WHL Tri-City Americans

Tigers Blast Americans 6-1

Published on November 12, 2009 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Tri-City Americans News Release


MEDICINE HAT, AB - Last Friday, the Tri-City Americans were feeling on top of the world after handing the Vancouver Giants their worst loss of the season. Then, the Medicine Hat Tigers served them a slice of humble pie.

The Tigers (11-9-2-2, 26 pts) erupted for six unanswered goals, including four in the third period, to race past the visiting Tri-City Americans (15-4-0-0, 30 pts) 6-1 in front of 4,006 fans at the Medicine Hat Arena. The loss snapped the Americans' four-game winning streak and marked just their second defeat in their last 15 games. Meanwhile, the Tigers, now 2-2 against the U.S. Division this season, improve to 7-2-1-1 at home.

The first half of Wednesday's contest looked nothing like the final 30 minutes, as the two teams battled to a scoreless tie and were near even in shots on goal.

Brooks Macek got the scoring started in the contest. At the 13:28 point of the second period and on the power play, Macek fired a one-timer from the left circle that beat the Tigers' Tyler Bunz high on the glove side for the 1-0 lead. Little did Tri-City know that it would be the only offense they could muster on the night.

The Drew Owsley dam finally cracked 2:09 later, as former Spokane Chiefs defenseman Jace Coyle clanked a shot of the right post and in, tying the game at 1. But, the Tri-City back breaker came with 55 seconds remaining in the period, when Zdenek Okal and Matthew Konan took off on a 2-on-1 breakaway. Okal eventually beat Owsley over his blocker, as the Tigers took the lead for good.

Medicine Hat then broke the game wide open in the third period, scoring four times in a six-minute span. At the 10:49 mark of the period, Linden Vey backhanded in his own rebound for his 10th goal of the season. Then, just 36 seconds later, Tristan King caught the Tri-City defense cheating in and took off all alone on Owsley, tallying his ninth goal of the season.

With 7:07 remaining in regulation and after a Tigers penalty gave the Americans a power play opportunity, Tri-City coach Jim Hiller pulled Owsley from an extra attacker, in a last-ditch effort to get his club back into the game. But, 40 seconds into the power play, Bretton Cameron got past the Tri-City defense to notch the short-handed empty net goal, putting the Tigers up 5-1.

Back-up Brett Martyniuk replaced Owsley at the 16:02 mark of the third, but allowed a goal on the only shot he faced to cap the scoring in the contest. While on the power play, Matt MacKay stuffed in a rebound to round out the night.

Owsley, who made several big saves to keep his team close, finished the night with 22 saves on 26 shots and picked up third star honors for his efforts. Meanwhile, Bunz collected 26 saves to notch his ninth win of the season. Tri-City finished 1-for-7 on the power play, while Medicine Hat was 1-for-5 on the man-advantage.

Tomorrow, the Americans will practice in Lethbridge, AB as they prepare to take on the Hurricanes on Friday, November 13 at Enmax Centre. Game time is 6:00 p.m. (PST). It is the lone regular season match-up between the two clubs. Tri-City downed the Hurricanes in last year's meeting, a 5-2 victory on Feb. 8 in Kennewick. The Americans also outlasted the Hurricanes 6-5 in the final day of this year's Red Lion Hotels Pre-Season Tournament back on Sept. 13. However, Tri-City has not won at the Enmax Centre since a 4-2 victory on Oct. 19, 2003 and is 7-9-1-0 all-time in Lethbridge. Fans can catch all the action live, via WHL WebTV, at the Americans' home away from home, Kimo's Sports Café in Richland. The game will also be broadcast live on NewsTalk 870 AM, starting with the Sterling Savings Bank Warm-up Show at 5:45 p.m. (PST).

Applebee's 3 Stars:

1, Tyler Bunz, Medicine Hat

2, Bretton Cameron, Medicine Hat

3, Drew Owsley, Tri-City

Check out the Tri-City Americans Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from November 12, 2009


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