The Tri-City Americans defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 7-3 in a Western Hockey League game Friday night at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.<\/p>\n
The Thunderbirds are in second place in the U.S. Division, three points behind the Silvertips who have two games in hand.<\/p>\n
The T-Birds return home to play the Kelowna Rockets at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at the ShoWare Center. They finish out the weekend on Kent ice against the Everett Silvertips at 5:05 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n
A pair of Kyle Olson’s goal gave Tri-City (37-23-3-0) a quick cushion.<\/p>\n
Rylan Toth replaced Carl Stankowski in Seattle’s net after the second Americans goal.<\/p>\n
Seattle (38-18-3-2) cut the Americans lead to one goal at 8:51 of the first on the power play. Donovan Neuls had the puck on the left wing on a T-Birds break up ice. Neuls passed the puck to Austin Strand in the low slot and he took a shot. Tri-City goalie Rylan Parenteau made the save, but a scramble ensued in front of the goalie. The puck popped out to Jarret Tyszka in the slot, beating Parenteau with a snap shot high for his sixth goal of the season.<\/p>\n
The Americans took a 6-1 lead with four goals in the first 8:06 of the second period. Austyn Playfair scored 27 seconds into the period followed by Nolan Yaremko at 3:06. Keltie Jeri-Leon scored at 4:47 and Brett Leason scored at 8:06.<\/p>\n
Stankowski came back on for Toth after the Americans’ fourth goal of the period. Toth made 14 saves on 18 shots and his record is now 31-17-1-1.<\/p>\n
Keegan Kolesar took a feed from Ryan Gropp on the power play and beat Parenteau at 15:30 of the second. Ethan Bear had the second assist, extended his point streak to 10 games. Kolesar extended his point streak to nine games on the goal.<\/p>\n
Playfair scored at 19:28 of the second to get the Americans’ seventh goal.<\/p>\n
Austin Strand scored on a wrist shot at 13:31 of the third period to get the T-Birds third goal of the game. Anthony Bishop and Zack Andrusiak had the assists.<\/p>\n
The T-Birds outshot the Americans 13-4 in the third period and 39-35 in the game.<\/p>\n
Stankowski finished the game with 14 saves on 17 shots.<\/p>\n
Parenteau made 36 saves on 39 shots and his record is now 24-12-1-0.<\/p>\n