Little-used player kicked off controversy between Tri-City and Portland in September

KENNEWICK, Wash. — They may have other, more prominent long-standing rivals, but the heat has been turned up this year when the Tri-City Americans and Portland Winterhawks have gotten together.

Americans fans are used to saving most of their vitriol for the Spokane Chiefs, while the Seattle Thunderbirds have long been the Winterhawks' favorite target (Seattle fans actually chant "Portland sucks" after goals, sometimes when they aren't even playing Portland).

And with all the star power in Kennewick and Portland, with names like Sven Baertschi, Brendan Shinnimin, Ty Rattie and Patrick Holland in the mix, who would've thought that the bad blood between the teams would originate over little-used Americans forward Lukas Walter?

It started all the way back in September, when Tri-City general manager Bob Tory took the unusual step of adding Walter to the Americans' protected list when he was playing in the preseason for the Winterhawks.

After a preseason tournament in Everett, during which Portland beat Tri-City 3-2, Tory liked what he saw from Walter and realized that the Winterhawks didn't have him on their protected list. So Tory -- presumably without giving advance warning -- simply claimed Walter, forcing Portland to give him up:

With nearly a dozen players gone at NHL camps, the Winterhawks needed every warm body in camp they could get. Instead, Walter was gone and they had to cancel their final preseason games because they could couldn't field a roster (which had more to do with the NHL guys, but losing Walter didn't help).

Tory's cunning move -- or bit of gamesmanship depending on how you look at it -- looked destined to be but a small side note as Walter settled in as a fourth liner who didn't score a goal in 49 games with the Americans.

But Walter wasn't done being caught up in controversy.

During the Winterhawks-Americans game on Feb. 10 in Kennewick, Walter leveled Brad Ross with a questionable hit that didn't draw a penalty, nor any further punishment from the league. Our own Kelly Friesen wondered why Walter, who had been suspended six games in December for being in a one-man fight, escaped punishment.

It perhaps had something to do with the recipient of the hit being Ross, a player who has had his share of run-ins with WHL discipline man Richard Doerksen and musters very little sympathy from opposing teams.

Near the end of that game, Americans coach Jim Hiller and Winterhawks coach Mike Johnston got into a verbal spat on the benches after Johnston voiced his displeasure with Walter being on the ice in the waning moments of a 4-2 Portland win.

There's familiarity between the coaches, as Hiller played for Johnston in the mid-'90s, when Johnston coached the Canadian National Team.

The budding rivalry probably hasn't made Tri-City fans forget about Spokane, but the Americans provide a worthy foe for Winterhawks fans who may have grown weary of dominating the struggling Thunderbirds the last three seasons.

As Portland's Brendan Leipsic said earlier this week: "We're pretty big rivals and I don't think we like each other too much."