WATCH: The Victoria Royals managed to find the back of the net for the first time in the series, but the Tri-City Americans reigned supreme for the second straight night as they took down the hometown Royals 4-1 at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre last night.
After a scoreless first period, Americans captain and first round NHL draft pick Michael Rasmussen deflected a point shot past Royals netminder Griffen Outhouse just 49 seconds into the frame to give Tri-City the 1-0 lead.
The Royals would respond just over five minutes later, as Dante Hannoun rifled a shot top corner over the blocker side of Americans goalie Patrick Dea to knot the game up at one goal a piece. However, before the second intermission, the Americans would strike again.
Tri-City forward Jordan Topping threw the puck towards Rasmussen in the slot, and he would redirect it off the mask of Outhouse and in for his second of the night to give the visitors a 2-1 advantage after two periods of play.
Americans forward Morgan Geekie would score his 11th of the playoffs to make it 3-1 Tri-City in the third, and Rasmussen would score on the empty net to complete the hat-trick as the Americans top the Royals 4-1 in game 2.
Rasmussen now has 19 points in just 6 playoff games, and has been a thorn in the Royals’ side all series long.
“We believe we’ve got way more,” Royals head coach Dan Price says, “We’ve done some good things in both games, in my opinion we have a higher standard than the way we’ve played in the first two games, so we’re challenging the group to even better for game 3 in Tri-City.”
Game 3 goes Tuesday night down south.
Tyler Bennett
