It was the must-win game of the series for the Tri-City Americans tonight, and despite a decent effort from them, the outcome of the game was the same as the first two games of the series: a Calgary win.
The Hitmen now lead the series 3-0 and can clinch their 2nd ever WHL title (1999 was the first) tomorrow night in game four in Kennewick.
The Ams played well enough tonight but as in the first two games, they are not able to penetrate to the net to get scoring chances. Meanwhile Calgary kept executing their game plan - shut down the Tri-City attack and take advantage of their scoring chances when they get them. Alexander Pechurskiy started in net for the Americans tonight and he was....OK. Two of the goals - the 2nd and 3rd goals - were a little on the weak side. But he did keep Calgary off the scoreboard in the 2nd and 3rd periods, giving his team a chance to mount a comeback. The fact that they didn't isn't his fault.
As I said last year after the Rockets got up 3-0 on the Hitmen: we all know it's is over and Calgary will be the 2009-10 WHL champions. It is so hard to come back from down 3-0 even when the series has been close; in this series, the Americans have 2 goals in 3 games and have yet to even have a lead at any point in the series. Logic suggests they aren't going to win 4 in a row. They have a reasonably young team though, perhaps they can do what Calgary did - use this loss as a learning/motivational tool and come back stronger next year.
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