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It took a day longer than the Tri-City Americans wanted, but they won their third straight U.S. Division title Sunday when the Spokane Chiefs defeated the Everett Silvertips 3-2.
"It would have been a much better feeling to have won it last night," said Americans captain Jarrett Toll, whose team lost a 5-4 game to the Chiefs on Saturday. "We are just happy we got the banner. But now we have to forget about that. The banner is nice, but we want to go further than that."
The Americans, who also won the Western Conference title, finished the regular season 47-22-1-2 and tied with Everett atop the U.S. Division standings with 97 points. With Tri-City owning all of the tie breakers, the Silvertips dropped to third in the Western Conference.
Tri-City will play Chilliwack in the first round of the WHL playoffs, hosting the Bruins on Friday and Saturday at Toyota Center. Chilliwack won the four-game season series 3-1.
Toll and his teammates gathered together Sunday to watch the game via the WHL's live feed.
"There was a pretty big eruption when Spokane won," Toll said. "It's an unbelievable feeling. Spokane already had their playoff position locked up and we were really expecting them to sit their better guys, but they played them. Kudos to them."
First-year Tri-City coach Jim Hiller watched the game at home, but was pleased his players took the opportunity to be together.
"Those are good memories," Hiller said. "As disappointed as they were (Saturday) night, they will remember sitting around together watching that game long from now. They can tell their kids about it."
The Americans, who took the lead in the U.S. Division on Oct. 30 and at one point held a 12-point lead over the next team, saw their lead dwindle away down the stretch.
"We had to do it the hard way," Hiller said. "We were on a roll there for a while and the cushion we gave ourselves helped us at the end. There is a lot of work that goes into it. Everyone who is involved with the team put their heart and soul into it. This feels good."
Tri-City is the first team to win three consecutive U.S. Division titles and the first Western Conference team since the Portland Winterhawks won three from 1970-1973. The Western Conference title is the second for the Americans, which they also won during the 2007-08 season.
Everett will have home-ice advantage over Kelowna in the first round, while Spokane will have home-ice advantage over Portland. B.C. Division champion Vancouver will play Kamloops in the first round.
"The whole (U.S.) division was tough," Hiller said. "There were four teams with more than 40 wins. I don't know if that's happened before."
