Geekie with a hat trick as Americans win on the road
Morgan Geekie netted his first career hat trick, and added an assist, to lead the Tri-City Americans to a 6-3 road victory Wednesday over Medicine Hat in the first of three games against the Central Division before the holiday break.
Michael Rasmussen added two goals, while Isaac Johnson accounted for the Americans’ other goal in beating the Central Division-leading Tigers.
The Americans (16-10-3-0, 35 points) are tied for third in the U.S. Division with Spokane, but have two games in hand on the Chiefs. Tri-City will play Friday at Edmonton (7-21-3-0, 17 points).
Despite the loss, the Tigers (17-13-2-0, 36 points) hold a six-point lead over second-place Lethbridge in the standings.
Rasmussen scored his first goal on a power-play just 3:34 into the game. Geekie followed 6 minutes later, and Johnson scored early in the second for a 3-0 lead.
The Tigers got one goal back as David Quenneville scored at 3:35 of the second, but Rasmussen’s second goal stretched the lead to 4-1.
Rasmussen has scored seven goals in his past four games — five of which have come on the power play.
Geekie scored twice more in the third, the second goal coming in an empty net with 27 seconds left in the game to complete the hat trick.
Beck Warm picked up the win in net, stopping 24 of 27 shots.
Michael Bullion took the loss for the Tigers, finishing with 22 saves.
Americans 6, Tigers 3
Tri-City | 2 | 2 | 2 | — | 6 |
Medicine Hat | 0 | 1 | 2 | — | 3 |
First — 1, TC, Rasmussen 15 (Geekie, Topping), 3:43 (pp). 2, TC, Geekie 11 (Yaremko, Focht), 9:41.
Second — 3, TC, Johnson 5, 2:09. 4, MH, Quenneville 11 (Hamblin, Preziuso), 3:35. 5, TC, Rasmussen 16 (Välimäki, Coghlan), 16:36.
Third — 6, MH, Chyzowski 11 (Preziuso), 8:34. 7, TC, Geekie 12 (Bishop), 8:57. 8, MH, Hamblin 10 (Rassell), 16:02. 9, TC, Geekie 13, 19:33 (en).
Shots — TC 11-9-8 — 28. MH 5-9-13 — 27. Power plays — TC 1-4. MH 0-4. Goalies — TC, Warm 9-5-0-0 (27 shots-24 saves). MH, Bullion 7-7-1-0 (25-22). Referees — Kyle Kowalski and Colin Watt. A — 2.842.
This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Geekie with a hat trick as Americans win on the road."