Americans drop another game on home ice, this time to Saskatoon
In what should have been a stretch of home games to reel in some points, the Tri-City Americans aren’t even batting .500.
Cameron Hebig had a goal and two assists Tuesday to lead the Saskatoon Blades to a 5-2 victory over the Americans at Toyota Center.
The Americans (14-8-2-0, 30 points), who at point this season had won seven games in a row on home ice, are 2-3 in their past five games at Toyota Center.
It was a big win for the Blades (10-12-2-1, 23 points), who had won just three of their past 10 games.
Saskatoon jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period, only to see Nolan Yaremko get one goal back for the Americans on the power play at 11:34.
The Blades scored just 26 seconds onto the second period and led 3-1 until Paycen Bjorklund scored his first WHL goal at 16:54 to make it a one-goal game.
It was all Saskatoon in the third, which got goals from Bradley Goethals and Braylon Shmyr to put the game out of reach.
Patrick Dea finished with 38 saves for Tri-City as the Blades outshot the Americans 43-28.
The Americans again played without forward Michael Rasmussen (upper body) and defenseman Juuso Välimäki (lower body), who both have missed the past three games with undisclosed injuries.
Tri-City also played its second game without defenseman Dylan Coghlan, who was serving a league-imposed two-game suspension.
The Americans continue their seven-game homestand Friday against Seattle in their annual Teddy Bear Toss Game.
Blades 5, Americans 2
Saskatoon | 2 | 1 | 2 | — | 5 |
Tri-City | 1 | 1 | 0 | — | 2 |
First — 1, Sas, Cameron Hebig 21 (Hajek, Dach), 8:10 (pp). 2, Sas, Paterson 8 (Dach, Fiala), 9:22. 3, TC, Yaremko 7 (Olson, Geekie), 11:34 (pp).
Second — 4, Sas, Fantillo 7 (Fiala, Hebig), :26. 5, TC, Bjorklund 1 (Johnson), 16:54.
Third — 6, Sas, Goethals 6 (Ramsay, Caller), 10:35. 7, Sas, Shmyr 13 (Paterson, Hebig), 19:43 (en).
Shots — Sas 12-19-12 —43. TC 8-10-10 — 28. Power plays — Sas 1-6. TC 1-6. Goalies — Sas, Maier 2-2-0-1 (28 shots-26 saves). TC, Dea 7-5-2-0 (42-38). Referees — Troy Paterson and Nick Swaine. A — 2,676.
This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 9:55 PM with the headline "Americans drop another game on home ice, this time to Saskatoon."