Prospera Place not a friendly one to Americans
Prospera Place continues to haunt the Tri-City Americans.
Carsen Twarynski and Connor Bruggen-Cate each scored two goals as the Kelowna Rockets held on for a 5-4 victory Wednesday over the Americans.
Tri-City (20-11-5-0, 45 points) last won in Kelowna on Sept. 29, 2010, now a span of 15 games.
Nolan Yaremko had a goal and two assists for Tri-City, which will play back-to-back games at Prince George on Friday and Saturday.
The B.C. Division-leading Rockets (24-11-2-1, 51 points) led 3-1 after the first period, getting two goals by Twarynski, while Yaremko scored for the Americans.
Tri-City, which saw its seven-game point streak snapped, got a goal by Jordan Topping at 3:39 of the second period for a 3-2 game after 40 minutes.
The Americans opened the third period with two goals in a span of 2 1/2 minutes.
Parker AuCoin scored short-handed just 20 seconds in, and Brett Clayton followed at 2:55 with his third goal of the season for a 4-3 Tri-City lead.
The Rockets answered with two goals less than a minute apart to tie the score, and take the lead for good on Bruggen-Cate’s second goal of the game at 4:36.
The Americans pulled goalie Patrick Dea in the final minute of action for an extra attacker. Tri-City got off a few shots, including one by Isaac Johnson that hit the left post two 2 seconds left.
Dea, who replaced Beck Warm in the first period, finished with 27 saves, while James Porter had 24 saves in picking up his 16th win.
Rockets 5, Americans 4
Tri-City | 1 | 1 | 4 | — | 4 |
Kelowna | 3 | 0 | 2 | — | 5 |
First — 1, Kel, Bruggen-Cate 7 (K.Topping, Lind), 6:29. 2, Kel, Twarynski 25 (Foote, Chizen), 14:46. 3, TC, Yaremko 12, 15:51. 4, Kel, Twarynski 26 (Hilsendager, Foote), 18:21 (pp).
Second — 5, TC, J.Topping 19 (AuCoin, Yaremko), 3:39 (pp).
Third — 6, TC, AuCoin 8 (Yaremko), :20 (sh). 7, TC (Clayton 3 (Kalinichenko), 2:55. 8, Kel, Foote 11 (Twarynski, Mattson), 3:42. 9, Kel, Bruggen-Cate 8 (Line, K.Topping), 4:36.
Shots — TC 9-9-10 —28. Kel 9-16-11 —36. Power plays — TC 1-3. Kel 1-3. Goalies — TC, Warm (6 shots-4 saves). Dea 9-6-4-0 (16:21 of 1st, 30-27). Kel, Porter 16-5-2-0 (28-24). Referees — Jeff Ingram and Ryan O’Keefe. A — 5,187.
This story was originally published January 3, 2018 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Prospera Place not a friendly one to Americans."