Game Day at Seattle

2nd half of a home-and-home series with Seattle tonight as the Americans hit the road to the Emerald City today.

There was a game last night, I remember most of it.  But Captain KB was kept buying me gin and tonics (doubles!) so the 3rd was a blur.  Literally.

Shinny got things started early with a sick goal, that sent the bears out.

I do know that from up in the sweet suite I saw the game very differently and it is glaringly obvious how bad passing is.  Pass the puck to where the guy (in the Ams jersey) is going to be, not where he's been.

I guess in the long-run it's a good thing Seattle played so undisciplined, but the Americans didn't capitalize as much as they could have, going 2-for-10 on the power play.  Credit to the T-Birds PK and of course Calvin Pickard.  He stopped 44 of 48 shots, including 20 in the 3rd period (thanks to many Seattle penalties).

Macek's 2nd goal was hot (and needed to get him closer to being off my bad list) and Prokop was the key to it, being that big body in front of Pickard, totally screening him out.  That's one of many assets Prokes brings to the team.  He was doing it all night, camping out in Pickard's kitchen.  Hot.

Props to Dallman, new kid out there, played pretty well, didn't look out of place.  I assume the other newbie, Bosovich, will play tonight.

"Everyone before the game wanted that goal," said Shinnimin, who also had two assists. "It feels good to get it going and get the team going. When it goes to a good cause, it makes it that much better."

"It's a great night," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller. "You want to score early and everyone knows what it's for. When the home team wins, everyone goes home happy."

"They hit the post and we went down and scored," Hiller said. "Sometimes there is some luck and randomness that happens in hockey and we came out on the right side of that tonight."

"Ten power plays to three. They are a good offensive team, you can't put them on the power play that many times," said Seattle coach Rob Sumner, whose team is 0-4 against Tri-City this season. "In the first, we were outshot -- we turned down some shots and missed some. In the second, there was a stretch where we started to get in a rhythm, then we gave up a simple goal (Hughesman's) at a critical time. That was a big goal to give up." (Herald)

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Friday night, Americans rookie D-man Sam Grist played the best game I have seen him play all season.

Sam's puck control has improved immensely since the start of the season, and he's learned how to level a hit without taking a trip to the penalty box. (Red Light District)

Wait, huh? Wazz disagrees: "I agree with the hit part, but he had more turnovers than Pillsbury".  Truth.  But it is nice that he's not a penalty machine and is playing a solid physical game.  Baby steps?

"Seattle is an opportunistic team, and the longer you hold them in a game, the harder it's going to be against them," Shinnimin said. "Going up 1-0 on them was huge, and we just kind of rolled with it from there."

"They had just hit a post, and Shinny goes down and scores," Hiller said. "That's how quickly a hockey game changes.

"We played four lines tonight and were relatively consistent. Our depth showed 1 through 4 tonight."

"You can't fall asleep," said Owsley, who made 22 saves. "It was a 3-1 game, and if they score one it's a game again. You have to be ready when called upon."

"Paul (Sohor) was really solid," Hiller said. "The one thing with defensemen is you don't want to notice them. He was solid defensively, and that's a good first step." (Examiner--whose pop-up ads can EABOD)

I thought Sohor played well, and I really really liked the pairing of Sutherland and Dow. Like a lot.

So the two teams are back at it again tonight at 7 so liveblog action starting around 6:45, click on the "Read More" to join in.