Game One – Edmonton
The Americans played in the CHL Game of the Week on Monday evening. This was also the lone game on Monday in the WHL. Tri-City extended their winning streak to seven after making a two-goal comeback and winning in overtime after Edmonton scored four straight unanswered goals.
Tri-City got the first two goals of the game just a minute apart halfway through the first period from Jake Gudelj and Gavin Garland.
From then on, Edmonton dominated, scoring four straight goals, including a three-goal second-period effort that saw the Oil Kings lead 4-2 entering the third.
The resilient Tri-City squad showed up yet again, and the Americans scored three goals in the third period from Cash Koch, Maximillian Curran, and a second goal from Jake Gudelj. Edmonton was able to scratch another goal to force overtime as former Portland Winterhawks Josh Mori notched his first goal of the year.
Terrell Goldsmith would go down as the hero for the Americans Monday night. Goldsmith carried the puck into the Edmonton zone and fired a simple wrist shot from the point that miraculously beat Oil Kings netminder Hudson Perry on the blocker side as he sat in disbelief. That would go down as Goldsmith’s first goal as an American.
Game One Notes
This game saw Tri-City have five different goal scorers. Jake Gudelj played his best game of the season, scoring two goals and an assist and earning first-star honors.
Edmonton out shot Tri-City 34-27, and Lukas Matecha made 29 saves. While on the other end of the ice, Hudson Perry of Edmonton had an abysmal 21 saves on 27 shots in his third start of the season.
Terrell Goldsmith’s netted his eleventh career goal in 196 career WHL Games.
This is only the third time in the past five years that these two teams have played each other, and the home team has won all three times. The Americans improve to 2-1 against the Oil Kings during this time.
Game Two – Spokane
The Americans faced a much stronger opponent in the rival Spokane Chiefs Saturday night and, yet again, showed a little magic to hold onto the game with a 4-3 win. They extended their winning streak to an impressive eight games.
The Americans started the game with another 2-0 lead. The red-hot Jake Gudelj opened the scoring with. Grady Martin got a secondary assist on the play, his first point of the season and first as an American. Again, rookie Gavin Garland followed with his own goal just two minutes apart in the first period, mirroring Monday night.
Shea Van Olm scored his first of two goals on the night for Spokane, bringing the Chiefs within one at the six-minute mark. Cash Koch of Tri-City would get that goal back, though, twelve minutes into the second period, and that would do for scoring in the second.
Brandon Whynott smacked home a one-timer for his eighth goal of the season 23 seconds into the third period, and from there on, it was all Spokane.
Shea Van Olm scored his second of the game five minutes into the third, and a minute later, Brody Gillepsie of Spokane added another to make it a one-goal game at 4-3.
However, with a possible save of the year candidate from Lukas Matecha around the eight-minute marker, The Americans thwarted away Spokane for the remainder of the game and claimed two more points.
Game Two Notes
After playing possibly their best period of hockey in the first, the Americans were outplayed by Spokane in the second and third, being outshot 29-13 throughout the last two periods.
Jake Gudelj took home first-star honors for the second time in a row with a goal and an assist.
Lukas Matecha was brilliant, making 33 saves on 36 shots.
Tri-City will have seven more matchups with Spokane throughout the season, and four will be at home.
Max Curran had to leave the game for stitches after a high-sticking penalty; however, returned with a cage.
Game Three – Everett
In the most challenging game of the week, possibly the season, Tri-City played the best team in the WHL, the Everett Silvertips, on Sunday afternoon. Everett entered the afternoon with a 13-2 record and riding a seven-game winning streak.
There would be six lead changes throughout the night in a back-and-forth matchup scoring-wise.
NHL Prospect Jordan Gavin opened the scoring for the Americans, netting his fifth goal of the season after dumping a puck in. Silvertip goalie Jesse Sanche whiffed the puck with his stick and went in. Everett would get the next two goals and ride a 2-1 lead into the intermission.
Brandon Whynott and Jake Gudelj paired up with two goals a minute apart halfway through the second period to retake the lead.
Everett would tie it up with a goal from Carter Bear, but just before the second intermission, Carter MacAdams would get the Americans back in front with a one-timer from close quarters on Jesse Sanche, making it 4-3 Americans.
Everett would dominate the first half of the third period, scoring two goals to make it 5-4.
However, ten seconds after the Silvertips go-ahead goal from Caine Wilke at 11:46, Captain Jake Sloan fired a wrist shot towards the net from the boards, and it redirected off a Silvertips player and through Sanche’s five holes to even the game up once again.
In overtime, Sloan would send everyone home with a power play goal on a backdoor one-timer from Jake Gudelj following an undisciplined cross-checking penalty by Eric Jamieson of Everett halfway through the overtime period.
Game Three Notes
The only reason Tri-City sniffed even a point was from the play of Lukas Matecha. Matecha made an astonishing 54 saves on 59 shots as Everett outplayed Tri-City for most of the game. This is the most saves in a win by a WHL Goalie this year.
The final shot tally was 59-36 in favor of Everett.
Tri-City snatches their jaw-dropping ninth win in a row and snaps a seven-game winning streak of the Everett Silvertips in front of 2,700 fans.
Jake Gudelj scored in his third straight game, finishing off an impressive week with seven points in three games.
Gavin Garland would also be named Rookie of the Week in the WHL for the second time this season after notching five points across three games this week.
Transactions
Rookie Cruz Pavao was loaned to Canada’s U17 team for the U17 World Hockey Challenge and missed all three games this week as a result.
On Tuesday, Tri-City acquired 2005-born netminder Logan Cunningham from the Saskatoon Blades for a 2025 eighth-round pick. Cunningham will not report to the Americans and be sent to the Junior A Level. He will get called up in case of an injury to either American goaltender or if Lukas Matecha gets called up to the Czechia World Junior squad in December.
Cunningham has appeared in 41 games in his WHL career, playing for three different teams over four seasons. He has a 6-22-2 record, 4.82 GAA, and a .864 save percentage.
Injury Report
Carter MacAdams was listed as day-to-day and missed the Edmonton Game but returned for the Spokane and Everett games.
What’s Next
Tri-City will have two games this week, both at home.
On Friday, Tri-City will rematch the Everett Silvertips at 7:05 p.m. at the Toyota Center, and on Saturday, take on the Eastern Conference Red Deer Rebels at 6:05 p.m.
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