RECAP: Americans (2) – Thunderbirds (1)
Kennewick, WA – On his 20th birthday, Jake Sloan scored with 1:06 left in regulation to lift the Tri-City Americans to a 2-1 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds Tuesday night.
Despite outshooting the Thunderbirds in the opening 20 minutes, Tri-City found themselves trailing after one period. After Jackson Smith had a hard slap shot blocked, Seattle took off through center ice on a two-on-one rush.
Nishaan Parmar fed the puck across the slot to Eric Alarie who fired a shot past the blocker of Lukas Matecha, giving Seattle the 1-0 lead just 4:09 into the game. The period ended with the Americans outshooting Seattle 11-8.
The second period began with some fireworks after Sloan took a hard hit along the penalty boxes. Parker Bell immediately came in and dropped the gloves with Ashton Cumby, bringing the Toyota Center crowd of over 2,700 to their feet.
While they outshot Seattle in the middle frame the Americans were still trailing 1-0 when they returned to the locker room for the second intermission.
The score remained 1-0 until late in regulation when Deagan McMillan tied the game. Off a face-off win in the Seattle zone, McMillan gathered the puck in the slot and fired it past the blocker of Scott Ratzlaff for his 15th of the season. Bell received the lone assist on the goal.
The goal gave Tri-City a jolt as they continued to pepper Ratzlaff with shots, eventually outshooting Seattle 16-4 in the third period. That led to Sloan giving the Americans the lead for good.
Off a turnover near the Seattle blue line, Sloan took off with a step down the right wing with a step on the last defender back. After his initial shot from the right circle was stopped, Sloan got his own rebound and put it past the left pad of Ratzlaff to send the Toyota Center into a frenzy with 1:06 left in regulation.
Ratzlaff went to the Thunderbirds bench for the extra attacker shortly after the goal as Seattle looked to tie the game, but the Americans held off the late push to take the game 2-1.
Tri-City now gets set to host the Spokane Chiefs on Friday night at the Toyota Center.
