Americans get stuffed by Seattle on Teddy Bear night

In the longest wait for a Teddy Bear goal in Tri-City Americans history, defenseman Dylan Coghlan scored at 12:47 of the third period, but in the end it would be the Seattle Thunderbirds knocking the stuffing out of the Americans.

Zach Andrusiak scored two goals in the second period, and Tyler Carpendale had a goal and an assist as the Thunderbirds ended a four-game slide with a 5-1 victory Friday at Toyota Center.

I thought we had some good jump early,” Tri-City coach Mike Williamson said. “Then we made some plays you can’t make and it ended up in the back of our net. Then we were chasing. We have to be more mature. Even if the scoreboard doesn’t favor us, we need to stick to our game and give ourselves a chance.”

The Americans (14-9-2-0, 30 points), who have lost two in a row and are 2-4 during their seven-game homestand, will host rival Spokane on Saturday.

“It’s a quick turnaround, which is good,” Williamson said. “We need a better effort and better execution. It’s a fresh start tomorrow.”

Trailing 4-0 in the third, Coghlan finally got a puck past Seattle goalie Matt Berlin, who finished with 23 saves.

“It was cool to see it go in,” said Coghlan, whose goal netted local charities 3,875 stuffed animals. “It’s such a good cause. It goes to kids in need. It’s not the outcome we wanted, but it was good to get the goal and not get shut out. We have to come back better tomorrow.”

For just the fourth time in Teddy Bear history (since 2001), the Americans did not score in the first period.

They had 13 shots goal, with Jordan Topping coming close, and Mitchell Brown ringing the puck off the post at 13:45.

Seattle did a score a goal in the first, with Sami Moilanen beating Beck Warm at 11:51 for his 15th goal of the season.

The goals kept coming for the Thunderbirds, who got two from Andrusiak and one from Noah Philp in the second period to take a 4-0 lead.

“We’ve run into some tough times lately, losing some close games in the last minute,” Andrusiak said. “It’s nice to pull one out.”

Andrusiak’s second goal came with 3.1 seconds left in the period. That would be the end of the night for Warm, who finished with 15 saves.

Patrick Dea played the third, stopping 16 of 17 shots.

The one bright spot for the Americans was their penalty kill, which negated all six of Seattle’s power plays.

“The penalty kill was great tonight,” Coghlan said. “Guys were sacrificing their bodies.”

This story was originally published December 1, 2017 at 11:01 PM with the headline "Americans get stuffed by Seattle on Teddy Bear night."