Ams explode in third, roll over Portland 5-1
The Tri-City Americans exploded for four goals in the third period, rolling to a 5-1 win over the Portland Winterhawks in WHL action Tuesday at Toyota Center.
“They were extremely excited before the game and during warmups,” Tri-City coach Mike Williamson said. “There was a lot of energy in the dressing room before the game and it carried over. Everyone played well.”
Beau McCue scored his second goal of the night 1:39 into the final period for a 2-1 Tri-City lead. Vladislav Lukin connected at 12:37, and Parker Wotherspoon and Jordan Topping tacked on power-play scores.
McCue opened the scoring at 4:01 of the second period. Portland’s Evan Weinger scored at 19:07 to forge a 1-1 tie after 40 minutes.
Wotherspoon also had two assists, and Juuso Välimäki had three assists for the Americans (15-19-2-0, 32 points). Rookie Nick Sanders made 22 saves to post his third win of the season.
“We had good contributions throughout the lineup,” Williamson said. “Beau had a couple of goals for us, the power play (3-for-10) and penalty kill (4-for-4) were good for us. It was a good night. Nick looked really comfortable. He saw the pucks through traffic and controlled his rebounds.”
Americans 5, Winterhawks 1
Portland | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 1 |
Tri-City | 0 | 1 | 4 | — | 5 |
First — No scoring. Penalties — Bukarts, Por (hooking), 1:01; McCue, TC (slashing), 11:38; Playfair, TC (hooking), 15:11.
Second — 1, TC, McCue 12 (Bowles, Wotherspoon), 4:01 (pp). 2, Por, Weinger 5 (Jones, Overhardt), 19:07. Penalties — Heinrich, Por (clipping), 2:31; Välimäki, TC (interference), 4:11; Henrich, Por (high-sticking), 12:45.
Third — 3, TC, McCue 13, 1:39. 4, TC, Lukin 10 (Sandhu, Välimäki), 12:37. 5, TC, Wotherspoon 7 (Välimäki, Sandhu), 15:23 (pp). 6, TC, Topping 15 (Wotherspoon, Välimäki), 16:55 (pp). Penalties — Abols, Por (tripping), 3:31; Hughes, Por (tripping), 6:35; Dougherty, Por (roughing), 10:30; Henrich, Por (roughing), 14:54; Iverson, Por (checking to the head), 14:54; Texeira, Por (goaltender interference), 14:54; McCue, TC (roughing), 14:54; Heinrich, Por, minor-major (instigating, fighting, game misconduct), 16:31; Turgeon, Por (slashing), 16:31; James, TC, major (fighting), 16:31; Olson, TC (hooking), 17:39.
Shots — Por 10-6-7 — 23. TC 9-11-16 — 36. Power plays — Por 0-4. TC 3-10. Goalies — Por, Hill 15-14-0-0 (36 shots-31 saves). TC, Sanders 3-1-0-0 (23-22). Referees — Brian Bourdon and Adam Griffiths. A —3,695.
This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 10:16 PM with the headline "Ams explode in third, roll over Portland 5-1."