Topping gets 100th goal in a hat trick, Ams roll Royals
Jordan Topping found the back of the net three times to reach 100 goals for his career, and the Tri-City Americans stormed past the visiting Victoria Royals 7-1 on Wednesday at the Toyota Center.
After scoring the game’s first two goals in the opening 5 minutes, Topping got his final score, which pushed him to the century mark, at 7:22 of the second to give the Americans a 5-0 lead. Morgan Geekie scored 4 1/2 minutes later to make it 6-0 through two periods and solidify the blowout further.
Geekie added three assists to his goal, while Dylan Coghlan also had three helpers and Michael Rasmussen a goal and two assists.
Defenseman Juuso Välimäki — who went 16th overall to the Calgary Flames in the 2017 NHL Draft — returned from injury, making his first appearance for Tri-City since before Christmas. He had two shots but didn’t register a point.
Beck Warm stopped 28 of 29 shots for Tri-City and had a shutout going until Jared Freadrich got the Royals on the board 2:37 into the third.
Tri-City concludes its four-game home stand against Portland at 7:05 p.m. Friday, then plays the Winterhawks in at 6 p.m. Saturday in Portland
Americans 7, Royals 1
Victoria | 0 | 0 | 1 | — | 1 |
Tri-City | 4 | 2 | 1 | — | 7 |
First — 1, TC, Topping 27 (Geekie, Mutala), 2:30. 2, TC, Topping 28 (Coghlan), 5:05. 3, TC, Johnson 14 (Yaremko, Rasmussen), 6:28. 4, TC, Rasmussen 19 (Geekie, Coghlan), 16:44 (PP).
Second — 5, TC, Topping 29 (Geekie), 7:22. 6, TC, Geekie 18 (Rasmussen), 11:58 (PP).
Third — 7, Vic, Freadrich 11 (Phillips, Gregor), 2:37 (PP). 8, TC, Yaremko 16 (Coghlan, Johnson), 9:40 (PP).
Shots — Vic 9-6-14-29. TC 17-14-6-37. Power plays — Vic 1-3; TC 3-6. Goalies — Vic, Outhouse 27-12-3-1 (31-25); McNabb 3-6-0-0 (6-5). TC, Warm 13-7-1-0 (29-28). Referees — Brett Iverson (24), Nick Swaine (35), Steven Fleming (144), Trevor Shively (11). A. 2,421.
Dustin Brennan: 509-582-1413, @Tweet_By_Dustin
This story was originally published February 1, 2018 at 12:02 AM with the headline "Topping gets 100th goal in a hat trick, Ams roll Royals."