T-birds go up 3-1

Brett Robertson celebrated his 50th game in the Western Hockey League playoffs with a goal and an assist to lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 2-0 win over the Tri-City Americans and a 3-1 lead in their opening-round playoff series.

Robertson, who helped Medicine Hat make it to the Memorial Cup in 2003-04, leads the series with three goals and two assists.

Derek Yeomans had the second shutout of the series and the sixth of his career by stopping 28 shots in a choppy game that featured 26 power plays and the Americans going 0 for 12 with a man advantage.

"Experience means a lot if you use it well," Robertson said. "If you go out there and are lackadaisical it doesn't mean anything. If you go out there and are intense it can be a huge factor."

Robertson scored at 3:10 on the power play and then assisted on Thomas Hickey's goal to give the T-birds a 2-0 lead in the first period.

That period, like the rest of the game, was full of penalties, rare shots and plenty of good goaltending.

Yeomans, who has allowed three goals in four games against the Americans, also has plenty of playoff experience, leading Kelowna to the WHL title two seasons ago.

The T-birds came out flying, holding Tri-City without a shot for the first 6:24 and forcing Tri-City coach Don Nachbaur to use his timeout. The Americans got more pucks on net after that, but Yeomans was there every time.

"You can never underestimate the value of your goaltender in the playoffs," Robertson said. "He's doing everything for us."

Yeomans has a 97.2 save percentage with 104 saves on 107 shots in the playoffs. He has three shutouts and has allowed only one goal in his past four playoff games at KeyArena, three coming when he played for Kelowna.

"I'm not sure why I keep getting shutouts in this building, but now that I'm playing here it's a good thing," Yeomans said. "It seems like everything is bouncing our way. We know the fourth one is going to be a hard one to get."

Note

• The Americans lost defenseman Brock Cornish at 15:27 of the second period. Cornish, who broke his leg earlier this season, went down at the boards and needed help off the ice.

THUNDERBIRDS 2, TRI-CITY 0

Tri-City	0 0 0 — 0
Seattle	2 0 0 — 2

First — 1. Seattle Hickey 1 (Robertson, Holloway) 3:10 (pp). 2. Seattle Robertson 3 (Nielsen, Jo. Schappert) 6:24. Shots on goal by — Tri-City 6-13-7 — 28. Seattle 6-4-14 — 26. Goal — Seattle: Price (1-3, 26 shots, 24 saves). Seattle: Yeomans (3-1, 28 shtos, 28 saves). Power plays (goals, chances) — Tri-City 0-12, Seattle 1-14. A — 2,646.

Seattle vs. Tri-City

Seattle leads best-of-7 series 3-1 (all games on KKNW, 1150 AM)
Date	Result
Friday	Seattle 2, Tri-City 0
Saturday	Tri-City 2, Seattle 1
Tuesday	Seattle 3, Tri-City 1
Wednesday	Seattle 2, Tri-City 0
Date	Site, time
Friday	At Tri-City, 7:05 p.m.
Saturday	At Seattle, 7:05 p.m.*
Tuesday	At Tri-City, 7:05 p.m.*
* If necessary