Americans suffer setback on home ice
The Tri-City Americans took a step back in the U.S. Division standings Friday with a 5-1 home loss to Portland.
The Winterhawks took over sole possession of second place in the division with 52 points, one back of leader Everett.
Tri-City (22-14-5-0, 49 points) lost its second game in a row and has won just four of its past 10 games.
Injuries have plagued the Americans the past two months. At present, they are without four key forwards (Michael Rasmussen, Morgan Geekie, Kyle Olson and Max James) and two defensemen (Juuso Välimäki and Roman Kalinichenko).
Friday, the Winterhawks got two goals from Kieffer Bellows, a goal and an assist from Alex Overhardt, and two assists each from Matthew Quigley, Joachim Blichfeld and Skyler McKenzie.
The Americans avoided being shut out for the second consecutive game when Isaac Johnson scored a power-play goal at 15:07 of the third period.
Beck Warm took the loss for Tri-City, allowing three goals on 27 shots. Patrick Dea came on in relief late in the second, stopping 11 of 13 shots.
Cole Kehler picked up the win for Portland, recording 28 saves.
Winterhawks 5, Americans 1
Portland | 0 | 3 | 2 | — | 5 |
Tri-City | 0 | 0 | 1 | — | 1 |
First — No scoring.
Second — 1, Por, Bellows 20 (Quigley, McKenzie), :41. 2, Por, Alex Overhardt 10 (Blichfeld, Hughes), 9:21. 3, Por, Mannek 6 (Jokiharju, Quigley), 13:50.
Third — 4, Por, MacKenzie 1 (Overhardt), 4:40. 5, Por, Bellows 21 (McKenzie, Blichfeld), 8:39 (pp). 6, TC, Johnson 10 (Coghlan, Topping), 15:07 (pp).
Shots — Por 12-21-7- —40. TC 8-10-11 — 29. Power plays — Por 1-4. TC 1-5. Goalies — Por, Kehler 21-9-1-2 (29 shots-28 saves). TC, Warm 12-6-1-0 (27-24), Dea (14:56 of 2nd, 13-11). Referees — Ryan Benbow and Sean Raphael. A — 3,911.
This story was originally published January 13, 2018 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Americans suffer setback on home ice."