RECAP: Americans (4) @ Blazers (1) – February 11, 2025
Kamloops, B.C. – Lukas Matecha turned a stellar performance at the Sandman Centre on Tuesday, making 44 saves as the Tri-City Americans (26-21-4-1) picked up a 4-1 victory over the Kamloops Blazers (18-29-4-0).
Kamloops came out strong in the opening period, outshooting Tri-City 19-10 and taking a 1-0 lead. After a wraparound attempt was stopped, Connor Radke jumped on a loose puck and knocked home his fourth goal of the year to give the Blazers the lead. They carried that lead into the intermission.
Early in the second the Americans tied the game. Terrell Goldsmith let go a hard wrist shot from the blue line that was stopped by Logan Edmonstone, but Kainoah Brankovic lifted the rebound over Edmonstone’s glove for his first career WHL goal. The goal came 4:13 into the period.
Tri-City’s penalty kill came up huge shortly after the goal as the Blazers had a 1:26 long five-on-three, but Matecha and the penalty killing units held strong to keep the game tied at one.
Right as the second power play was coming to an end, Rhett Ravndahl was sent to the box for slashing sending the Americans to their third power play of the game.
On the power play Carter MacAdams slammed home his own rebound off a chance in tight, giving Tri-City a 2-1 lead with his 16th goal of the season. The two goals came 3:28 apart.
The score remained 2-1 heading into the third period with Tri-City outshooting Kamloops 11-10 in the middle frame.
The Blazers came out firing to start the third period, outshooting the Americans heavily trying to tie the game. Matecha stood his ground again, holding Tri-City’s 2-1 lead in check.
Despite being outshot 16-9 in the period, the Americans held their 2-1 lead until the final minutes of regulation when they finally broke through with some breathing room. A strong forechecking shift by the line Brandon Whynott, Jake Gudelj and MacAdams led to a scramble around the net.
Gudelj’s wraparound attempt was stopped and the puck came to the slot where Whynott picked it up, turned and fired it past Edmonstone, giving the Americans a 3-1 lead with 3:14 to go.
Just 16 seconds later, Harrison Brunicke turned the puck over behind the Kamloops goal. Nick Anisimovicz intercepted his pass, slid it to Max Curran who quickly passed it to the slot for Jake Sloan who scored his 23rd of the year, in his 250th career game, to push the lead to 4-1.
Tri-City ended the game by killing off a penalty, ending the night a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
The Americans now return home to get set to host the Spokane Chiefs (35-16-1-0) at the Toyota Center Friday night.
