Tri City fans were given a show last night. Simply put, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, predicted as a top five draft prospect in next years NHL draft, was as advertised. Nugent-Hopkins and the Red Deer Rebels came into town and swept away the Americans to earn their first win on their trip through the US Division. The Americans fall to 11-5-1-1 and dropped their second straight home game.
The game started with both sides getting chances, the Rebels went on the power play after an early hooking penalty by Brooks Macek, but were not able to get anything set up and the Americans kept the game at 0's. Errant passes again plagued TC's offense as it seemed nothing was connecting between the blue lines. Tri City would get a PP chance of their own when Nugent-Hopkins was called for roughing at the 15 minute mark. There were a few great chances but the most promising aspect was the play of Captain Kruise Reddick, who made his return from an early season concussion. With the puck about to cross the offensive blue line, Reddick made a diving play to keep the puck in. It set up another chance for the offense.
Kruise really played hard, was heavily involved in a lot of plays, and seemed to be all over the ice. Definitely a workmans effort. Glad to have him back.
The Americans kept Nugent-Hopkins handcuffed in the first, not allowing many scoring chances. They kept him marked almost exclusively, an effective way of shutting down a talented forward. The first period ended with the game still at 0-0, Ams outshot the Rebels 13-6, though didn't seem like that as the game was played pretty even
The second period was when things started to snowball. Rebel defenseman Aaron Borejko took an interference penalty 1:30 into the period, and the Ams capitalized less than a minute later. With Stebner controlling from the point, he went tic-tac to Feser, then Sutherland who found Macek in front of the net who slipped one in for the first tally of the game. It was Maceks' 4th goal of the year. Jessica is claiming ESP on this goal as she was just about to tell me that we were going to score.
The Americans continued to keep pressure in the offensive zone but were having a little trouble with miscommunication behind the net in their own zone. There was a stretch of about a minute where we literally couldn't get out from behind or own net, even with possession of the puck. The rebels got a big chance in front of the net and it seemed everyone was in front of the net trying to push the puck through. Messier ended it all with a penalty for a high sticking. While on the PP, Yuen played great and showed some aggression when he took offense to a check he received from Nugent-Hopkins and gave him a nice couple of shoves back after the whistle. No goals were scored on the power play but you could definitely feel the momentum shift.
Less than a minute off the PP, the Rebels came into the zone on a 2-2 and RD Captain Colin Archer fed Matthew Dumba who fired a shot from the point that 5 holed Drew to knot it up at 1. The next goal was a nasty one 4 minutes later when RD forward Dalton Siwak walked in all alone into the slot and fired a one timer to make it 2-1. The wheels officially came off when Humphries and Moser combined for a 5-3 power play. Humphries went for a roughing and a misconduct, and Moser with a tripping call. There was a lot of time before the whistle as the Ams struggled to touch up on the puck with Red Deer circling around.
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| Red Deer forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | | | |
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The 5-3 didn't take long, and Nugent-Hopkins showed everyone why he is such a high prospect. It took three passes to get it to him and with the Ams in a triangle formation, he walked (literally just mosied up to the net) and ripped a rocket glove side over Drew just 13 seconds in making it 3-1.
"I thought the 5-on-3 call on Moser was a little suspect," Ams associate coach Scott Beattie said of the first call, a trip on Nils Moser that appeared to be a clean open-ice hit. "But that 5-on-3 changed the whole face of the game. It really changed the momentum. (
examiner)
The Rebels had now scored three unanswered and I turned to Jessica and said, "These guys need to get pissed"
-And that they did. On an ensuing faceoff, Kruise Reddick chopped low on his opponent, letting us all know the team was frustrated, and a clean hit by Wilgosh was contested by Rebels' Brett Ferguson who got into it with Willy. Wilgosh pretty much owned Ferguson and Ferguson would take a few penalties on the fight including the instigator, major, and a misconduct. The game turned chippy and the Americans looked like they had regained the momentum that was lost, and the crowd was definitely back in it. The Power play opportunity went without much pressure, and the period would end with Red Deer ahead 3-1.
Onto the third and the Ams would head to the box less than 2 minutes in. Hughesman was called for a hooking, and again the Americans struggled to contain Nugent-Hopkins as he let a shot go from the faceoff circle all by himself that found twine. The kid seriously is super talented and knows how to handle the puck.
10 excruciating minutes went by with the Americans gaining several scoring chances, all coming up empty. With 8 to go, Yuen entered the zone surrounded by two or three defenseman, and shook them all loose, and found Jordan Messier at the far post to poke it in. The score now 4-2, the Ams were showing life and the crowd was now back into the game. Unfortunately it wouldnt last long as Sam Grist went off for a tripping call less than a minute later and the RD took advantage scoring to steal momentum away.
The most frustrating part of the next 8 minutes is that Red Deer goalie Darcy Kuemper
continually knocked the net off on his own, which should be a penalty, but went uncalled. The Ams would take the zone, apply a little pressure, and magically the net would come off. I'm okay with officials missing a call once, maybe twice...but when it happened the third time with NOBODY by the net I was pretty hot, along with the 5,000+ fans attending. There would be a time out called, and when Kuemper started to skate back out, i offered my own praise of boos, which to my enjoyment the crowd followed. I STARTED A RINK WIDE BOO!! I felt good about what I had done.
Red Deer would give us another chance with a PP just under 5 to go, and coach Hiller took advantage and pulled Owsley to get a 6-4. After a clear just missed the net the Ams took back control of the zone with Hughesman standing in front of the net all by himself. It took a while for the puck to get to him but when it did, oh man, Hughey had to make some moves standing in front of Kuemper but eventually got the puck past.
From there the game would remain 5-3 and the Americans came up short on a tough effort. Red Deer finished 3-of-7 on the power play (Tri-City was 2-of-5). The high energy crowd did stick around until the end which was good to see. We knew going into the game we would get a good one and that we did.
"For sure, this will be a long week to reflect on this game," Reddick said. "We're just going to have to let it go, and come back next week even stronger." (examiner)
My Three Stars (chosen before official announcement):
1: RD Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
2: TC Brooks Macek
3: RD Darcy Kuemper
Actual Three Stars
1: RD Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
2: RD Darcy Kuemper
3: TC Brooks Macek
I snuck over to the Red Deer bench after the game before the stars were announced. As Nugent-Hopkins came back off the ice I snagged a high five from him (not on my team but damn the kid could go #1 in the draft next year!) Afterwards I realized I totally should have asked him for an interview, which would've been pretty awesome.
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Around the US Division:
Brad Ross scored his eighth goal of the season as the Portland Winterhawks doubled up the visiting Everett Silvertips 4-2 on Saturday.
Oliver Gabriel, Sven Bartschi and Ryan Johansen also scored for the Winterhawks (14-2-0-1), who roll to their eighth straight victory and remain comfortably in first place in the Western Conference. Keith Hamilton turned in a 34-save effort to record his fifth win of the season.
Taylor Cote scored his first WHL goal and Clayton Cumiskey also scored for the Silvertips (6-5-1-3), who were scoreless on four power play chances in the contest. Kent Simpson made 30 saves in the defeat.
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Steve Kuhn broke a 1-1 tie with his third goal of the season 14:05 into the third period to lead the visiting Spokane Chiefs to a 3-1 victory over the Swift Current Broncos on Saturday.
Collin Valcourt and Tyler Johnson also scored for the Chiefs (8-8-1-0), who wrap up their East Division road swing with a 3-2-1 record. James Reid made 20 saves to pick up the victory.
Cody Eakin scored his 10th goal of the season for the Broncos (10-10-0-0), who suffer their third straight loss on home ice. Austin Smith turned in a valiant 47-save performance in a losing cause.
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US DIVISION STANDINGS:
| 1 | Portland Winterhawks | 17 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 29 | 0.853 | 66 | 41 | 8-0-0-0 | 9-1-0-0 | 386 |
| 2 | Tri-City Americans | 18 | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 24 | 0.667 | 68 | 60 | 0-1-0-1 | 6-3-0-1 | 259 |
| 3 | Spokane Chiefs | 17 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 0.500 | 63 | 51 | 1-0-1-0 | 6-3-1-0 | 340 |
| 4 | Seattle Thunderbirds | 14 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 0.571 | 39 | 38 | 0-1-0-0 | 4-2-2-2 | 280 |
| 5 | Everett Silvertips | 15 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 16 | 0.533 | 41 | 45 | 0-1-0-0 | 2-4-1-3 | 256 |
