RECAP: Americans (1) vs Royals (9) – February 7, 2025
Kennewick, WA – The Tri-City Americans (24-21-4-1) were shorthanded Friday night, only able to dress 16 skaters in a 9-1 loss to the Victoria Royals (30-14-3-5) at the Toyota Center.
Victoria got off and running 31 seconds in as Cole Reschny scored on their first shot of the game. He took a drop pass off the rush and beat Ryan Grout under the glove from the right circle.
After failing to connect on a power play of their own the Americans took back-to-back penalties, and the Royals capitalized on the second one. Marcus Loponen scored from the left circle as the Royals lead 2-0 after one period.
Tri-City nearly cut into the Victoria lead early in the second. Jake Sloan took a hard shot from the slot that snuck through the pads of Johnny Hicks, put was pulled away from the goal line by Jarrett Ross to keep the score 2-0.
Not long after Kenta Isogai pushed Victoria’s lead to 3-0, beating Grout through the five hole off the rush. Brayden Boehm, Escalus Burlock and Teydon Trembecky added goals as the Royals carried a 6-0 lead through 40 minutes.
After Justin Kipkie and Reschny added goals in the third, the Americans got on the scoreboard on the power play. Charlie Elick let a low wrist shot go from the left circle for his first of the year and first as an American. The goal came with five minutes left in regulation.
Burlock answered back with a power play goal with just 20 seconds remaining to round out the scoring.
The Americans look to put the game behind them as they head North to meet the Kelowna Rockets (16-28-4-1) Saturday night.
Announced attendance was 3,854.
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