Americans make a deal with Calgary; take down PG in a shootout
The Tri-City Americans sent a jolt of electricity through the Western Hockey League on Saturday night, swinging a big trade for Calgary Hitmen defenseman Jake Bean.
The trade was announced in the third period of the Americans’ 6-5 come-from-behind shootout win at Prince George.
“It’s the biggest trade we have ever made,” Tri-City general manager Bob Tory said. “With the team we have this year, I felt it was necessary to acquire another top defenseman. “Jake Bean is an elite offensive defenseman and was the best player available. To acquire such a player, you must pay a steep price.”
And the Americans did, sending forward Carson Focht and defenseman Dakota Krebs to the Hitmen, along with a first-round bantam draft pick in 2019, and second-round picks in 2018 and 2020.
Bean, a first-round NHL draft pick by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2016, is fresh off winning a gold medal with Team Canada at the World Junior Championship in Buffalo, N.Y. He also was on the silver medal team last year.
This season with the Hitmen, Bean has five goals and 22 assists in 25 games. He is expected to arrive in the Tri-Cities on Thursday and play Friday against the Portland Winterhawks. He will wear No. 2.
Saturday night, Parker AuCoin scored two goals in the third period, then scored the only goal in the shootout to rally the Americans to victory over the Cougars.
Jordan Topping added a goal and two assists for Tri-City, which trailed 4-1 in the second period.
Topping and Max James scored in the second to pull the Americans within a goal heading into the third.
PG got an early goal from Max Kryski for a 5-3 lead, only to see AuCoin score power-play goals at 10:41 and 12:16 to tie the score at 5-all.
After a scoreless overtime, AuCoin scored on the first shot in the shootout, and Tri-City goalie beck Warm denied all three Cougars as the Americans improved to 4-0 in shootouts.
Warm finished with 38 saves, while Mitchell Brown added two assists, and Sasha Mutala a power-play goal in the first period.
Jackson Leppard led the Cougars with a goal and two assists.
With the win, the Americans (21-12-5-0, 47 points) are third in the U.S. Division, one pint back of second-place Everett, and two back of division leader Portland.
Americans 6, Cougars 5 (SO)
Tri-City | 1 | 2 | 2 0 | — | 6 |
Prince George | 2 | 2 | 1 0 | — | 5 |
First — 1, PG, Bethune 13 (Maser), 7:32. 2, PG, Boyd 7 (Leppard, Curtis), 8:51. 3, TC, Mutala 5 (Brown, Bishop), 16:40 (pp).
Second — 4, PG, Leppard 9 (Cholowski, Lakusta), 11:24 (pp). 5, PG, Cholowski 13 (Bethune, Lakusta), 12:55 (pp). 6, TC, Topping (Geekie, Yaremko), 13:11. 7, TC, James 6 (Bjorklund, Brown), 15:55.
Third — 8, PG, Kryski 3 (Leppard), 3:30. 9, TC, AuCoin 9 (Topping, Coghlan), 10:41 (pp). 10, TC, AuCoin 10 (James, Topping), 12:16 (pp).
Overtime — No scoring.
Shots — TC 9-16-9-5 — 39. PG 13-16-9-5 — 43. Power plays — TC 3-5. PG 2-4. Shootout — TC 1 (AuCoin G, Topping NG, Johnson NG). PG 0 (Bethune NG, Cholowski NG, Holowko NG). Goalies — TC, Warm 12-5-1-0 (43 shots-38 saves). PG, Grant 10-10-3-1 (39-34). Referees — Tyler Adair and Clayton Hall. A — 2,841.
This story was originally published January 7, 2018 at 12:36 AM with the headline "Americans make a deal with Calgary; take down PG in a shootout."