Americans on Wednesday night were facing a Moose Jaw Warriors club coming off three consecutive wins over U.S. Division teams. There wouldn’t be a fourth.
Perfect on home ice this season, the Americans extended their run at Toyota Center to five games with an 8-4 thrashing of the Eastern Conference-leading Warriors before a crowd of 2,527.
Jordan Topping had two goals and two assists, Dylan Coghlan handed out four assists, and Beck Warm finished with 32 saves as the Americans ran their overall win streak to a league best six games.
“I thought we played well,” Tri-City coach Mike Williamson said. “We had good goaltending, Beck stood his ground. Our offense came to life, and that is the best our defense has moved and got the puck up ice.”
The Americans (9-4-0-0, 18 points) threw a speed bump in front of the speeding Warriors (10-4-0-0, 20 points), who are ranked No. 4 in this week’s CHL poll.
“We came in wanting to win and to keep our home streak going,” Topping said. “We beat a team that was highly touted in the East. It was a good team effort. It was good to get everyone involved. It’s a confidence booster for the guys.”
Warm stopped all 13 Moose Jaw shots in the first period. He allowed two goals in the second, but also made some spectacular saves, including a stop on a Tanner Jeannot breakaway with just under 6 minutes left in the period.
“I’m pretty exhausted,” Warm said. “They are a pretty relentless team. Even when we were up three or four goals, they were still coming.
“This was pretty awesome for the fans. We like to give them a show every night.”
Tri-City took a 1-0 lead in the first period with a goal by Isaac Johnson, and quashed two Moose Jaw power plays late in the period to keep its lead intact.
In the second, the Americans increased their lead to 4-2 as Topping, Parker AuCoin and Riley Sawchuk beat Moose Jaw goalie Brody Willms in a span of 3 minutes.
Oleg Sosunov and Justin Almeida scored for the Warriors, who also had Jeannot denied on a breakaway by Warm with just under 6 minutes left in the period.
Morgan Geekie started a four-goal barrage in the third period that helped the Americans put the game out of reach for good. Geekie also finished the night with two assists.
Michael Rasmussen followed with a power-play goal, Topping added his second of the night, and rookie Sasha Mutala finished things up with a goal at 10:58 for an 8-3 lead.
Jett Woo scored a power-play goal for the Warriors at 12:26, but that would be as close as they would get.
“This was a good test for us,” Williamson said. “They were a good hockey team. We had a challenge in front of us, and we responded well.”
The Americans take their game on the road this weekend with games in Kelowna on Friday and at Kamloops on Saturday.
NOTES: After the game, the Americans announced they traded forward Brett Leason, 18, to the Prince Albert Raiders for a third-round bantam draft pick in 2018. Leason had one goal in 12 games this season. He did not play against Moose Jaw.
Americans 8, Warriors 4
Moose Jaw | 0 | 2 | 2 | — | 4 |
Tri-City | 1 | 3 | 4 | — | 8 |
First — 1, TC, Johnson 4 (James, Coghlan), 5:37. Penalties — Howden, MJ (hooking), 3:31; Coghlan, TC (tripping), 16:02; AuCoin, TC (slashing), 18:02.
Second — 2, MJ, Sosunov 5 (Woo, Klatt), 5:44. 3, TC, Topping 10 (Coghlan, Geekie), 8:41. 4, TC, AuCoin 4 (Focht), 9:39. 5, MJ, Almeida 8 (Burke), 11:05. 6, TC, Sawchuk 1 (Brown, Clayton), 11:46. Penalties — Howden, MJ (hooking), 15:45.
Third — 7, MJ, Howden 7, :54. 8, TC, Geekie 4 (Mutala, Topping), 5:13. 9, TC, Rasmussen 6 (Välimäki, Topping), 6:24 (pp). 10, TC, Topping 11 (Coghlan), 9:03 (pp). 11, TC, Mutala 2 (Geekie, Coghlan), 10:58. 12, MJ, Woo 6 (Burke, Hartje), 12:26 (pp). Penalties — Woo, MJ (boarding), 6:11; Kaluski, MJ (high-sticking), 8:20; Jeannot, MJ (unsportsmanlike conduct), 8:20; Rasmussen, TC (unsportsmanlike conduct), 8:20; MJ bench (unsportsmanlike conduct, served by DeRoose), 8:20; DeRoose, MJ, major (fighting), 10:43; James, TC, major (fighting), 10:43; Olson, TC (tripping), 11:00; Kaluski, MJ (goalie interference), 19:57.
Shots — MJ 13-14-9 — 36. TC 11-16-10 — 37. Power plays — MJ 1-3. TC 2-6. Goalies — MJ, Willms 8-4-0-0 (37 shots-29 saves). TC, Warm 5-2-0-0 (36-32). Referees — Mark Pearce and Adam Griffiths. A — 2,527.
Annie Fowler: 509-582-1574, @TCHIceQueen
This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 11:12 PM with the headline "Tri-City Americans throttle East-leading Moose Jaw."