One day they're suffering their second consecutive shutout loss, the next they're lighting up one of junior hockey's best goaltenders in a lopsided win.

The Kootenay Ice's U.S. Division road trip got off to a rough start Friday when the Tri-City Americans blanked them 4-0.

On Saturday, they torched Seattle's Calvin Pickard for five goals in a 6-2 victory over the Thunderbirds.

While the results were vastly different, Ice assistant coach Todd Johnson said it didn't represent some massive change in tactics or effort.

"I don't know if we really played any different other than maybe we had some guys in front of the net (Saturday) that caused some havoc for Pickard," said Johnson. "We had lots of shots in both Red Deer and Tri-City (in shutout losses last week). It was just one of those things: (Saturday) we had a little more traffic and it resulted in a couple more goals."

Their first marker against Seattle brought their scoreless drought to an end at 138 minutes, 19 seconds.

"We had a meeting (after playing Tri-City) and talked about it. We have a veteran team and we expect to win every night. The guys weren't happy so they played hard," said Johnson.

The Ice jammed all six goals in between the Thunderbirds' tallies.

Seattle's Luke Lockhart struck with the Western Hockey League's second-most potent power play at 8:44 of the first. That would be about the only reason for the home crowd to cheer until Travis Bobbee scored ten minutes into the third.

The rest of the game was firmly in Kootenay's grasp.

The Ice had put their 20-year-olds - Steele Boomer, Kevin King and Matt Fraser - together on the top power play unit, and that seemed to get things going.

The Ice got their man advantage up to 15.6 per cent efficiency on the year with three goals before the first intermission.

Boomer got the first two, taking up residence on the top of the crease, while King scored his 12th of the year at 18:43.

"We're running the same stuff, we just changed the personnel," said Johnson.

Early in the middle frame, Drew Czerwonka deflected a James Martin point shot to make it 4-1 while Jesse Ismond chased Pickard with a goal off the rush.

The all-star goalie made 18 saves, while his replacement Michael Salmon made 14.

The only shot to elude Salmon came off the stick of 15-year-old Sam Reinhart at 18:38 of the second.

Reinhart will join the Ice for games in Everett and Portland this week, before returning to the Vancouver NW Giants. He is second in scoring in the B.C. Major Midget League, where he's averaging two points a game.

Reinhart - the youngest brother of Ice centre Max Reinhart - maintained his goal-a-game pace in the WHL, having famously scored the winner in his league debut Oct. 19 in Cranbrook.

"Our whole team played well (against Seattle) and he fit right in," said Johnson.

Nathan Lieuwen made 23 saves for his 12th win of the year.

In Kennewick the night before, the game had been a scoreless draw until 8:30 of the second period, when Justin Feser scored on a man advantage.

Brendan Shinnimin added two and Brooks Macek another for the Americans.

"They have a good team. They're very offensive, they matched us hit for hit and it was a good game," said Johnson. "They deserved the two points that night because they scored when they had the opportunity to score. We made a couple of mistakes, and they took advantage of them. That was the difference."

Lieuwen turned 32 Tri-City shots aside for the Ice, while Drew Osley made 35 stops for his second blank sheet of the year.