2 Days = 2 Wins

The Americans went 2 for 2 on the weekend in a home and home weekend series with the Seattle Thunderbirds. First up was Friday night at Toyota center for teddy bear toss night. If you recall I mentioned that the first key to the game was going to be to score early. Shinnimin took care of that check mark by netting one past Pickard on a 2 on 1 less than two minutes in. Over 2,800 stuffed animals came over the glass. A dejected Pickard made his way back to the bench during the near 10 minute clean up time:


"Everyone before the game wanted that goal," said Shinnimin, who also had two assists. "It feels good to get it going and get the team going. When it goes to a good cause, it makes it that much better." (herald)

 The rest of the night went really well. It's amazing what an early goal can do for you and there were a lot of chances around Pickard. Seattle managed to do a decent job of clogging shooting lanes, seems like we could've had 70 shots on goal. 

The Americans took a 2-0 lead at 5:06 of the second period as Brooks Macek -- using a screen by Neal Prokop -- beat Pickard from the top of the right circle on the power play for his eighth goal of the season. (herald) 

Thats right Brooks Macek actually found the score sheet!! Hopefully that will continue because he needs to be more of an offensive contributor. 

"Ten power plays to three. They are a good offensive team, you can't put them on the power play that many times," said Seattle coach Rob Sumner, whose team is 0-4 against Tri-City this season. "In the first, we were outshot -- we turned down some shots and missed some. In the second, there was a stretch where we started to get in a rhythm, then we gave up a simple goal (Hughesman's) at a critical time. That was a big goal to give up." (herald) 

That trend would continue for the T-Birds as they gave up another 14 penalties en route to a 5-1 victory for the Ams on Saturday night. Jordan Messier scored twice in 15 seconds as part of a 4 goal 1st and cruised to victory. Really just a normal game for Seattle, just undisciplined and piss-poor defense is their demise. 

Ams back in action against Vancouver on friday at home. That will be a rematch of the western conference finals that the Ams won last year.