Royals comeback falls short in Game 3

WATCH: The Victoria Royals fell to the Tri-City Americans by a score of 6-5 in game 3 in Kennewick, Washington this evening, as they now trail the Americans 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.

It didn’t take long for the Americans to take the upper hand, ten minutes into the first period on a power-play, Morgan Geekie would rip a wrist shot top corner over the glove of Royals netminder Griffen Outhouse to give Tri-City a 1-0 lead. Just a minute later, the Americans would score on the man advantage once again, this time it would be Geekie opting to pass over to Nolan Yaremko and he would beat a sliding Outhouse to make it 2-0 Tri-City after one period of play.

Things didn’t get any better in the second period, as a juicy rebound off the pad of Outhouse found the stick of Geekie who potted his second of the game and 13th goal of the playoffs just 2:45 into the second period to make it 3-0 Tri-City. Minutes later, Geekie would find some space on the rush and wire another wrist shot past the glove of Outhouse to complete the hat trick and give the Americans a 4-0 advantage after two periods.

Nanaimo’s Dylan Coghlan would add another goal for the Americans to make it 5-0 early in the third. Game over? Not yet. Igor Martynov began the comeback for the Royals to make it 5-1, and Royals rookie Tarun Fizer would score a few minutes later to make it 5-2 Tri-City midway through the third. Four minutes later, Martynov’s point blank shot would be blocked, but Lane Zablocki would slide the puck under the traffic in the crease to pull the Royals within two with five minutes remaining. Two minutes after that, a streaking Matthew Phillips would find Dante Hannoun in the slot, and he would beat Americans netminder Patrick Dea to draw the Royals within one with just over two minutes to play in the game.

However, the comeback would fall just short, as Americans’ captain Michael Rasmussen would score on the empty net with 44 seconds remaining to restore Tri-City’s two goal lead. Andrei Grishakov would score for the Royals at the buzzer, but the Tri-City Americans would walk away with a 6-5 victory, and take a commanding 3-0 series lead.

The Royals are now fighting for their playoff lives, they must win tomorrow’s game four to force a game five in Victoria on Friday night, and must win four straight games if they want to come away with a series victory.

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