Sarthou, Americans blank Ice 2-0
Evan Sarthou posted his first shutout of the season, and Parker Bowles had a goal and an assist as the Tri-City Americans opened a four-game swing in the Central Division on Wednesday with a 2-0 win over the Kootenay Ice.
The win keeps the Americans (25-25-2-1, 53 points) three points behind Portland and Kamloops and five back of Spokane in the race for a Western Conference playoff spot.
Tri-City opened the game with 13 shots on goal in the first period, but Ice goalie Wyatt Hoflin was on his game, turning them all away.
Hoflin continued his strong play in the second, stopping all 18 shots the Americans put on net.
The Americans, who outshot the Ice (9-41-4-0, 22 points) 42-28, finally solved Hoflin at 10:12 of the third period with a goal by Vladislav Lukin, who has points in his past five games.
Bowles scored a power-play goal — his team-leading 30th of the season — into an empty net at 19:41 to seal the win.
Sarthou has eight career shutouts, ranking him fifth all-time behind Carey Price (15), Chet Pickard (12), Eric Comrie (10) and Drew Owsley (9).
The Americans, who have points in their past four games, will play at Lethbridge on Friday, at Red Deer on Saturday, and will finish the trek at Edmonton on Monday.
Americans 2, Ice 0
Tri-City | 0 | 0 | 2 | — | 2 |
Kootenay | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 |
First — No scoring. Penalties — Lishchynsky, Ktn (tripping), 17:19.
Second — No scoring. Penalties — Playfair, TC (interference), 4:55; Rasmussen, TC, minor-major (instigator, fighting, misconduct), 19:57; Lishchynsky, Knt, major (fighting), 19:57.
Third — 1, TC, Lukin 17 (Bowles), 10:12. 2, TC, Bowles 30 (McCue, Topping), 19:41 (en/pp). Penalties — McCue, TC (tripping), 17:09; Alfaro, Ktn (roughing), 18:45.
Shots — TC 13-18-11 — 42. Ktn 3-11-14 — 28. Power plays — TC 1-2, Ktn 0-3. Goalies — TC, Sarthou 22-22-2-0 (28 shots-28 saves). Ktn, Hoflin 7-30-1-0 (41-40). Referees — Mark Pearce and Kevin Bennett. A — 1,877.
This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Sarthou, Americans blank Ice 2-0."