Pickard Stops Seattle

Tri-City goalie blocks T-birds
By Jim Riley

Special to The Seattle Times

Chet Pickard stopped 28 of 29 shots Sunday night, but it may have been his first-period pep talk that was the difference in a 3-1 win by the Tri-City Americans over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Sunday at KeyArena.

Pickard was perfect when the T-birds fired off the game's first 13 shots, and then he delivered a wake-up call to his teammates during a break in the first period.

"I went over to the bench at the 10-minute intermission and said, 'Good start, boys, now let's get going here.' It was a little weird," Pickard said. "You don't normally see that from our team. It was strange to look up and see the shots 13-0."

Tri-City (31-10-1-2) took the lead in the second period on a goal by Kruise Reddick, and Colton Yellow Horn scored twice to take over the Western Hockey League lead with 31 goals scored this season.

Seattle finally ended Pickard's shutout bid with a goal by Ian McKenzie at 17:55 of the third period and outshot the Americans 29-25 in the game.

"I like the way we started and the chances we created," Seattle coach Rob Sumner said. "We had some chances that needed finishing and didn't quite do it. I loved our effort and we battled, but we had chances that we need to find a way to score goals on."

The T-birds (19-15-5-1) finished the weekend with two wins in three games.

Pickard, who won a shootout over the Chiefs in Spokane on Saturday night, now has a 27-7-1-2 record this season. He said he knew it was only a matter of time before his teammates kicked it into gear.

"We started off slow and had a bit of a lazy first period," Pickard said. "But as the game went on, we got better and better. It's like a playoff atmosphere every time we play Seattle. They've all been great games."

Tri-City scored first at 2:37 of the second period when Reddick got his stick on a loose puck as Seattle goaltender Riku Helenius tried to cover it with his glove.

The Americans padded the lead when Yellow Horn scored on the power play. After Seattle cut the lead to 2-1 on McKenzie's goal, Yellow Horn scored into an empty net at 18:56.

Seattle is 2-2-1-0 against Tri-City this season.

AMERICANS 3, THUNDERBIRDS 1




Tri-City 0 2 1 -- 3

Seattle 0 0 1 -- 1

Second -- 1, Tri-City, Reddick 11, 2:37. 2, Tri-City, Yellow Horn 30 (Reddick, Vey), 18:50 (pp). Third -- 3, Seattle, McKenzie 10 (Jackson), 17:55. 4, Tri-City, Yellow Horn 31, 18:56 (en). Shots on goal -- Tri-City 6-9-10 -- 25. Seattle 13-9-7 -- 29. Power plays -- Tri-City 1-5; Seattle 0-5. Goalies -- Tri-City, Pickard 27-7-1-2 (29 shots-28 saves). Seattle, Helenius 10-8-5-0 (24-22). A -- 3,071.

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