Sarthou backs Americans to key win over Vancouver Giants

The Tri-City Americans and Vancouver Giants are two teams fighting to stay alive in the playoff hunt.

On Tuesday night, the Americans made a statement, beating the Giants 5-1 for their third consecutive win in a battle at Toyota Center.

“We wanted to take care of these home games,” said Tri-City coach Mike Williamson, whose team won all three games on home ice. “We need to take this momentum on the road.”

The win gave Tri-City (20-23-2-0) 42 points — three ahead of Vancouver (17-25-3-2) and three back of the Spokane Chiefs, who were idle Tuesday.

Evan Sarthou was solid in net for the Americans with 31 saves, allowing just one goal — to Dakota Odgers at 3:14 of the third period.

“I thought Evan was exceptional from start to finish,” Williamson said. “He was aggressive and saw the puck. He allowed us to separate ourselves a bit in the second period.

Sarthou had a couple of scary moments, but he stopped Thomas Foster on a Giants’ 3-on-1 at 17:31 of the second period and got a pad on a shot by Odgers on the doorstep at 18:48 of the first.

“I saw them the whole way,” Sarthou said. “On that 3-on-1, Cogs (Dylan Coghlan) played it the whole way. He did a good job.

“I thought we came ready tonight. Right off the hop, it was a solid game all the way around. I felt good. We had a great homestand and picked up six points. That was huge.”

The Americans had a 4-0 lead entering the third period, and Austyn Playfair made it 5-0 when he scored short-handed at 2:47. Tri-City had five different goal scorers on the night, and 10 players picked up points.

“We haven’t had the luxury of a full lineup since the start of the year,” Williamson said. “I thought we were able to distribute the ice time evenly tonight.”

Good start

The Americans jumped out to a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period with goals by Vladislav Lukin and Parker Bowles.

Lukin opened the scoring at 10:10, taking a pass across the slot from Tyler Sandhu and beating Ryan Kubic for his 13th goal of the season.

Working on their second power play, Bowles took a pass from Jordan Topping in the slot and beat Kubic up high with just 1.1 seconds remaining in the period. It was Bowles’ team-leading 26th goal.

The goals kept coming in the second as Tyler Sandhu chipped the puck in at the left post at 15:37, and Beau McCue picked up a loose puck in the slot and lifted in the net at 19:09.

Evan Sarthou finished with 22 saves through two periods to keep the Giants off the scoreboard.

“I think we stayed focused and played our game,” said McCue, who also had an assist. “We were advancing the zone, playing physical and working hard. This is huge. We have been battling with them (Giants) the last couple of weeks. It’s nice to get two (points) up on them.”

Central Scouting Report

Sarthou and Coghlan were among 51 WHL players named in the NHL Central Scouting’s midseason rankings.

Sarthou was ranked ninth among North American goaltenders, while Coghlan, a defenseman, was 177th among skaters. Tri-City prospect Tyler Jette of Farmington, Minn., a 6-foot-3, 185-pound defenseman, was ranked 168th.

This story was originally published January 19, 2016 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Sarthou backs Americans to key win over Vancouver Giants."