Americans spoil home opener with shootout victory over Chiefs
Unfortunately for the Spokane Chiefs, the Tri-City Americans have a knack for spoiling home openers.
They did it to the Chiefs last season, and apparently, they enjoy it.
The Americans, 4-0 in home openers this season – ruining Everett’s, Kelowna’s and celebrating a win in their own against the Chiefs on Friday night – scored a shootout goal to spoil the Chiefs homecoming with a 2-1 Western Hockey League victory on Saturday night at the Arena.
The matchup marked the 17th time in 18 seasons that the Chiefs welcomed the Americans to help them open their season at the Arena. The Chiefs are 13-10 in home openers, 8-5 at the Arena.
One night after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Americans in Kennewick’s Toyota Center, the Chiefs (3-1-1-1) looked as if they had some homecoming jitters. Both teams struggled throughout the game to generate offense.
Spokane was 0 for 8 on power-play opportunities, while the Americans (7-1-0-0) failed to convert on four opportunities.
“We’ve got to bury our chances, we didn’t score on the power play,” Chiefs forward Mitch Wahl said. “We had some opportunities and some guys had some good chances, we just didn’t get it tonight.”
Johnny Lazo scored for the second straight night, burying a long shot from the right side as the Americans took a 1-0 lead 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the game.
Spokane native Tyler Johnson, a Chiefs rookie forward, scored his first WHL goal in the second period to tie the game at one-all.
“It’s good to get it off my shoulders and get the pressure off, I just wish it was on a better night,” Johnson said. “I had a lot of family here, so that made (getting my first goal in Spokane) pretty cool.”
After a scoreless third period, both teams killed a penalty in overtime and both failed to take advantage of the power play, something Chiefs coach Bill Peters acknowledged.
“We were impatient at times on the power play. Obviously the execution could have been better,” said Peters. “Anytime you don’t score on the power play you’ve got to look at your execution … we played this team twice this weekend and nobody scored on the power play, so I think you’ve got to tip your hat to the penalty killers, the goaltenders and a lot of guys blocking shots and making it tough.”
It was Jason Reese who netted the game-winner for Tri-City. Spokane’s Ondrej Roman missed the first shootout attempt and Reese buried the next one. Two more Spokane misses, and the Americans took down the Chiefs for the second consecutive night.
Tri-City goalie Chet Pickard finished with 34 saves while Spokane’s Dustin Tokarski stopped 29 shots.
“Our goaltending was good all weekend, it was real good again tonight,” said Peters.
The Chiefs are back in action on Monday with a game at Chilliwack before returning to the Arena for back-to-back games Friday and Saturday.
“It’s good that we play (right away),” Peters said. “We’ve got to get playing some games, there’s no question about that.”
Notes
Chiefs forward Dustin Donaghy will miss 4 to 6 weeks after breaking his right hand in a fight with Everett’s Lukas Vartovnik on Wednesday. … Spokane’s David Rutherford was scratched from the game and is out indefinitely with a groin injury. … Spokane’s Ondrej Roman left the ice after a hard hit from Brett Plouffe in the second quarter but returned in the third.