Doug Love

Americans split last long road trip of the season, fall to Spokane

Spokane, Wa. The Tri-City Americans (29-21-7-1, 66 pts.) arrived in Spokane Saturday on the last game of a four-game road trip. They lost the night before to the Kootenay Ice, after winning the first two of the trip, and would have loved to head home with a win against their bitter rivals. The problem with that scenario was the fact that the Spokane Chiefs (32-20-3-2, 69 pts.) have been one of the hottest teams in the league lately. They have won nine of their last 12, and collected points in 11 of those. That hot streak would continue as Spokane downed the Americans 5-1 Saturday night.

Playing in their fourth game in five nights, fatigue can always play a factor, especially this late in the season. Physically, the Americans didn’t show any signs of it early in the first. The first few shifts saw Tri-City force the play into the Chiefs defensive zone and keep it there. Spokane was on their heels defending the Americans’ attack.

One of the other sides of fatigue, however, is the mental part. Unfortunately for Tri-City, an early mental mistake led to a hooking penalty against defenseman Juuso Välimäki at the 3:47 mark.

Spokane’s power play has been consistent lately and that trend continued tonight. Just seven seconds into the man advantage, forward Ethan McIndoe collected a Patrick Dea rebound and beat the Tri-City goaltender by squeezing his 18th of the season between Dea’s skate and the pipe.

Just 20 seconds later, the first sign of physical fatigue showed up as Tri-City surrendered the second goal of the game. The Americans defense was caught stationary in front of their net and were unable to clear the puck away from danger. Forward Riley Woods was left unchallenged and fed a cross-ice pass right through three Tri-City defenders and hit a pressing Ty Smith to Dea’s left. The Spokane defenseman wristed a shot right past a sprawling Dea to give Spokane the quick 2-0 lead.

It was getting out of hand fast for Tri-City. An unlikely hero for the Americans was able to get the bleeding stopped and get Tri-City back in this match.

Forward Maxwell James threw the puck on net from just inside the blue line. The shot looked harmless, but Spokane goaltender Dawson Weatherill was screened by a couple of his own players, and the puck sailed right past him and into the net before he could react. That goal came 30 seconds after Spokane’s second goal. Despite that goal, the Americans spent much of the period defending. They were able to get just four shots on net to Spokane’s 11. They would need more pressure in the second if they were to give Spokane more problems.

The fatigue continued to be an issue for the Americans in the second, as they just couldn’t get anything going.

Spokane, on the other hand, continued to roll and added to their lead.

At the 4:33 mark, Spokane rookie forward Luke Toporowski, who has had some of his best games this season against the Americans, netted his eighth of the season. With lots of traffic in front of Dea, Toporowski’s shot from the left circle found it’s way through and in to get the Chiefs their two-goal lead back.

At 17:05, Jake McGrew tipped in a pass from Woods to Dea’s right to give the Chiefs the three-goal lead. This season, the Americans have just two wins in regulation when giving up more than three goals. The third would be even more of an uphill battle for Tri-City. Tri-City would start the third on the power play with 1:24 of carryover time. The Chiefs outshot the Americans 15-9 in the middle frame.

Dawson Weatherill (Dayna Fjord)

Tri-City got four shots on net to open the third on that power play, but failed to get the goal. The Chiefs spent most of the period setting up a trap style at their blue line and keeping the Americans out of their zone.

Tri-City showed a lot of fight and grit in this one, but they weren’t able to get out of their own way. Passes were off target, players were a step off, and chances never really materialized for them.

The Chiefs put the final nail in the coffin at 7:06 when defenseman Dalton Hamaliuk scored his second of the season.

Once again, Dea wasn’t able to get a good look at the puck after being screened by his own man.

Both teams had six shots on net in the third, and Spokane had 32 to Tri-City’s 19 on the night. The Americans were unable to convert on their lone power play opportunity, while the Chiefs went 1-for-5 on the man advantage. The Chiefs now have five wins to the Americans four on the season series and sit three points ahead of Tri-City for third place in the U.S. Divison. Both teams will play each other three more times before the season ends.

Spokane will travel to Seattle on Sunday for a tilt against the Thunderbirds. The Americans will have a couple of days off before they return home to host Seattle on Wednesday. Some good news for the Americans who have struggled lately is that eleven of their final fourteen regular season games will be at home. Ten of their final 14 games are against divisional opponents, so they will have plenty of opportunities to move up in the standings for higher seeding heading into the playoffs.