Ams founder in 4-1 loss to Chiefs

October 3 is a day James Reid would like to forget.

That was the night the Tri-City Americans lit up the Spokane goalie for five goals on 22 shots, earning him a spot on the bench by the middle of the second period.

Reid liked Friday night a whole lot more, stopping all but one puck that came his way and leading the Chiefs to a 4-1 WHL victory over the Americans before a spirited Thanksgiving weekend crowd of 5,265.

"I knew I had to redeem myself," said Reid, who is 9-0-1-0 in November. "We've been playing well defensively. I got a chance to work with my goalie coach (Dennis Sproxton) and I've been playing with more confidence. I knew I had to stay focused -- Tri-City can score a lot of goals."

Friday was a night nothing went right for the Americans (19-7-0-0, 38 points), who lost for the just the second time on home ice this year and saw their lead in the U.S. Division standings shrink to four points over second-place Portland. Spokane (15-8-2-0, 32 points) evened the 12-game series at two games apiece.

"I thought we made dumb plays, and add to that not moving our feet, and that is a deadly combination against a good team," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller. "This was unacceptable. There needs to be some soul searching after a game like this. On a night like this you have to at least compete, and we didn't even do that."

The Chiefs wasted no time taking control as Tyler Johnson scored short-handed just 3:09 into the contest.

Spokane took a 2-0 lead at 10:18 on the power play as defenseman Jared Cowen, camped out in front of the net, chipped the puck past Tri-City goalie Drew Owsley, and the lead grew to 3-0 at 15:08 with a goal by Brenden Kichton.

At that point, the Chiefs had outshot the Americans 15-6. By the end of period, Spokane had a 19-12 advantage and had shut down Tri-City's fourth-ranked power play, killing off all three chances on the man advantage.

In the second, Mitch Wahl gave the Chiefs a 4-0 lead, taking a nice pass across the crease from Blake Gal and putting the puck in an open net behind Owsley. Gal finished with two assists.

"I think the nice thing is to get that first win in Tri-City off our back," said Chiefs coach Hardy Saunter. "It looked like for a while they wouldn't lose one here. We played well in the first and second, but let up a bit in the third."

Owsley, who finished with 43 saves, kept the game from getting out of hand. Twice in the second period, he stonewalled Wahl. The first time came on a breakaway at 9:43, and the second with just five seconds left in the period when Wahl turned a Tri-City turnover into two shots on Owsley but came away empty-handed.

"I thought Drew played well," Reid said. "It's hard to bounce back from three early goals. It could been a lot worse."

The Americans came out firing in the third, outshooting the Chiefs 20-5, and avoided the shutout when Brendan Shinnimin scored a power-play goal at 13:57.

Tri-City finished 1-for-9 on the power play and was only able to muster four shots during a 5-on-3 man advantage that lasted 1:21 midway through the third.

"This is a team loss," said Tri-City captain Jarrett Toll. "We won a game and we got too high. If we aren't going to put in the work, this is what's going to happen."

Tri-City's game will have to be much improved tonight when Everett rolls into town. The Americans beat the Silvertips 6-0 at Toyota Center last Friday.

Notes

With an assist on Shinnimin's goal, Reddick passed Jason Reese for 21st on the team's all-time career points list with 164. ... Tonight, donations of canned food and children's books will be taken at the game as part of the Well Fed, Well Read Program. Those donating will receive a Washington Lottery scratch ticket.