Tri-City Americans rally to beat Victoria in OT
The Tri-City Americans desperately needed a boost of confidence, and they got it Saturday night.
Vladislav Lukin scored two goals, including the game winner in overtime, as the Americans rallied to beat the Victoria Royals 6-5 before raucous crowd of 4,235 at Toyota Center.
“This gives us extra confidence going into games ahead,” said Tri-City defenseman Brandon Carlo, who assisted on the game-winning goal. “We want to enjoy this. It was nice to come back and win this.”
The Royals (16-7-0-2, 34 points) were tied atop of the WHL with Kelowna before the game, and had won eight consecutive games on the road.
After each team scored three goals in the first 8:40 of the game, the Royals took a 5-3 lead after the first period.
“It was a unique game, for sure,” Tri-City coach Mike Williamson said. “Six goals in the first 6 or 7 minutes and when it was 5-5, each team only had 20 shots on goal. We got a big kill in the third and Sarts (Evan Sarthou) made a nice stop in overtime. This is a big win and hopefully a confidence builder.”
Trailing 5-3, Brian Williams pulled the Americans (9-13-1-0, 19 points) to within 5-4 with 36 seconds left in the second period, beating Griffen Outhouse on the power play.
Juuso Välimäki tied the game at 10:16 of the third, taking a sweet pass from Parker AuCoin and beating Outhouse in the slot.
Lukin netted the game winner at 1:48 of overtime, streaming down the slot and taking the pass from Carlo.
“I knew he was coming up the ice,” Carlo said. “The crowd gave a roar and I knew something was going to happen. He was right there.”
When it rains, it pours
The first goal was scored 40 seconds into the game, there was a missed penalty shot and two goalie changes. By the end of the first, the Royals held a 5-3 lead in a fast and furious period of action.
Carlo opened the scoring, picking up a rebound and blasting the puck into the net. The Royals followed at 1:35 with a short-handed tally by Chaz Reddekopp and the race was on.
Lukin made it 2-1 Americans at 2:11, only to see Dante Hannoun even things up at 2:30.
Take a deep breath, it’s not over.
Victoria’s Tyler Soy scored the first of his two goals in the period at 8:17, while Tri-City’s Parker Bowles scored his team-leading 11th goal at 8:40, chasing Royals starter Coleman Vollrath from the net.
Americans goalie Nick Sanders denied Jack Walker on a penalty shot at 10:07 before the Royals scored twice more in the period — Soy with his second and Logan Fisher at 15:00.
Sarthou replaced Sanders after Soy’s second goal. He finished with 18 saves.
Americans 6, Royals 5 (OT)
Victoria | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 5 |
Tri-City | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 6 |
First — 1, TC, Carlo 2 (Topping, Bowles), :40. 2, Vic, Reddekopp 3 (Price), 1:35 (sh). 3, TC, Lukin 7 (Sandhu, Välimäki), 2:11 (pp). 4, Vic, Hannoun 14 (Forsberg, Phillips), 2:30. 5, Vi, Soy 10 (Forsberg, Hicketts), 8:17 (pp). 6, TC, Bowles 11 (Williams, Topping), 8:40. 7, Vic, Soy 11 (Anderson, Gagnon), 10:12. 8, Vic, Fisher 4 (Nagy, Price), 15:00. Penalties — Nagy, Vic (interference), :55; Wharrie, Vic (high-sticking), 3:22; McCue, TC (hooking), 7:45.
Second — 9, TC, Williams 5 (Bowles, Wotherspoon), 19:34 (pp). Penalties — Carlo, TC (interference), :36; Bowles, TC (interference), 8:41; Forsberg, Vic (tripping), 17:47; Gagnon, Vic (kneeing), 18:37.
Third — 10, TC, Välimäki 3 (AuCoin, Coghlan), 10:16. Penalties — Pachal, Vic (tripping), 2:52; Williams, TC (slashing), 11:29.
Overtime — 11, TC, Lukin 8 (Carlo, Rasmussen), 1:48. Penalties —None .
Shots — Vic 12-4-9-0 — 26. TC 7-7-6-1 — 21. Power plays — Vic 1-4. TC 2-5. Missed penalty shot — Vic, Walker (10:07, 1st). Goalies — Vic, Vollrath (4 shots-1 saves), Outhouse 3-2-0-0 (8:40 of 1st, 17-14). TC, Sanders 1-1-0-0 (7-3), Sarthou 8-12-1-0 (19-18). Referees — Ryan Benbow and Sean Raphael. A — 4,235.
Annie Fowler: 509-582-1574, @TCHIceQueen
This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Tri-City Americans rally to beat Victoria in OT."