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Stay-Puft
03-30-2006, 03:11 PM
From TC Herald

There is no quit in Logan Stephenson.

The Tri-City Americans defenseman, who skates upward of 40 minutes a game, picked up a puck knocked loose by teammate Chris Inglis at the blue line and drove to the net.

As he was brought down from behind, Stephenson kept control of the puck and swept it in the net past Everett goalie Leland Irving to tie the game at 1 at 11:03 of the second period.

But big plays such as this were a rare occurrence for the Americans, who ended up on the brink of elimination Wednesday night. The Silvertips scored twice in the last four minutes of the second period en route to a 4-1 victory over the Americans in Game 4 of their Western Hockey League playoff series at Toyota Center.

"It's disappointing, but I'm proud of our guys," said Americans coach Don Nachbaur. "We are giving it everything we've got. It's not for lack of trying."

The Silvertips, who lead the best-of-7 first-round series 3-1, can wrap up the series Friday at Everett Events Center.

"We have to go into Friday and play our game," said Everett defenseman Shaun Heshka, who had a goal and an assist in the win. "It will be a pretty packed building and hopefully we can use the crowd's emotion and get the job done."

The Americans have overcome a lot of obstacles this season, and Stephenson said the team knows what has to be done if it wants to bring the series back to Kennewick on Saturday.

"Everyone has to dig a little deeper, and they know that," Stephenson said. "Everett is a good team and they have a lot of essential things -- they have a lot of speed, guys who can bury the puck and they have depth. As far as breaks go, we have to make our own. That's something we haven't done all season, but we have to if we are going to move on."

With the game tied at 1, Everett's Jesse Smyke scored an unassisted goal at 15:58 off a turnover for the game-winner. Smyke, who was scheduled to be a healthy scratch, took the place of Graham Potuer, who was ill.

"We thought Potuer could go, but when we got to the rink, he was under the weather," said Everett coach Kevin Constantine. "Smyke didn't even skate warmups. We called him out of the stands and he scores the winning goal."

Cody Thoring, a former Americans list player who was taken by the Silvertips in the WHL expansion draft three years ago, gave Everett a 3-1 lead with a power-play goal at 18:15, slipping the puck past Tri-City goalie Carey Price's right skate at the post.

Karel Hromas put the game out of reach in the third with a power-play goal.

Everett, which was outshot 12-7 in the first period, scored on its sixth shot of the game as Heshka scored from the far side of the left circle at 18:51.

Heshka's shot, from a sharp angle to the net, appeared to ricochete into the net off Americans center Matt Schneider's stick.

"Our first goal changed the game," Heshka said. "They'd had all the momentum and were coming at us hard."

The Americans had their chances during the game to bury the puck, including a 5-on-3 power play for 1:32 in the second, but came away empty each time.

Matt Swaby had an open corner to the right of Irving one minute into the second period, but he shot the puck behind Irving and off the far post. Ian McDonald had a breakaway two minutes later, but John Lammers chased him down and knocked the puck away. In the third, Taylor Procyshen rang the puck off the crossbar.

"We made errors, and that's because of the pressure they put on us," Nachbaur said. "Both teams have competed hard, but at the end of the day, you'd like a little finesse around the net to score goals."

Notes: McDonald was named a recipient of the Canada Post Cup 3 Stars Program. The Canada Post Cup recognizes the players who are selected among the three stars for every game. Players receive points for star selections. McDonald was the top player in the U.S. Division with 69 points. The divisional winners from each receive a $100 donation from Canada Post for their team's education funds. The overall winner from the OHL, QMJHL and WHL will be recognized at the national awards ceremony and will receive a $2,500 donation from Canada Post for their respective league's education funds. ... For every save made by Tri-City goalies Price and Chet Pickard, JLS Custom Homes, donated $3 per save to the Carson Kolzig Autism Foundation. Price and Pickard's efforts raised $5,895. ... With 73 power-play goals by the Americans, Moneytree donated $3,650 to the Boys and Girls Club of Benton and Franklin counties.