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Ice have unsuccessful road trip to U.S.

Kootenay dealt a pair of losses at the hands of the Tri-City Americans and Spokane Chiefs.

The U.S. division sent crushed ice back into Canada, as Kootenay returned from a winless two-game trip into Washington state over the weekend.

The Tri-City Americans outscored the Ice in the third period to win 6-4 on Friday, while the Spokane Chiefs pulled ahead with four goals in the final frame for a 6-3 victory the following night.

Brock Montgomery and Sam Reinhart extended their point streak to four games, while Jaedon Descheneau has points over the last five games.

Blake Gal scored a pair of goals in the final period to lift the Chiefs to a 6-3 win over the Ice on Saturday.

Kootenay managed to tie up the game in the third period, but Gal’s markers, along with scoring from Mitch Holmberg and Alessio Bertaggia, sealed the deal.

“We came out, we scored the goal to tie the game and then instead of buttoning things up and having more attention to detail, we kind of went the other direction,” said Ice assistant coach Chad Kletzel.

Jason Fram put Spokane in the lead on a powerplay goal roughly seven minutes into the opening period.

Brock Montgomery, who is second in the league for powerplay goals, scored his 18th goal with the man advantage and 30th of the season to pull the Ice even in the second period.

Brendan Kichton answered back five minutes later to regain the one-goal lead for the Chiefs.

Both teams combined for six goals in the final frame.

Descheneau struck first for the Ice, which tied up the affair, before Holmberg tallied two minutes later to regain the lead, with Gal’s first soon after that to establish a two-goal lead.

Descheneau found the back of the net again to chip away at the deficit, but Gal responded less than a minute afterwards, while Bertaggia added an empty netter.

Ice goaltender Mackenzie Skapski made 35 saves, while Eric Williams made 27 stops on the opposite end of the arena.

Kootenay converted once in two opportunities with the man-advantage, while the Chiefs capitalized once in three of their own.

The result wasn’t much different the night before, as the Americans downed the Ice 6-4 by outscoring Kootenay in the final frame.

“In the Tri-City game, we came out and the first ten minutes was really good, but then we had those mental lapses,” said Kletzel.

Kootenay roared ahead with a two goal lead after the halfway mark of the opening period on a pair of goals from Collin Shirley and Montgomery.

However, Tri-City answered back from Parker Bowles and Brian Williams within a six-second spread between each goal to pull things even by the end of the frame.

Sam Reinhart put the Ice in the lead less than a minute into the second period, however, Connor Rankin, responded to pull everything back to a tie after 40 minutes.

Marc Messier broke the deadlock 17 seconds into the third period, and Rankin added another for a two-goal lead late in the game.

Descheneau scored within the final two minutes, but Rankin sealed it up for the Americans with a empty-net goal.

Skapski made 25 saves for Kootenay, while Troy Trombley made 33 stops for the Americans.

Kootenay managed to stay out of the sin bin for the entire game, while Tri-City was whistled for two minor penalties, giving up one goal to the Ice.

Due to injuries to forwards Zach McPhee (upper body) and Levi Cable (lower body), the Ice are calling up Hudson Elynuik, the third round pick in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft.

Elynuik, a native of Calgary, is currently playing midget AAA with the Calgary Flames in the Alberta Midget Hockey League and will be with the Ice for the week.



Trevor Crawley

About the Author: Trevor Crawley

Trevor Crawley has been a reporter with the Cranbrook Townsman and Black Press in various roles since 2011.
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