Alexander True and Donovan Neuls scored shorthanded goals to lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 4-3 Western Hockey League victory over the Tri-City Americans at the Toyota Center in Kennewick on Friday night.<\/p>\n
The T-Birds, who have won nine of their last 10 games, are three points behind the Americans for second place in the U.S. Division with five games in hand. The T-Birds are 11 points behind the first-place Everett Silvertips.<\/p>\n
Seattle (27-15-3-1) took a 2-0 lead with goals in 1:22 apart just 3:19 into the game.<\/p>\n
True carried the puck out of the left corner of the offensive zone on a delayed penalty call against the Americans. True got to the blue line and dropped the puck for Ethan Bear, who deked a forward and skated into the slot. Bear beat Tri-City goalie Rylan Parenteau over the glove for his 15th goal of the season at 1:57 of the first period. Turner Ottenbreit had the second assist.<\/p>\n
On the power play, Mathew Barzal held the puck in the Americans with a diving play. Ottenbreit got the puck and skated into the right circle and beat Parenteau on the stick side with a wrist shot at 3:19 of the first. Keegan Kolesar had the second assist.<\/p>\n
Tri-City (29-19-3-0) cut the T-Birds lead to one goal at 17:48 of first on a goal from Michael Rasmussen.<\/p>\n
Ryan Gropp set up the T-Birds’ third goal, which came shorthanded at 10:29 of the second period. Gropp chased a bad pass by the Americans down the left wing and came in on Parenteau on a breakaway. The goalie made the save, but True was chasing the play and poked the rebound past the goalie for the T-Birds’ third goal.<\/p>\n
The Americans made it a one-goal T-Birds lead for a second time, at 15:26 of the second on a goal from Jordan Topping.<\/p>\n
Rasmussen tied the game 3-3 at 7:38 of the third period when he tipped a point shot past Seattle goalie Rylan Toth.<\/p>\n
Seattle took the lead back at 8:47 of the third on unassisted shorthanded breakaway goal by Neuls, who forced a turnover at center ice along the left boards and came in on Parenteau on a breakaway. Neuls beat Parenteau over the blocker with a wrist shot for his 10th goal of the season.<\/p>\n
The T-Birds were called for a tripping penalty with 1:34 left in the game. The Americans pulled Parenteau for an extra attacker and a six-on-four power play advantage.<\/p>\n
Toth made three good saves just before the one minute mark the of the third. The Americans called a timeout with just under a minute left. Nolan Volcan, Ottenbreit and Neuls each blocked a shot as the Americans pressed for the tying goal.<\/p>\n
Both teams had 11 shots on goal in the third period. Seattle finished with a 30-28 advantage in shots.<\/p>\n
Toth finished the game with 25 saves on 28 shots and his record is now 23-15-1-0.<\/p>\n
Parenteau had 26 saves and his record is now 18-10-1-0.<\/p>\n