Comrie Dazzles, Feser Scores Two Leading Americans Past Rockets

Kennewick, WA- Different story, same outcome.

The Tri-City Americans (15-7-1-1, 32 pts) reversed last night, starting off hot with three first period goals and held off a furious comeback attempt by the Kelowna Rockets (12-8-1-1, 26 pts) to earn a 3-2 victory in front of 4,563 at the Toyota Center.

Eric Comrie reset his season high in saves from last night, stopping 42 shots tonight and saved 87 shots total in the two games this weekend. With the 60 minutes played, he becomes the 12th goaltender to record 3,000 minutes in goal for the Americans.

The game started out similarly to last game, with the Rockets holding the puck in the Americans zone and holding Tri-City without a shot for a few minutes in the first period. But that would change as the Americans earned the first power play and capitalized with Connor Rankin feeding the puck to Marcus Messier on the back door to put it into the net to make it 1-0. The Americans would take a 2-0 lead midway through the first when Justin Feser scored the first short-handed goal of the season. And a minute later, Feser would score the Americans second short-handed goal of the season on a laser over Kelowna goalie Jordon Cooke’s shoulder. Kelowna had eight more shots than Tri-City in the period, but it was the Americans that held a 3-0 lead after one.

Kelowna would continue to control the puck in the second period and had plenty of chances in the first ten minutes of the period. And the Rockets would finally get on the board on the power play when Rourke Chartier put home a rebound to cut the lead to two. It took less than a minute to cut the lead to one as Ryan Olsen slipped one past Eric Comrie 14:31 into the second. Kelowna outshot Tri-City 13-8 and gained some momentum going into the final period.

The Rockets had the advantage during the third period, throwing shot after shot at Eric Comrie as Kelowna had six more shots than Tri-City in the period. But Comrie was too good on this night once again as he stopped all 15 shots Kelowna threw at him and withstood a 6-on-5 for the final minute en route to the win.

With the two goals tonight, Feser passed Dylan Gyori and is alone in 7th place on the Americans all-time goals list.

Cooke had 22 saves in the loss for Kelowna.

Tri-City will play their final game of an eight game home stand on Black Friday as the Americans will play the first game of a home-and-home as they welcome the arch-rival Spokane Chiefs (15-7-0-0, 30 pts) to the Toyota Center. Game time is at 7:05 p.m. The Americans have lost all three contests against the Chiefs this year, including two losses at home. NewsTalk 870 will broadcast the game beginning at 6:45 p.m. with the pregame show. WHL Live will stream the game live online. Tickets are available at the Toyota Center box office, at any Fred Meyer outlet, at any Ticketmaster location or online at Ticketmaster.com.   

Jack in the Box Three Stars
1. Justin Feser, Tri-City
2. Eric Comrie, Tri-City
3. Colton Sissons, Kelowna