Americans rally falls short in 5-4 loss to Winterhawks
Every time the Portland Winterhawks thought they had the game in hand, the Tri-City Americans kept throwing a wrench in their game.
The Americans came back from a 3-1 deficit with three goals in the third period, but Alex Schoenborn’s unassisted goal at 14:22 enabled the Winterhawks to escape Toyota Center with a 5-4 victory Saturday night.
It was the third loss in a row for the Americans (4-7-1-0, 9 points), who also dropped games to Seattle and Brandon this week.
“We are just trying to learn (that) we have to play a full 60, not fragmented games,” said Tri-City veteran forward Brian Williams.
The Winterhawks (4-6-0-0, 8 points) were riding high with a 3-1 lead entering the third, but a goal by Vladislav Lukin made it 3-2, and Williams scored at 8:17 to knot the score at 3-3.
“I don’t know how Parker Bowles got it to me,” Williams said. “He was on the ground, looking the wrong way, on his back end, and put it right on my tape. All I had to do was shoot it. Simple as that. When we were catching up, you could feel the crowd getting into it. That third (goal) put them over the edge. Unfortunately (Portland) scored.”
Caleb Jones scored from the high slot at 10:53, and Schoenborn scored the game-winner at 14:20.
“I saw Turgs (Dominic Turgeron) get a lot of pressure and (Keegan) Iverson kicked it to me,” Schoenborn said of the play to the left of Tri-City goalie Evan Sarthou. “I had to bury that one, for sure.”
Max James would add a goal for Tri-City with 3:13 to play, but the Americans couldn’t get the equalizer.
Sarthou finished with 30 saves, while Adin Hill had 38 for Portland.
Down but not out
Portland padded it’s lead to 3-0 in the second as Jack Dougherty beat Sarthou glove side with a laser beam from the left point at 8:37.
The Americans came back at 15:55 with a goal by Jordan Topping, who pushed Portland defenseman Caleb Jones down at the blue, allowing Beau McCue to get the puck and send it out front for Topping, who went in alone on Hill.
The Americans, who had four shots on goal on an early power play but failed to score, had a 27-25 shot-on-goal advantage after 40 minutes.
First-period woes
Everything seemed to favor the Americans early as they had three power plays — including a 5-on-3 for 1:20 — but they came up empty each time against Hill. At the media break with 8:27 to play in the period, Tri-City held an 11-3 shot advantage and seemed to have the momentum.
Once play resumed, the Winterhawks came alive. Turgeon scored at 12:51 on Portland’s ninth shot on goal, while Colton Veloso followed at 16:28, shoveling the puck past Sarthou as he went down in the slot.
After 20 minutes, the Winterhawks led 2-0 and the shots were 13 apiece.
The Americans’ power play, ranked 11th (21.6 percent) in the WHL coming into the game, slid further down the ladder. By the end of the game, they were 0-for-4 on the night and 13th in the league at 20 percent.
“It has been (good) up to this game,” Williams said. “A little rough patch. It’s a little frustrating, but it’s just a matter of time before it picks up again.”
TRAINING ROOM: Tri-City defenseman Brandon Carlo suffered an upper-body injury with 2 minutes left in the second period and did not return.
NEXT UP: The Americans and Winterhawks will play the third of their 10 games this season Wednesday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. Tri-City will host Vancouver on Friday.
Winterhawks 5, Americans 4
Portland | 2 | 1 | 2 | — | 5 |
Tri-City | 0 | 1 | 3 | — | 4 |
First — 1, Por, Turgeon 5 (Schoenborn, Iverson), 12:512, Por, Veloso 3 (Bittner, Abols), 16:28. Penalties — Heinrich, Por (slashing), 4:19; Dougherty, Por (interference), 5:00; Iverson, Por (slashing), 8:54.
Second — 3, Por, Dougherty 2, 8:37. 4, TC, Topping 5 (McCue), 15:55. Penalties — Hughes, Por (hooking), 3:15; Heinrich, Por, major (fighting), 9:38; Carlo, TC, major (fighting), 9:38.
Third — 5, TC, Lukin 3 (Rasmussen), 2:22. 6, TC, Williams 3 (Bowles), 8:17. 7, Por, Jones 2 (Hughes, Texeira), 10:53 (pp). 8, Por, Schoenborn 4, 14:20. 9, TC, James 1 (Coghlan, Välimäki), 16:47. Penalties — Bittner, Por (roughing), 2:06; James, TC (roughing), 2:06; Coghlin, TC (tripping), 9:01.
Shots — Por 13-12-10 — 35. TC 13-14-15 — 42. Power plays — Por 1-1. TC 0-4. Goalies — Por, Hill 4-4-0-0 (42 shots-38 saves). TC, Sartou 4-6-1-0 (35-30). Referees — Dexter Rasmussen and Kyle Kowalski. A. 3,590.
Annie Fowler: 509-582-1574; afowler@tricityherald.com; Twitter: @TCHIceQueen
This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 10:50 PM with the headline "Americans rally falls short in 5-4 loss to Winterhawks."