Americans 5 Giants 2
VANCOUVER — Patrick Holland scored the series-winning goal and the Tri-City Americans advanced to the Western Hockey League final for the first time in their 22-season history Sunday with a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Giants.
The Americans won the Western Conference championship in six games and will meet the Calgary Hitmen for the league title and a Memorial Cup berth. That series starts Friday.
Holland’s goal 26 seconds into the third period broke a 2-2 deadlock.
Justin Feser, Johnny Lazo, Kruise Reddick and Sergei Drozd also scored for the Americans, who beat Vancouver in all four of their regular-season meetings. Tri-City’s Tyler Schmidt added three assists.
Milan Kytnar and Craig Cunningham replied for the Giants, who were also defeated in the Western Conference championship series last year.
With the loss, Giants coach Don Hay will have to wait until the spring of 2011 for another chance to break the WHL’s all-time record for playoff coaching wins. He remains tied with former Portland Winterhawks and Edmonton Oil Kings coach Ken Hodge at 101.
Power plays were ultimately the difference, as all but two of the game’s goals came during man-advantage situations. Tri-City converted three of seven chances while Vancouver went two-for-nine.
Drew Owsley made 30 saves for Tri-City while Mark Segal stopped 27 shots for Vancouver.