SPOKANE -- Tyler Johnson had two goals and an assists to lead Spokane to a 5-1 victory over rival Tri-City before a crowd of 9,156 on Friday night at Spokane Arena.
Johnson, who has 109 points, is the first player in the WHL to reach 50 goals this season.
The Americans (40-23-2-2, 84 points), who have lost two in a row, will play host to Prince George on Sunday, the start of a four-game homestand.
The Chiefs (44-17-4-2, 94 points), trail U.S. Division-leading Portland by one point in the race for the division title.
Both teams have five games remaining, and they play each other on the final day of the regular season at Portland.
The Americans opened the scoring at 14:04 of the first as defenseman Tyler Schmidt beat James Reid for his 11th of the season.
The point gave Schmidt 162 for his career, moving him to the top of the team's career scoring list for defensemen, surpassing Darrell Hay (1996-00, 161 points).
From there, it was all Spokane.
Anthony Bardaro tied the score at 1 at 16:19, and Blake Gal scored the first of his two goals to give the Chiefs a 2-1 lead at 5:03 of the second on the power play.
Johnson scored late in the second and the first goal of the third at 2:50 on the power play to give the Chiefs a 4-1 lead.
Gal's second tally of the night at 9:01 of the third gave Spokane a comfortable lead they would not relinquish.
Reid, who has won his last three starts, finished with 19 saves.
Drew Owsley had 22 saves through 45 minutes of work. Chris Driedger had five saves in working the last 15 minutes.
Comments