Americans finish BC trip with 2nd straight win
The Tri-City Americans closed out their four-game tour of British Columbia on Sunday with their second straight victory, a 4-1 decision over the Kamloops Blazers.
Parker AuCoin opened the scoring in the first for Tri-City, then handed out second-period assists on Tyler Jette’s eventual game-winning goal and Jordan Topping’s insurance score. Maxwell James also recorded two assists for the Ams, and Patrick Dea stopped 32 of 33 shots.
Quinn Benjafield scored Kamloops’ only goal with less than 2 minutes remaining in the second period. Tri-City’s Sasha Mutala answered with an open-netter off an assist from Nolan Yaremko with 30 seconds to go in the game.
Tri-City (22-12-5-0, 49 points) closes out its five-game road trip against the U.S. Division-leading Everett Silvertips (24-16-1-1, 50 points) at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday. A third straight victory would thrust the Americans into the top spot in the division, though they could be tied with the Portland Winterhawks (23-13-1-2, 49 points) who are on the road against the Seattle Thunderbirds on Tuesday.
AMERICANS 4, BLAZERS 1
Tri-City | 1 | 2 | 1 | — | 4 |
Kamloops | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 1 |
First — 1, TC, AuCoin 11 (James, Coghlan), 9:42 (PP).
Second — 2, TC, Jette 1 (Bjorklund, AuCoin), 5:03. 3, TC, Topping 21 (AuCoin, James), 14:56 (PP). 4, Kam, Benjafield 11 (Strange), 18:22.
Third — 5, TC, Mutala 6 (Yaremko), 19:32 (EN).
Shots — TC 5-15-7-27. Kam 11-14-8-33. Power plays — TC 2-4; Kam 0-5. Goalies — TC, Dea 10-7-4-0 (33-32). Kam, Ferguson 13-15-1-2 (26-23). Referees — Ryan Benbow (62), Trevor Nolan (51), Spencer Lockert (84), Scott Mackey (48). A. 3,215.
Dustin Brennan: 509-582-1413, @Tweet_By_Dustin
This story was originally published January 8, 2018 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Americans finish BC trip with 2nd straight win."