RECAP: Americans (0) vs Royals (7) (Game Five) – April 4, 2025
Kennewick, WA – The Tri-City Americans saw their 2024-25 season come to a close Friday night, falling 7-0 to the Victoria Royals in Game 5 of their best-of-seven series.
Tri-City came out of the gates strong, jumping out to a 4-0 shot advantage in the opening minutes but couldn’t solve Johnny Hicks to open the scoring.
Victoria then scored first after a faceoff in the Americans zone. Kenta Isogai wound up for a slap shot from the slot and it snuck under the blocker arm of Lukas Matecha.
The puck sat free in the blue paint and was knocked in by Wyatt Danyleyko 5:35 into the game.
Just under four minutes later Brayden Boehm took a centering pass from behind the Americans net and jammed a shot past the blocker of Matecha, extending the lead to 2-0.
The Americans went to the power play a few minutes later when Reggie Newman was given an unsportsmanlike penalty, flipping Max Curran’s glove over his head as Curran was trying to pick it up off the ice. They were unable to capitalize on the power play as the game remained 2-0.
Not long after, Teydon Trembecky took a pass from the goal line and fired a shot through the five hole of Matecha to give the Royals a 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
After the Royals had a goal waived off just 21 seconds into the second period for a high stick, they scored 37 seconds later. Cole Reschny fed the puck to Isogai at the back post who tapped it into an open net to make it 4-0.
Three minutes later Brandon Lisowsky scored a power play goal after an extended shift in the Americans end.
It wasn’t as though Tri-City had no offensive opportunities in the game, but Hicks rebounded perfectly after getting pulled in game four, denying every shot by the Americans throughout the game. That included a shorthanded breakaway for Brandon Whynott in the second period.
The game remained 5-0 until late in regulation as Boehm scored his second of the game on a power play before Jerrett Ross scored his first WHL goal with just 17 seconds remaining on the clock.
With the loss, the WHL careers of Carter MacAdams, Brandon Whynott and Americans captain Jake Sloan have come to an end. The three combined for 797 career WHL regular season games. Sloan and Whynott will attend Bowling Green University next season while MacAdams is heading to Northern Michigan University.
The Americans would like to thank their fans for their unwavering support during the 2024-25 campaign. During the regular season the Americans averaged 4,009 fans per game, the first time since the 2014-15 season that average attendance was over 4,000.
