Over the last three years, the Tri-City Americans have been one of the most dominant teams in the Western Hockey League. The way they played Saturday night, they don't show any signs of slowing down.
Brendan Shinnimin scored just 1:22 into the game and the Americans cruised from there, beating former coach Don Nachbaur and the Spokane Chiefs 6-3 in the season opener for both teams before a packed house of 5,922 at Toyota Center.
"When this building is electric, this team can move," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller. "We are looking to be great every night. It's a pretty high standard around here and that's the standard we have to hold as a team."
Before the game, the Americans raised their third U.S. Division banner in three years and first Western Conference banner.
"It was pretty cool raising the banners," said Tri-City goalie Drew Owsley, who finished with 25 saves to win his third straight home opener. "It was pretty emotional knowing I had a part in that. And Tri and Spokane on a Saturday night, it doesn't get any better."
The Americans led 4-0 after the first period, 5-1 after two and looked to have things under control. But the third period belonged to the Chiefs, who outshot the Americans 11-3 and scored a pair of goals by Levko Koper and Reid Gow.
But it wasn't enough for the Chiefs to counter their sloppy play the first two periods.
"Give them credit, they played well, but at the same time I thought we made far too many mistakes and they capitalized on those mistakes," Nachbaur said. "That's what good teams do. Our veterans weren't good enough tonight. Our young guys learned as the game went on but the young guys can't win unless the old guys show them the way. I thought too many guys who played on this team last year took a back seat. If they keep that up they'll have a seat in the stands."
Holding a comfortable 4-0 lead heading into the second period, Shinnimin scored his second of the night for a 5-0 lead just 57 seconds into the action.
Mike Brown, who scored an empty netter with 2:04 left in the game, led the charge, streaming down the left lane and getting Spokane goalie James Reid to commit. Brown then slid the puck to Shinnimin, who had an open net.
"Obviously the guys were pretty pumped for tonight," Shinnimin said of the quick start. "We celebrated what we accomplished last year and when the puck dropped we got after it and got our fans in the game. A lot of the guys here learned from Don and we knew if we played our game we could win."
The Chiefs got on the board when Matt Marantz corralled a long rebound in the slot off a shot by Kenton Miller and surprised Owsley at 1:56.
"There was a scrum in front of the net and the next thing I know it was inside the post blocker said," Owsley said. "The last half of the game we took our foot of the gas pedal and got into trouble."
Spokane had a golden opportunity to cut into the Americans' lead late in the second period with a four-minute power play, but the Chiefs managed just one shot on goal and a blast by Brady Brassart that clanked off the crossbar.
Shinnimin, who led the Americans in scoring last season, put his first goal of the season in the net over Reid's left shoulder.
Justin Feser followed at 5:22 with a short-handed goal. Patrick Holland cleared the puck out of the zone on the penalty kill and headed up ice. He slid the puck behind him to Feser, who beat Reid.
Jordan Messier gave Tri-City a 3-0 lead at 11:26, picking up a rebound off a shot by Connor Rankin and putting the puck behind Reid. Holland added a power-play goal at 16:16, following up on a shot by Brooks Macek.
"When you have a lot of different players who can contribute, it's hard to defend against," Hiller said. "We have three good lines."
If the Americans had a weakness, it was their power play, where they converted just one of nine opportunities.
"I liked our chances on the power play, we just couldn't finish," Hiller said.
