Ams not happy with just another 'W'

[nivek_wahs]

http://www.sportstricities.com/sport...-9463868c.html

Ams not happy with just another 'W'

This story was published Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

JEFF MORROW HERALD SPORTS EDITOR

Here's the sign of a good hockey team: The Tri-City Americans skated off the Toyota Center ice Wednesday night with a 3-2 victory over Moose Jaw .... and no one seemed to be that happy about it.

"We did not play our best game by any means tonight," admitted Americans goalie Chet Pickard, who stopped 17 of the 19 shots he faced.

"(Moose Jaw) took it to us," said Americans' scoring leader Colton Yellow Horn, who added two more goals to his stats and added to his streak of 21 games with at least a point. "But good teams find a way to win."

That's the kind of stuff Americans coach Don Nachbaur wants to hear.

"I think that's the standard now, the way we've raised the bar," Nachbaur said. "The guys know they didn't play that well. And the coach doesn't need to tell them about it."

Two years ago, Nachbaur would have had to constantly harp on the subject. But not anymore.

And now, with the victory, the Americans (28-8-1-0) have finally caught rival Spokane (27-8-1-2) for the U.S. Division lead at 57 points -- and the Ams have a game in hand on the Chiefs.

Wednesday's victory was no easy feat for the Americans. Nachbaur knew he'd be short five players because of injuries and other maladies.

"All year long we've rolled with four lines," he said. "But we couldn't tonight. We were short-handed on the front end. We just came off a 10-day break and we lost our conditioning and our timing. The break might be good for us down the way (in March), but it's not so good now."

And what happened? The offense didn't have much rhythm -- too many off-sides and icings -- and the defense was what Nachbaur termed "terrible."

So how'd they win it? Special teams, of course. The Americans came into the game ranked No. 1 in the Western Hockey League in penalty kill at 86.8 percent and No. 2 in the power play at 22 percent.

"The power play was great," said Nachbaur. "We were 2-for-6 against them."

The first power-play goal came with just 4:19 left in the first period when Yellow Horn scored after teammate Jarrett Toll just missed a point-blank shot on Moose Jaw goalie Joey Perricone and the sharpshooter tipped it in.

"That was one of the easiest goals I've ever had," Yellow Horn said.

Just 92 seconds later, Tri-Cities made it 2-0 when Jason Reese, on an even-strength charge, slipped a nice pass to Shaun Vey, who popped the puck past Perricone. It was Reese's 100th career assist.

That goal was just enough of a cushion for the Americans.

Joel Broda, who was traded to Moose Jaw in September by the Americans for Reese, scored on a short-handed goal in the second period to cut the Tri-City lead to 2-1. He got a nice ovation from the Tri-City fans.

"The applause means a lot to me," said Broda. "It was fun. But still, it would have nice to get the win. When you play a team this good, you have to play a full 60 minutes. We didn't do that."

Still the Warriors wouldn't go away.

Yellow Horn scored his second goal on a power play at 3:47 of the third period. But Frazer McLaren answered 1:05 later for Moose Jaw to make it 3-2.

That's where it stood until there was 1:28 left to play and the Americans' Blair Macauley was called for a holding penalty.

The Warriors pulled out Perricone for the final minute, giving Moose Jaw a 6-on-4 attack. But Pickard and his penalty-kill squad turned back the final onslaught.

With 10 seconds left, Toll found the loose puck and tossed it down the ice, and the clock ran out.

"At first, when I came into the league, that kind of situation was pretty nerve-wracking," said Pickard, who picked up his 50th career WHL victory in net. "But now it's not so bad. You train for it."

Nachbaur says this is the beginning of a very tough month for the team.

"We get on a bus (today) and head for Kamloops for a Friday game, then come back here for a Saturday game against Spokane and a Sunday game against Everett," he said. "October was an easy month for us. But January is the toughest."

And Yellow Horn says the team is taking nothing for granted.

"Our confidence is high, but we can't get too high," he said. "Last week we lost to a Portland team we shouldn't have."

[HomerSimpson]

I don't know about the game in Tri, but Moose Jaw gave our defense about all they could handle physically last night. Every time one of our guys got the puck, they were eating glass. That was a nasty team...they're definately built for a playoff run.

[cranky]

found his jock yet? he oughtta duct tape that thing to his person.