Tri-City Comeback Falls Short as Tigers Beat Americans 3-2
October 23, 2006 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Tri-City Americans News Release
KENNEWICK, WA - Try as he might, rookie Erik Felde could not bring the Americans all the way back.
In a match-up of two of the hottest teams in the Western Hockey League, Medicine Hat would register two second-period goals, sending the Tigers to a 3-2 victory over the Tri-City Americans at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.
The Tigers would get on the board first, scoring on their first of two power play goals in the contest. At the 4:05 mark of the first period, Derek Dorsett would take a pass from David Schlemko and Kris Russell, and fire it past Tri-City net minder Chet Pickard to take the early 1-0 lead. Despite two power play opportunities, the Americans could only muster 4 shots on goal in the first frame, sending Medicine Hat into the locker room with the 1-goal advantage after one period of play.
Both teams came out of the break and committed costly penalties early in the second period. At the 2:29 mark of the period, Tri-City's Joel Broda was called for a questionable 5-minute, major-penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct penalty, which forced Broda out of the game. Then, with 3:42 gone in the period, Medicine Hat's Jakub Rumpel was called for tripping, setting up a four-on-four situation.
With nearly four minutes gone in the second period and still playing four-aside, Felde got a shot past Tigers goaltender Matt Keetley, recording his first goal of the night and sixth of the season. Kruise Reddick and Ryan Gillen recorded assists on Felde's sixth goal of the season.
However, while still attempting to kill off the major penalty from Broda, the Tigers took the lead for good with 13:10 remaining in the period. Medicine Hat's Dorsett and Chris Stevens passed the puck up to Tyler Swystun, who registered their second power play goal of the night. Medicine Hat finished the contest 2-for-6 on the power play.
Five minutes later, and still in the second period, Medicine Hat's Colton Grant, a former Tri-City list player, scored his first-career Western Hockey League goal, giving the Tigers a 3-1 lead going into the second intermission. After two periods of play, Medicine Hat out-shot Tri-City, 20-to-12.
Tri-City started on the comeback trail with just under three minutes remaining in the game. Felde took a Matt Swaby pass up the line and fired it home for his second goal of the night. With under two minutes to play, and playing short-handed, Felde was robbed of the hat trick by a tremendous glove save by Keetley.
After killing off Swaby's elbowing penalty with 22 seconds remaining, Tri-City pulled Pickard out of net to set up one final chance to send the contest into overtime, but to no avail. The Medicine Hat Tigers have now won five in a row, while snapping Tri-City's five-game home winning streak. Pickard picked-up 24 saves in the losing effort and drops to 3-2-0-0 on the season.
The Americans (9-3-0-0, 18 pts, 2nd in the U.S. Division) will have a day-off Monday before returning to the ice on Wednesday, October 25 to take on the visiting Kamloops Blazers (6-3-1-1, 14 pts, 2nd in the B.C. Division). Game time is 7:05 PM at the Toyota Center in Kennewick. You can catch all the action live on NewsTalk 870 AM, starting with the Budweiser Warm-Up Show at 6:45 PM. You can also listen live through the Americans website by visiting the Internet Radio Broadcast page under Fanzone or by visiting the individual game summary page.
Notes:
After Erik Felde's two goal night, he now has 7 goals and 14 points in his rookie campaign. Felde leads Tri-City in points and ranks fourth-overall in the league among rookie skaters...Fellow Tri-City rookie Kruise Reddick recorded his second-career assist on Felde's first goal of the night. His first career point came on October 7 in Spokane...The often-overlooked Tri-City defense gave up two power play goals in six opportunities on Sunday night, after allowing only three power play goal in their previous four games at the Toyota Center...RW Taylor Procyshen was not in the starting line-up against Medicine Hat due to a mild concussion he sustained during Saturday's game against Prince George. He is currently listed as day-to-day.
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