{"id":33193,"date":"2018-02-22T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/americans-skate-past-thunderbirds\/"},"modified":"2018-02-22T12:36:32","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T20:36:32","slug":"americans-skate-past-thunderbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/americans-skate-past-thunderbirds\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans skate past Thunderbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"
For the Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n The Tri-City Americans defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-2 in a Western Hockey League game at the Toyota Center in Kennewick on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n The T-Birds travel to Kelowna to take on the Rockets at 7:05 p.m. Friday. They are back home at the accesso ShoWare Center on Saturday to face the Everett Silvertips at 6:05 p.m.<\/p>\n The Americans are in first place in the wild-card playoff standings in the Western Conference, three points ahead of the T-Birds, who are six points ahead of the Kamloops Blazers.<\/p>\n Tri-City (30-21-7-1) went in front 1-0 at 10:56 of the first period on a goal from Jordan Topping. Michael Rasmussen and Jake Bean had the assists.<\/p>\n Seattle (28-22-7-2) tied the game 1-1 18 seconds into the second period. Austin Strand intercepted a pass at the right point. Strand skated into the right circle and beat Tri-City goalie Patrick Dea on the glove side for his 20th goal of the season.<\/p>\n Nolan Yaremko gave the Americans the lead back at 2:29 of the second when he scored. Isaac Johnson and Parker AuCoin had the assists.<\/p>\n The T-Birds came right back and tied the game 2-2 at 5:31 of the second. Nolan Volcan passed the puck to Jarret Tyszka and the left point. Tyszka took a wrist shot with Zack Andrusiak screening Dea. Tyszka’s shot beat the goalie on the glove side.<\/p>\n Topping put the Americans up 3-2 at 9:51 of the second with his second goal of the game. Riley Sawchuk and Juuso Valimaki had the assists.<\/p>\n Rasmussen tipped a Dylan Coghlan point shot past Seattle goalie Liam Hughes with six seconds left in the second period to make it a 4-2 Americans lead.<\/p>\n Tri-City outshot Seattle 45-28 in the game.<\/p>\n Hughes had 41 saves on 45 shots and his record is 10-9-4-1.<\/p>\n Dea made 26 saves on 28 shots and his record is 16-12-6-0.<\/p>\n