Late goals spell defeat for Americans

Ethan bear scored twice in the third period to lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 3-2 victory Wednesday over the Tri-City Americans at ShoWare Center in Kent.

Tied at 1-1 going into the third, Bear scored his first to give Seattle the lead, only to see Morgan Geekie score 2 1/2 minutes later. Bear’s power-play goal at 11:56 sealed the win.

Tri-City (4-5-1-0, 9 points) had a late power play and pulled goalie Evan Sarthou the last 1:30 of the game, but could not get the equalizer.

Michael Rasmussen opened the scoring at 17:17 of the first on the power play, giving the Americans a 1-0 lead after the first period.

Seattle (6-1-1-0, 13 points) knotted the score at 13:32 of the second with a goal by Scott Eansor. Brian Williams looked to give Tri-City a 2-1 lead at 18:10, but the goal was waved off.

Sarthou, playing 15 miles from his hometown of Black Diamond, finished with 22 saves, including a pad save on a short-handed breakaway by Jamal Watson early in the second and a glove save on a wrister by Ryan Gropp a few minutes later.

PURTILL TO RED DEER: The Americans traded forward Braden Purtill to the Memorial Cup host Red Deer Rebels for a third-round pick in the 2017 WHL bantam draft.

Purtill, a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is in his third season in the WHL, recording 11 goals and 10 assists in 111 career games.

“This trade allows us to get our numbers down and provide valuable ice time to some of our younger players,” Americans general manager Bob Tory said. “Braden is a character player who will get an opportunity to compete for the Memorial Cup.”

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 10:42 PM with the headline "Late goals spell defeat for Americans."