Chiefs lose shot at division title

KENNEWICK –There will be a vacant space on the Spokane Arena wall where the Spokane Chiefs would have loved nothing more then to hang a U.S. Division banner.

But after all their success in one of the best seasons in franchise history, and a game that more than lived up to its billing, it turned out that it just wasn’t meant to be.

Blair Macaulay and T.J. Fast scored and Chet Pickard turned aside 28 shots as Tri-City edged the Spokane Chiefs in a 2-1 Western Hockey League victory that earned the Americans (52-15-2-2, 108 points) the division title, top seed in the Western Conference and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs in winning the Scotty Munro trophy for the league’s best regular-season record.

The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Chiefs (50-14-1-5, 106 points), and although a win today in Portland would tie them in points with Tri-City, the Americans hold the tie-breaker advantage with more overall wins.

“That was a high-level game,” said Chiefs coach Bill Peters. “A lot of intensity, a lot of emotion and a lot on the line and both teams showed up and competed very, very hard.”

In front of an electric Toyota Center crowd of 5,969, the Ams closed out the regular season by winning their first division banner in franchise history.

“I’m extremely proud how they committed themselves to the entire season – from the opening face-off to the final draw of the 72nd game,” said Tri-City coach Don Nachbaur. “Every guy went to the well tonight.

“I give Spokane credit. That’s a tremendous team we beat to the finish line.”

The Americans took the lead midway through the opening period when defenseman Jarrett Toll and forward Kruise Reddick trapped Spokane’s Jace Coyle on the left wall and got the puck to Macaulay, where he stuffed it past Chiefs goalie Dustin Tokarski, who finished with 27 saves.

Fast one-timed a Colton Yellow Horn pass and Tri-City increased its lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal 12 minutes and 18 seconds into the second period after Trevor Glass was called for tripping at 11:37.

The Chiefs made it a one-goal game in the third when Judd Blackwater found the net at 3:44 on a pass from Glass. But Pickard and the Americans held Spokane off in the final 2 minutes when Tokarski was pulled to give Spokane a 6-on-5 advantage.

In the end, Peters figured, it came down to the power play.

The top team in the league when skating with an advantage, Spokane was 0 for 3, including 1:30 of a 5-on-3 advantage in the first. Ranked second in the league, the Americans converted 1 of 3 opportunities.

“It’s pretty disappointing,” said Chiefs captain Chris Bruton. “I thought we put forth a pretty big effort. It was a big game and it didn’t go our way. If you go chance for chance I think we had more, but the bounces just didn’t go our way tonight.”

Spokane will face Everett in the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs. The Chiefs will host the first two games of the series Friday and Saturday at the Arena. First, though, they will play their final game of the regular season today in Portland.

A win will give them a franchise-record 51 wins, one more than the 1995-96 Chiefs.

Ice chips

In 12 meetings with Tri-City this season, Spokane finished 5-4-1-2. Spokane was 3-2-1-0 at the Toyota Center and 2-2-0-2 when hosting the Americans. … In 12 games, David Rutherford, Chris Bruton and Mitch Wahl all had 10 points against Tri-City this season. Rutherford had six goals and four assists, Bruton had three goals and seven helpers and Wahl scored twice and assisted on eight goals. Judd Blackwater had five goals and four assists.