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The term "threepeat" makes me want to shank someone.  Regardless, the Americans are US Division champions for the third year in a row.  That's pretty freakin' awesome.  And a pretty fantastic day-early birthday present for Drew Owsley.

"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."

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."  (Herald)

Drinnan weighs in too:

It says something about Spokane head coach Hardy Sauter, his coaching staff, the players and the entire organization. After losing their leading goal scorer in Kennewick, they easily could have lost to Everett, thus having a say in who finished atop the Western Conference and U.S. Division standings. The Chiefs didn’t do that, and it looks good on them!

“As a group we talked, we believe that the game is fair,” Sauter told Dave Trimmer of the Spokane Spokesman-Review. “If you self-sabotage or you don’t put your best effort forward, at some point it’s going to come back and bite you. Ultimately if you take someone for granted or don’t give someone the respect they deserve, you don’t feel good about yourself. So you sacrifice a lot of things just to have a good effort.”

So now the boys have until Friday to get rested up and prepared for the Chilliwack Bruins.  The Bruins have given them fits all season, they need to figure out a way to find success against them and find their way through Gore.  On paper, the Americans would seem to have the advantage, but the head-to-head games with them this season have shown otherwise.  Not gonna lie, this matchup makes me nervous, though I think the AMS can do it.