Tri-City Rolls Over Prince George 6-3

Prince George, BC- Tri-City put together a team effort tonight against Prince George.

The Tri-City Americans (39-23-1-2, 81 pts) had 10 players record a point, helping the Americans take down the Prince George Cougars (18-38-2-6, 44 pts) 6-3 in front of 1,382 at the CN Centre.

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With the win and Spokane idle tonight, the Americans moved back into fourth place in the conference with seven games remaining for both teams.

Tri-City has won two in a row against Prince George and the Cougars suffered their fifth straight loss.

Prince George was able to get on the board first. Marc McNulty slipped the puck underneath Troy Trombley on the power play to make it 1-0 early. Tri-City tied the game midway through the period on the power play as Justin Feser was able to slap a loose puck in front of the net over the glove of Cougar goalie Brett Zarowny. It only took 36 seconds for the Americans to take the lead as Connor Rankin slapped a loose puck at the top of the goal crease into a wide open net to make it 2-1. The Americans scored their third goal in 1:06 as Mitch Topping faked out a defender and fired a wrist shot from the slot into the top left corner of the net to make it 3-1. Prince George finished the scoring in the first period on a Brett Roulston goal, deflecting a pass into the net to score the fifth and final goal of the first period.

The second period was calm until seven minutes in as Lucas Nickles fired a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle past the blocker side of Zarowny to take a 4-2 lead. Less than three minutes later, Rankin added his second goal of the game to increase the lead to 5-2. Prince George outshot the Americans 14-13 in the period, but the Americans were able to put two of their shots into the net to give them a 5-2 lead after two periods.

The Cougars looked to close the gap in the third period. Jari Erricson was able to get a loose puck in front of the net past Trombley to cut the lead to two. But the Americans didn’t want to allow the Cougars to come back as Beau McCue fired a wrist shot that was tipped by the goalie but trickled into the net to increase the lead to 6-3. Tri-City played solid defense down the stretch to foil any attempt of a Prince George comeback.

It was a total team effort with 10 players recording a point, including four players with more than one point.

With a goal and an assist tonight, Feser reached the 100 point plateau and tied Kamloops’ Colin Smith for third in the league in scoring. His assist tied him with Terry Degner for sixth on the Americans all-time assists list with 195. He also extended his point streak to nine games.

Tri-City performed well on special teams, going 1-for-2 on the power play tonight and only allowing one Cougar power play goal out of six chances.

Trombley played fabulous and made 34 saves in the win. Zarowny made 27 saves in loss.

Neither team can dwell on this game for long, as the Americans will take on the Prince George Cougars again in the CN Centre tomorrow night. Game time is at 7:05 p.m. This will be the second of three meetings between the two teams this week. NewsTalk 870 will broadcast the game starting at 6:45 p.m. with the pregame show. WHL Live will stream the game online beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Jack in the Box Three Stars:
1. Troy Trombley, Tri-City
2. Connor Rankin, Tri-City
3. Jansen Harkins, Prince George