Tri-City Americans come up short against Kelowna

The Kelowna Rockets are a high-octane team when it comes to scoring, averaging four goals a game. They struggled a bit against Tri-City on Tuesday night but found a way to pull out the win.

Nick Merkley scored two goals in the third period, and Dillon Dube had a pair of assists as the Rockets held off the Americans 3-1 before an announced crowd of 2,579 at Toyota Center.

“I feel like we created some good chances, but we also missed some good chances,” Americans coach Mike Williamson said. “They are a good team. They’ve had a good run atop the league for several years. Games like tonight, you have to find a way to keep it out of the net and put it in at the other end.”

Trailing 1-0 after two periods, the Americans scored early in the third on the power play. Parker Bowles brought the puck into the slot, and Jordan Topping tipped it past Rockets goalie Jackson Whistle at 1:49.

Merkley put the Rockets out front 2-1 at 7:55 on the power play, taking a cross-ice pass from Dube and beating Evan Sarthou on the backside. The Americans looked to even the score at 14:43, but Morgan Geekie’s shot at a wide-open net went high and wide.

Merkley added an empty-net goal with 36 seconds remaining to seal the win.

“They have always been a good team,” Merkley said of the Americans. “It comes down to the little things at the end of the day. We had the bounces today. They came out hard in the third and had some chances late. I was fortunate to get my stick on that last one there at the end.”

The Americans went 1-for-8 on the power play against the 14th-ranked penalty kill in the Western Hockey League.

“We generated chances tonight and had good looks,” Williamson said. “There were a lot of positives tonight.”

Working short-handed 5 minutes into the second period, Tri-City’s Nolan Yaremko made it down the ice just as Whistle came out of the net to play the puck at the edge of the right face-off circle. Yaremko knocked the puck loose and tried for a wrap-around goal, but Whistle hustled back to disrupt the play and keep the puck from crossing the goal line.

Whistle knocked the net off its moorings when he dived to break up the play, but no penalty was assessed. The play was reviewed, but in the end, there was no goal and no penalty.

“We thought there should have been a penalty,” Williamson said. “The official said the net came off when he slid to stop the puck. I thought this was Yaremko’s best game.”

The Rockets had a similar play at the other end 11<AF>1/2 minutes later, but this time, the puck found its way over the goal line.

Kole Lind brought the puck up ice and put a shot on goal. Sarthou made the stop, and the puck went to the left of the net, where Dube knocked the puck around the back of the net to Lind. With Sarthou down after the initial play, Lind pulled the puck around and swept it into an open net at 16:21 for a 1-0 Rockets lead.

The Americans had two quality chances to score in the first period. The first came at 6:19 on the power play, when Beau McCue had back-to-back shots from the right circle, but Whistle turned both away.

With 22.8 seconds left in the period, Bowles knocked the puck away from former teammate Rodney Southam in the neutral zone and went in alone on Whistle. Just as he shot, Kelowna’s Gordie Ballhorn slashed Bowles, and the Americans earned their second power play.

At the other end, Dube had a golden short-handed opportunity on Tri-City’s first power play, but Sarthou denied him with a kick save to keep the game scoreless. Sarthou finished with 24 saves.

DOWN ANOTHER D-MAN: Tri-City lost Brendan O’Reilly in the second period, leaving the team to play with five the remainder of the game — including rookies Dakota Krebs, Kurtis Rutledge and Juuso Välimäki. Parker Wotherspoon and Dylan Coghlan are the only healthy D-men returning from last season.

“I thought they all stepped up and played well,” Williamson said

MOVIN’ ON UP: Forward Brian Williams is 11th all-time in games played with 272 and tied for 26th all-time with 166 points.

U-17 CHALLENGE: Tri-City rookie Michael Rasmussen and Canada Black finished 1-2 in its recent games at the U-17 Hockey Challenge in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.

Tuesday, Canada Black lost a 6-1 game to the United states. Rasmussen recorded an assist.

Monday, Rasmussen scored Canada Black’s first goal en route to a 4-3 overtime win over the Czech Republic. Rasmussen also had 14 penalty minutes.

Canada Black lost a 5-3 game to Canada White on Sunday. Rasmussen was held scoreless.

Kyle Olson also was chosen to play for Canada Black, but suffered a lower-body injury before the first game and was sent back to the Tri-Cities.

EXIT STAGE LEFT: The Vancouver Giants lost two players Tuesday when defenseman Brennan Menell and forward Jesse Roach left the team, according to the Vancouver Province.

Earlier this season, forwards Ty Comrie and Gage Ramsay, and defenseman Shaun Dosanjh quit the Giants.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 11:05 PM with the headline "Tri-City Americans come up short against Kelowna."