Ams downed by Seattle

Kennewick, WA -- Seattle's Zack Andrusiak scored just 14 seconds into the contest and the Thunderbirds never looked back, skated to a 4-1 win over the Tri-City Americans Friday night, before 3,214 at the Toyota Center.

Andrusiak dented the twine as the clock ticked for just the 14th time Friday night, with assists going to Matthew Wedman and Nolan Volcan, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead.

The Americans would tie the game near the midway point of the contest, with Captain Nolan Yaremko firing one home for his 13th goal of the season, assisted by Kyle Olson and Aaron Hyman. The power play goal, coming at 9:55, tied the game 1-1 through 40 minutes.

However, it was all Seattle in the third. Dillon Hamaliuk scored from Noah Philip and Andrej Kukuca at 1:42, Simon Kubicek scored from Jake Lee at 11:24 and Wedman scored unassisted into an empty net at 17:39 to wrap things up, giving the TBirds the 4-1 win.

Goaltending was pretty good at both ends. Seattle's Cole Schwebius, making a rare start, made the most of his chance, stopping 21 shots for his first decision since November 2nd. And despite allowing 4 goals, Beck Warm was outstanding in the Tri-City net, holding his team in the contest, with 39 saves.

The Thunderbirds outshot the Americans 43 to 22. Tri-City was 1-for-2 on the power play and 4-of-4 on the penalty kill.

With the win, Seattle improves to 10-13-3-0 for 23 points, 7 points back of 4th place Tri-City in the U.S. Division. The Americans slip to 14-12-1-1 for 30 points, 4 points behind 3rd place Spokane in the U.S. Division and still is possession of the number one Western Conference playoff spot.

Coming up: The Americans host the Lethbridge Hurricanes Saturday night in the annual Teddy Bear Toss Night. Tickets still remain, but are almost all game. They are available at all the usual outlets. The game is also the first SWX televised contest of the season, with Craig West sliding over from the radio booth to provide the TV play-by-play, beginning at 7:00 pm. John Meissner comes in to provide the radio play-by-play call on Newstalk 870 KFLD and newstalk870.am, beginning with the Gesa Credit Union warm-up show, beginning at 6:45 pm. The Americans won last season's meeting between the two teams, 6-3 in Lethbridge on February 13th. The Hurricanes lost 6-2 at Spokane last night.