Ams visit tonight

Carey Price has a lot of reasons to brag.

The Tri-City Americans goaltender has been one of the best in the Western Hockey League the past three seasons. Price was the fifth overall pick in the 2005 National Hockey League draft, taken by Montreal Canadians, and has owned the Spokane Chiefs recently.

The Chiefs have beaten Price just once in the teams’ last eight meetings with Price in net and the Chiefs are 0-3 this season against Price and the Americans, who visit the Spokane Arena tonight.

Price has a lot to talk about, and, according to several Chiefs, he does a lot of it.

“He’s a guy that likes to be chirpin,’ he likes to mouth off in front of the net,” said Spokane agitator David Rutherford. “So, I’ll be more than willing to give it back to him.”

Rutherford did exactly that last weekend in Kennewick, as the former Vancouver Giant scored a goal and made sure to let Price know he was there on a couple of other occasions.

“Guys like Price, you just gotta kind of run ‘em, or whatever – get ‘em goin’,” Rutherford said after practice this week. “When I got into Price’s head (last Saturday)… he was just kind of frustrated – you could tell.”

–Jeff Bunch