For the second time in the last five years, the Tri-City Americans emerged victorious Friday night in Kent with a 4-1 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds. Tri-City ended their losing streak and will look to continue their success tomorrow in the Teddy Bear toss. Lukas Matecha was the man of the hour, stopping 23 of 24 shots in the contest. Maximillian Curran had a two-point night as well.
Jordan Gavin got the Americans going six minutes into the game. The American powerplay has been struggling this season, but Gavin got it rolling tonight. Gavin walked in on the left faceoff circle and went bardown on Seattle Thunderbird goalie Scott Ratzlaff to quiet the loud crowd early.
Halfway through the first period, Carter MacAdams of the Tri-City Americans had a greeting with Jeremy Hanzel at the American’s end. The two exchanged multiple blows before Jeremy Hanzel got the best of MacAdams and dragged him to the ground.
Shots after one period of play were 8-7 in favor of Tri-City.
Carter MacAdams, fresh out of the box from a fight, got scoring started in the second period. Sam Popowich, behind the net, tapped it out front and mistakenly passed it right to Carter MacAdams, who was lurking in the slot. MacAdams did not waste this opportunity and slid the puck past Ratzlaff’s blocker, making it 2-0 two minutes into the second period.
Deagan McMillan got his 10th goal of the season on the powerplay halfway through the second period. McMillan received a backdoor pass from Carter MacAdams and made it 3-0 Tri-City.
Shots after two periods of play were 24-11 in favor of Tri-City.
After a slow start to the third period, Lukas Dragicevic sent Seattle fans for their cars thirteen minutes into the third period. Dragicevic fired a seemingly harmless shot from the point that managed to trickle through traffic in front of the net and evade the blinded Scott Ratzlaff, making it 4-0 Tri-City.
However, Seattle would get the last hoorah tonight, scoring with just under thirty seconds left in the game. Luca Hauf said I’ll do it myself and walked into the American zone alone. Huaf dangled into the slot and beat Matecha on the far post to get Seattle on the board, making it a 4-1 game.
Shortly after, with time winding down, Coster Dunn walked into the American’s zone and ran through goaltender Lukas Matecha. Matecha went down quickly, clutching his right hip. Play went on for several seconds before the final buzzer. Matecha was helped off the ice by multiple American players.
With their win, Tri-City moved to 14-12-2. Tri-City will look to carry the momentum into the Teddy Bear Toss game on Saturday, Dec. 9th, against the Wenatchee Wild. Puck drop is set for 6:00 p.m.
Northwest Sports Desk 