The Tri-City Americans shoved aside Eastern Conference foe, the Regina Pats, in a must-win game Saturday evening by a score of 5-3 on Fred Meyer Pink Ice Night in front of a soldout Toyota Center.
Carter MacAdams of Tri-City got the sold out crowd bumping at 10:48 in the first period to open the scoring.
Alex Serraglio marched into the Pats’ zone and made a backdoor feed to MacAdams, who was wide open. MacAdams fired a quick wrister that went right over the diving Pats goaltender, Kelton Pyne.
With time ticking in the first period, Tri-City doubled their lead at 18:15.
Brandon Whynott, out net-front, was all alone. Lukas Dragicevic fired a slap shot from the point that Whynott tipped. Pyne made the save; however, Whynott quickly found the rebound and backhanded it in to make it 2-0 Tri-City.
Following a Double-Minor penalty to Deagan McMillan shortly after the Whynott goal, Regina would sneak in a goal of their own before the first-period intermission.
Tye Spencer netted the Regina power-play goal. Ty Gibson, at the point, fired a pass over to Spencer, awaiting the puck at the left circle, and fired a one-time blast by American goaltender Lukas Matecha with just under a minute left in the first period.
Shots after one period of play were 11-8 in favor of Tri-City. Tri-City also held a 2-1 lead heading into the second period on the penalty kill.
Jake Sloan continued his hot streak with yet another goal for his 25th of the season early in the second period at 4:08 and helped Kainoah Brankovich get his first career point in the WHL.
Kainoah Brankovich, who was just called up just under two weeks ago, made a stretch pass to Jake Sloan. Sloan narrowly skated through two Pats’ defenders for a breakaway. Sloan then fired a wrister by the blocker of Pyne, making it 3-1 Tri-City.
Brayden Barnett of the Regina Pats, in his 100th career WHL Game, made it a one-goal game again with just over three minutes remaining in the second period for his fifth goal of the season.
Regina crashed the net, and with a heap of players surrounding the net, Barnett was the lucky man and swatted the puck home to keep things close heading into the third period.
After two periods of play, shots were 26-21 in favor of Tri-City. Tri-City also held a one-goal lead heading into the third period by a score of 3-2.
Andrew Fan would make it 4-2 Tri-City with five minutes left in the third period. Following a Save of the Year candidate by Kelton Pyne, Fan gathered the puck beyond the right circle and fired a wrister by the Pats’ netminder.
Regina would keep clinging onto life and trade blows with Tri-City, scoring at 17:43, two minutes after the Andrew Fan goal.
Sam Oremba netted his 20th goal of the season after sniping Lukas Matecha from the right circle.
Parker Bell would shut down any conversation regarding a late comeback for Regina as Bell scored an empty-net goal. Bell and Sloan raced down the ice after a faceoff, playing a bit of tic-tac-toe, and eventually slotted the puck into the empty net.
With their win, Tri-City move to 22-32-2-1 on the season. Tri-City now move to 6 points back from a playoff spot, which the Spokane Chiefs currently hold. The Americans will be back in action Friday, March 1, against the Victoria Royals. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
Northwest Sports Desk 