Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

Ams turn up heat on Giants for 8-2 win

By Jeff Morrow, Herald sports editor

KENNEWICK -- Memo to Ed Muhlhausen: Hey buddy, I think you're going to need to order a lot more burger patties over these next six months.

Muhlhausen, who owns two Burger Ranch stores in the Tri-Cities, has a promotion in which each fan attending a Tri-City Americans home game gets a free hamburger when the home squad scores five or more goals in its game.

For the fifth time in seven home contests, the Americans sent the hungry crowd of 4,805 out the Toyota Center doors happy with at least five goals -- this time it was an 8-2 shellacking of the Vancouver Giants on Friday.

The game pitted two of the best teams in the Western Hockey League's Western Conference. But the outcome was never in doubt, as 13 different Americans had at least a point and Tri-City jumped out to an insurmountable 5-0 lead.

"That's awesome," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller about the 13 different players scoring a point. "We know we won against a good team. Usually the road (to the playoffs) leads through Vancouver at some point during the season."

Americans goalie Drew Owsley picked up his 14th victory of the season, stopping 37 of 39 shots by the Giants, who actually outshot the Americans 39-28.

On Friday, only Brendan Shinnimin had multiple goals -- two. Nils Moser, Kruise Reddick, Adam Hughesman, Jordan Messier, Justin Feser and Neal Prokop also scored goals for Tri-City.

It started when Prokop scored on Vancouver goalie Jamie Tucker just 2:31 into the game. Messier pounded a rebound into the net at 5:05 for another score, and Giants coach Don Hay yanked Tucker from the net and put Brendan Jensen into the net.

That didn't stop the bleeding, as Feser and Reddick added goals to finish out the period for a 4-0 lead.

"When it was 2-0, I thought for a few minutes we pushed back well," said Hay. "Then they scored that third goal. Whenever you give up five or more goals, it's not gonna be good."

It helped that the Americans attacked from the start.

"We came out hard and took it to them early," said Feser. "We got the momentum. We had a lot of confidence going into this game."

And that quick lead helped the team, said Americans captain Jarrett Toll.

"It relaxes you," Toll said. "It lets you know you're doing something right. It was one of our best games yet -- minus the second period."

Shinnimin scored the first of his two goals 4:36 into the second period for a 5-0 lead before the Giants rallied back with a goal from Zach Hodder at 6:18. Shinnimin added his second goal at 14:52 of the period.

"I didn't like us in the second period," said Hiller. "We only got three shots on goal."

However, Tri-City found the net on two of those.

And it was with 2:24 left in the period that Mason Wilgosh joined Ams teammate Hughesman in the penalty box that Tri-City had to try to kill a 5-on-3 power play for 58 seconds.

The line of Feser, Toll and Tyler Schmidt did just that.

"That was one of the turning points of the game," said Hiller.

But what Hiller really liked was his team's third period.

"I thought the third period was one of our best periods all year," he said.

There was no letup, even in the defensive end where in one series of shots, Toll blocked three pucks with his body.

"I love that stuff, even when we're leading 8-2," Toll said.

And with the Ams heading out east to Medicine Hat, Lethbridge and Kootenay this next week, Friday's win was a great way to say goodbye to the fans. Especially when it comes to free food.