NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, CFL stats



Tri-City Americans

Vancouver Leaves Tri-City with Giant Win, Defeats Americans 5-1

November 25, 2006 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Tri-City Americans News Release


KENNEWICK, WA - Call it a reality check, a slap in the face or just a simple beating.

Any way you phrase it, the Vancouver Giants (21-2-1-2, 45 pts) brought their 'A' game to the Toyota Center on Friday night and handed the Tri-City Americans (16-8-0-0, 32 pts) their worst home loss of the season, 5-1.

Vancouver, the Canadian Hockey League's top team, out-played, out-hustled and simply out-performed Tri-City in every aspect of the game during their first meeting of the season. Last season, the Giants swept the four-game series between the two clubs and marched on to their first WHL Championship.

Despite several big hits from the Tri-City defense, the Giants' Tim Kraus started the scoring for Vancouver with 6:36 gone in the first period.

But the big story for Vancouver was LW, Milan Lucic's natural hat trick. With a 1-0 lead, Lucic registered the next three consecutive goals for the Giants, the first coming on the power play with under two minutes to play in the first period. He tallied his second goal of the evening at the 3:03 mark of the second period, and then completed the hat trick, eight minutes later, while on the power play. With his performance tonight, the Giants' second-year forward has already surpassed his season totals from last season, with 10 goals, 12 assists and 22 points.

After trailing 4-0 to start the third period, Tri-City's Colton Yellow Horn broke through the Vancouver defense and got the Americans on the board. Off assists from Alex Aldred and Erik Felde, Yellow Horn registered his team-leading 14th goal of the season just 34 seconds into the period. It was Yellow Horn's sixth power play goal of the season.

The Giants crushed any hopes of a comeback just five minutes later, when Kyle Lamb beat Tri-City goaltender, Carey Price, for his 10th goal of the season. Price finished the game with 22 saves. Tri-City managed only 16 shots on Vancouver net minder, Tyson Sexsmith, who is now 12-1-0-1 on the season with a 1.81 goals against average and a 0.916 save percentage.

Tri-City must rebound quickly as they travel west tomorrow to take on the U.S. Division leading Everett Silvertips. Game time is 7:00 PM at the Everett Events Center. You can catch all the action live on NewsTalk 870 AM, starting with the Budweiser Warm-Up Show at 6:45 PM. You can also listen live through the Americans website by visiting the Internet Radio Broadcast page under Fanzone or by visiting the individual game summary page.

Notes:

With 5,261 fans attending tonight's game, it was Tri-City's second largest crowd of the season. It is the third time this season Tri-City has hosted 5,000+ fans...With the loss, Tri-City had their five-game home winning streak snapped. Despite the loss, Tri-City is still 10-4 at the Toyota Center this season...Colton Yellow Horn continued his point streak with his goal tonight, stretching his streak to five games...Juraj Valach, however, had his seven-game point streak snapped...Despite their home record, Tri-City has struggled on special teams at home. After allowing two power play goals tonight, the Americans' defense holds a 0.830 power play killing percentage, good for 12th in the Western Hockey League. Meanwhile, with their one power play goal tonight, they saw their power play percentage rise slightly to 16.5%, good for 14th in the league.

Check out the Tri-City Americans Statistics

• Discuss this story on the Western Hockey League message board...

Western Hockey League Stories from November 25, 2006


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central