Americans turn up the heat against the Kamloops Blazers
If you thought things were tight in the U.S. Division, it’s just as bad in the Western Conference, where teams 3-7 are separated by just six points.
The Tri-City Americans added a couple more points to their coffers Friday with a 4-2 home win over the Kamloops Blazers.
The Americans (31-21-7-1, 70 points), sit seventh in the Western Conference, though they are tied with No. 6 Vancouver in points. They are five points in front of No. 8 Seattle, and just three behind No. 5 Spokane.
Tri-City, which has 12 regular-season games remaining, will host Prince George on Saturday in their 13th annual Breast Cancer Awareness Game.
The Americans jumped out to an early lead over Kamloops as Michael Rasmussen scored at 16:16 of the first period.
Nolan Yaremko added a goal at 3:51 of the second for a 2-0 advantage going into the third period.
Kamloops pulled within a goal just 1 minute into the third with a Nick Chyzowkski power-play goal.
No worries. Tri-City defenseman Juuso Välimäki got the two-goal lead back 54 seconds later.
With just 2:56 left in regulation, Brodi Stuart had the Blazers within one goal. Kamloops then pulled goalie Dylan Ferguson for an extra attacker, but the end result was an empty-net goal by Parker AuCoin for a 4-2 Tri-City lead with 1:05 to play.
Patrick Dea, who stopped 18 shots through the two periods for the Americans, finished with 31 saves.
Ferguson, who has played 49 of the Blazers’ 60 games, had 36 saves.
Americans 4, Blazers
Kamloops | 0 | 0 | 2 | — | 2 |
Tri-City | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | 4 |
First — 1, TC, Rasmussen 24 (Bean, Geekie), 16:16.
Second — 2, TC, Yaremko 19 (Coghlan, Johnson), 3:51.
Third — 3, Kam, Chyzowski 18 (Benjafield, Loewen), 1:00 (pp). 4, TC, Välimäki 8 (Bishop), 1:54. 5, Kam, Stuart 14 (Benjafield, Onyebuchi), 17:04. 6, TC, AuCoin 16 (Topping, Rasmussen), 18:55 (en).
Shots — Kam 9-9-15 — 33. TC 16-12-12 — 40. Power plays — Kam 1-4, TC 0-2. Goalies — Kam, Ferguson 22-23-1-3 (39 shots-36 saves). TC, Dea 17-12-6-0 (33-31). Referees — Ward Pateman and Derek Zalaski. A — 3,168.
This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 10:57 PM with the headline "Americans turn up the heat against the Kamloops Blazers."