Tri-City Gets Back Up To Speed Shell-Shocked Goalie Rallies To Turn Back Chiefs In 5-3 Win
The Tri-City Americans, running precariously close to empty, rallied Wednesday night to stay in the passing lane of the Highway 395 Series.
This Western Hockey League West Division semifinal resumes Friday night in the Spokane Coliseum with the Chiefs trailing two games to one.
They built a 3-0 lead here only to fall 5-3.
So after a brutal stretch of three games in three nights, after winning two of three at home, the Americans can move into the division finals by winning at home on Saturday and Thursday nights, if this bestof-seven series goes full term.
It was all Spokane for the first 23 minutes and all over after that, the Americans pulling away after Terry Ryan caught fire and David Trofimenkoff caught on to this playoff goaltending business.
Ryan scored twice as the Americans held home-ice advantage.
Trofimenkoff, as shaky in the first period as he was Tuesday night in a 9-1 loss to the Chiefs in Spokane, toughened up after Dmitri Leonov, Jeremy Stasiuk and Randy Favaro scored for the Chiefs, who are still looking for the breakthrough road win that seemed so close after a dominant first period.
Spokane outshot Tri-City 21-12 in the first 20 minutes.
“After the first period they came out and worked a lot harder and we weren’t able to match their work ethic,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “For whatever reason. Here was a game we probably could have had and let it get away.
“It’s a tough one but we have to respond. Trofimenkoff gave up the one soft goal (to Stasiuk) but he did a lot of good things.”
Sluggish early, the Americans closed hard on goals by Ryan - his sixth and seventh of the playoffs - and Rob Butz. Pavel Kriz had the game-winner and Mark Hurley scored into an empty net at 19:29 after the Chiefs pulled goaltender Jarrod Daniel.
This 19th meeting of Eastern Washington rivals was different, as most of these games are. It was a different Tri-City Americans team in the second and third periods, and a different Trofimenkoff, the Tri-City backup goaltender who will get the start again on Friday night for Brian Boucher, who is out with a sprained right knee.
Trofimenkoff was never bigger than with 6:52 remaining and his team holding on to a 4-3 lead, when he had Spokane’s Darren Sinclair alone on a breakaway and rejected the Chiefs’ assistant captain.
“I just played the deke and slid across got whatever I could in front of it,” he said.
Tri-City coach Bob Loucks said he said nothing to Trofimenkoff between periods with Spokane up 3-0. Stasiuk’s goal - his seventh of the playoffs - was a blast from the right point that the goalie got a glove on and probably should have held.
“No sense in getting in a goalie’s face because all you do is upset him that much more,” Loucks said.
The Americans caught an early break when Chiefs captain Kevin Sawyer was ejected for spearing 27 seconds into the game. With Jay Bertsch serving the second game of his twogame suspension, Sawyer’s absence was critical.
“I don’t know if that’s a factor in a game like this,” Loucks said. “Sawyer has a role to play and he plays it well. We just had to worry about our game.”
Nobody had to worry more than Trofimenkoff, who was riddled 24 hours before and was soft in the first period.
“I had an ugly period last night,” Trofimenkoff said. “That was the whole challenge of tonight, to put that behind me. It’s not easy but it had to be done, because this series is going by fast.”
Tri-City 5, Spokane 3
Spokane 2 1 0 - 3
Tri-City 0 2 3 - 5
First period-1, Spokane, Leonov 4, 15:46 (pp). 2, Spokane, Stasiuk 7, 17:48. Key penalties- Sawyer, Spo, spearing major, game misconduct :27; Schultz, TC, 9:28; Marsh, TC, 12:11; Komarniski, TC, 13:54.
Second period-3, Spokane, Favaro 1 (Whitfield, Leeb), 1:29. 4, Tri-City, Ryan 6 (Kriz, Langkow), 3:53 (pp). 5, Tri-City, Butz 1 (Ascroft, Marsh), 15:25. Key penalties-Gillam, Spo, 3:11; Gillam, Spo, 4:54; Langkow, TC, 10:52; Ryan, TC, 16:21; Boikov, TC, 19:57.
Third period-6, Tri-City, Ryan 7 (Cabana, Ascroft), 3:57 (pp). 7, Tri-City, Kriz 2 (Langkow, Zavediuk), 5:41. 8, Tri-City, Hurley 2 (Marsh), 19:29 (en). Key penalties-Boschman, Spo, 2:56; Shockey, Spo, 9:35; Schultz, TC, 13:08.
Power-play opp.-Tri-City 2 of 5. Spokane 1 of 7.Saves-Spokane, Daniel 12-14-14-40, Lemanowicz x-x-1-1. Tri-City, Trofimenkoff 19-12-9-40.A-3,301.
Tuesday’s summary
Tri-City 1 0 0 - 1
Spokane 3 0 6 - 9
First period-1, Spokane, Stasiuk 3 (Sinclair), 1:44. 2, Tri-City, Olson 3 (Butz), 5:25. 3, Spokane, Stasiuk 4 (Whitfield, Podollan), 6:38 (pp). 4, Spokane, Stasiuk 5 (Hope, Sinclair), 17:17. Key penalties-Leonov, Spo, 3:20; Boikov, TC, 5:58; Strobl, TC, 7:03; Magarrell, Spo, 10:36; Spokane bench, too many men, served by Hope, 11:43; Komarniski, TC, 14:33; Podollan, Spo, 18:10.
Second period-None. Key penalties-Stahl, TC, 2:00; Fletcher, Spo, 6:42; Gillam, Spo, 9:22; Trofimenkoff, TC, 9:44; Stahl, TC, double minor, 12:28; Leonov, Spo, 14:05; Magarrell, Spo, 14:14, Tri-City bench, too many men, served by Zavediuk, 17:17; Sawyer, Spo, 17:55; Hurley, TC, 19:15.
Third period-5, Spokane, Stasiuk 6 (Gillam, Podollan), :42 (pp). 6, Spokane, Haley 2 (Cirjak), 5:08. 7, Spokane, Whitfield 1 (Podollan), 9:45. 8, Spokane, Cardarelli 2 (Cirjak), 12:42. 9, Spokane, Haley 3 (Podollan, Hamilton), 17:30 (pp). 10, Spokane, Hamilton 2 (Boschman, Leonov), 18:22 (pp). Key penalties-Sinclair, Spo, 5:44; Brown, TC, 12:27; Tri-City bench, 16:38; Cabana, TC, double minor, 16:38; Langkow, TC, 17:30; Favaro, Spo, 17:47.
Power-play opp.-Tri-City 0 of 8. Spokane 5 of 12.Saves-Tri-City, Boucher 5-x-x-5, Trofimenkoff 11-6-11-28. Spokane, Daniel 14-12-6-32. A-4,079.
xxxx WHL playoffs Best-of-seven (Tri-City leads 2-1) Monday: Tri-City 5, Spokane 2 Tuesday: Spokane 9, Tri-City 1 Wednesday: Tri-City 5, Spokane 3 Friday: Tri-City at Spokane, 7 Saturday Spokane at Tri-City, 7