SPOKANE, Wash. — The trade deadline for the Western Hockey has come and gone and the Chiefs are in full rebuild mode as the team watched the top teams in the leagues sell off massive draft picks to acquire some of the top talent in the league. Spokane is not contending for the league title and have just an outside hope of making the playoffs after 36 games in the 68 game regular season. The Chiefs entered the second week of January twelve points back of Kelowna for the 8th and final playoff berth in the West. Spokane had failed to gain even a point against two teams right ahead of them in the standings the week before in a pair of home games, so the feeling that time was starting to tick on the Chiefs was indeed setting in.
The Chiefs had three game in four nights this week with some long travel involved in back to back games over the weekend. First up was the final game of Spokane's three game homestand as they hosted division rival Everett on Wednesday. The Silvertips had been busy at the trade deadline, dealing two of their top players to Kamloops, signaling the Tips were going into rebuild for this year as well as the Chiefs. Everett is still very much in the playoff picture though as they were tied with Tri City for 3rd in the U.S. Division going into Wednesday's game. Spokane had not enjoyed a lot success against the Silvertips the past two years, losing 14 of 15, including both games this season. Everett had humbled the Chiefs by 7-3 and 8-3 finals previously, so Spokane knew their next matchup was going to be a tough test to start the week.
The first period would show just how tough as Everett took a 1-0 lead midway through the period. Spokane settled down from there and it appeared the game would be a one goal affair heading to the second. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, the Silvertips scored 2 goals in the final 2:12 of the period, including a power play goal with just 6 seconds remaining to take a 3-0 advantage to the second. The Chiefs recovered nicely in the second, as Spokane converted their only power play of the frame on a Berkly Catton goal 7:08 in to cut the lead to 3-1. Kooper Gizowski's 8th of the season would follow at 12:15 as the Chiefs were right back in the game at 3-2. Everett answered though on Jackson Berezowski's second power play goal of the game with just under 5 minutes left to take a 4-2 advantage into the third period.
The third would turn into probably Spokane's worst period of the season. The Chiefs surrendered 5 goals in the first 11 minutes of the period, including 3 in just 1:49 as Everett would blow the game open. Ty Cheveldayoff got Spokane's only goal of the period at 9:33 but it was far too little of a response as the Silvertips handed the Chiefs their 3rd straight lopsided loss in the series with a 9-3 defeat. Spokane outshot Everett 32-25 and went 1-2 on the power play, but once again the penalty kill struggled going just 1-3. The Chiefs went 0-3 on the 3 game homestand as they remained 12 points back for the final playoff berth in the West. Spokane now had just 31 games left in the regular season and were now a dismal 4-17 on home ice for the season.
Spokane now headed out on the road, where they had won just one game since late September and had gone just 1-10-1-2 in their last 14 games away from home. The Chiefs started a 3 game road swing with a re-match with Vancouver on Friday night. The Giants had held off Spokane 2-1 in then last meeting the previous Saturday, sweeping both games in Spokane for the season. The Chiefs headed to Langley having just won once in their last 10 games and were hoping to start turning things around sooner than later. Spokane was still without forward Michael Cicek, who was out injured and would go with goalie Cooper Michaluk, who had finished up for Dawson Cowan in the Chiefs last game against Everett.
Good starts are always important, but especially so on the road. Falling behind early by multiple goals is surely a recipe for a game in the loss column, as the Chiefs found out against Everett. Spokane managed to turn that around in Vancouver Friday as Ben Bonni got the Chiefs on the board just under 4 minutes into the contest to give Spokane a 1-0 lead. The lead though would last less than 5 minutes as the Giants leading goal scorer, Ty Thorpe, tied it at 1-1 midway through the first. Thorpe would strike again at 14:34 of the period and Vancouver would take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. The lead could have been 3 or 4 goals though as several Chiefs turnovers in front of their net were turned away from Michaluk, who ended the period with 10 saves.
The Chiefs would strike quickly in the second period, as Chase Bertholet scored his team leading 17th of the year with a power play tally just 1:01 into the frame to bring Spokane even at 2-2. Spokane would go 1 for 2 on the power play in the period for their only man advantage opportunities of the game and would deny Vancouver on their only power play chance to send the game to the third tied at two. In the third, Spokane would get an odd man rush just under 5 minutes in and Tomasso DeLuca would convert a Raegan Wiles feed to give the Chiefs the lead back at 3-2. Vancouver would get a power play chance late in the game, but Bertholet would make a great individual effort to take the puck down the right wing shorthanded and snap home his second goal of the game with just 2:01 left to give the Chiefs a 4-2 victory and snap their 4 game losing streak.
Michaluk was excellent in net as he turned aside 30 shots, including all 13 he saw in the third. The Chiefs won the special teams battle and locked down defensively when they needed to. It was a great bounce back win after the performance against Everett, and the club gained ground on Kelowna for the final playoff spot in the West as the Rockets lost at Victoria on Friday to bring Spokane within 10 points of Kelowna. The Chiefs didn't have a great deal of time to enjoy the win though, as Spokane traveled to B.C. Division leader Kamloops the next night. The Blazers had won 3 straight including a 6-3 win in Everett the night before. Kamloops had made the biggest trade of the season with Everett the week before, acquiring defenseman Olen Zellweger and forward Ryan Hofer to beef up their roster before hosting the Memorial Cup in May.
Spokane had not fared well against the Blazers this season, dropping all 3 previous meetings by a combined 16-4 margin. In the Chiefs last meeting in Kamloops, the club lost 5-1, while the last matchup between the two in Spokane had gone to the Blazers 7-1. The Chiefs went back with Cooper Michaluk in goal in Saturday's contest and it was a good thing they did. Kamloops put up the first 11 shots in the game and scored on that 11th try midway through the period to take a 1-0 lead. Spokane would rebound though, as Berkly Catton scored an unassisted goal with just 2:10 remaining in the period and the Chiefs would head to the first intermission tied at one. Despite being outshot 19-6 in the frame, Michaluk kept Spokane in the game with his 18 save first period.
In the second period, the Blazers would re-take the lead on a Ryan Hofer goal at 5:43 to go up 2-1. The Blazers, who entered the game with the top power play unit in the league, would have a chance to go up 3-1 on the man advantage midway through the period, but Spokane's Ty Cheveldayoff would score an unassisted shorthanded goal at 11:13 to get the Chiefs back even at 2-2. The team would kill off the rest of the Blazer power play, but just seconds after doing so, Zellweger would score from the blue line 40 seconds after Cheveldayoff's goal to give Kamloops a 3-2 lead after two. Again, the Blazers would badly outshoot Spokane, this time 21-10, but Michaluk's 37 saves through 40 minutes kept the contest a one goal game heading into the third.
The Chiefs would get a power play in the first minute of the third, but just couldn't get enough juice going offensively in the third to pull even a third time. The Blazers outshot Spokane 13-8 in the third and would score two more goals midway through the period to pull away to a 5-2 victory. The Chiefs were outshot 53-24 overall, but the Spokane penalty kill went a perfect 4 for 4 against the Blazers top ranked power play. Michaluk was excellent again with a career high 48 saves, but Kamloops ended up sweeping the 4 game season series and extended their winning streak to 8 straight over Spokane over a two year period.
Spokane is still 10 points back of Kelowna for the 8th and final playoff spot in the West and are now 9 back of Victoria for the 9th spot. Victoria swept Kelowna in a two game series over the weekend, and the Royals are now in prime position to move past the Rockets for that final spot. As for the Chiefs, they have just 29 games left in the season to make up that 10 point deficit. The schedule doesn't get any easier either, as the team faces 3 games in 4 days coming up over next weekend into the following week. The Chiefs head to Everett on Friday night at 7pm, and then return home for a must win game against Victoria on Saturday at 7. The Chiefs then are back on the road to play a noon contest in Portland against the Winterhawks on Monday afternoon. Spokane has gone 0-4-0-1 against Everett and Portland combined and lost 6-3 at home to Victoria in their last meeting 2 weeks ago. The Chiefs need wins and points and they need them now.
I'll have the call on 103.5 FM the Game and 1510 AM KGA for the games Friday from Everett and Monday from Portland. Saturday's game will be on 94.1 FM the Bear due to Gonzaga basketball. The pre-game shows Friday and Saturday will be at 6:30 pm with the puck drops at 7:05 pm while Monday's matinee from the Rose City will be a 11:30 am pre-game and 12:05 pm puck drop. The Chiefs played well on their road trip in Canada, and let's hope that carries over to the weekend. We hope to see you at the rink!
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