VANCOUVER, BC — March is said to come in like a lion and the Chiefs were hoping to do the same as the club began its' final 12 games of the regular season. Spokane went into their final road trip into Canada with a 6 point lead for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference playoff race. The club was also 3 points back of 7th place Kelowna and 6 behind 6th place Vancouver entering the final month of the campaign.
The Chiefs were a bit banged up as they headed North as they were missing centers Rasmus Ekstrom and Owen Martin and winger Coco Armstrong with injuries. Spokane was coming off a split at home the previous weekend as the Chiefs had beaten Regina but had been humbled by Moose Jaw in the clubs last contest as Spokane was beaten 12-3 Saturday.
Spokane was hoping to wash away that defeat as they began their 3 game road swing through British Columbia with their final meeting against Kamloops on Wednesday. Spokane had won the previous 4 meetings with the Blazers, including an opening night 5-4 overtime win in Kamloops in late September. After a slow start, Kamloops had rebounded as they had won 9 of 13 and were challenging Seattle and Tri City in the conference standings. With the loss of Ekstrom and Armstrong, neither of whom made the road trip, 15 year old forward Brody Gillespie stayed with the club after playing his second game of the season against Moose Jaw.
After slow starts in both their previous two games at home, the Chiefs would turn that around Wednesday as they took an early 1-0 lead as Lukas Kral scored his 5th goal of the season at 11:12. Spokane held that lead until the waning seconds of the period as a Jordan Keller power play goal with just 4 seconds left in the first tied the contest at 1-1 after the first. Keller's goal was a game turner as the Blazers came out in the second and scored just 57 seconds in to take the lead at 2-1. Kamloops would add two more goals in the frame as they outshot the Chiefs 23-9 in the second and assumed a commanding 4-1 advantage after 40 minutes.
The Blazers came right back out in the third and expanded the margin to 5-1 on Keller's second of the game at 5:44 of the period. Spokane had two power play opportunities to get back in the game in the frame but failed to score as they would finish 0-3 on the night. The Chiefs did get back on the scoreboard as Connor Roulette took a Berkly Catton feed and scored his 38th of the season at 16:06 to make it a 5-2 game. The goal and the assist extended Roulette's and Catton's point scoring streaks to 11 straight but the goal was too little, too late for Spokane as Kamloops secured their first win against the Chiefs in 5 games this season with a 5-2 victory.
Spokane was outshot 48-31 in the game and had now given up 100 shots in their last two contests. It's an alarming trend as the club went North to continue the road swing as they faced the top team in the West and the #4 club in the CHL in the Prince George Cougars. The two teams had split two games in Spokane earlier in the season as PG skated past the Chiefs 6-3 in early December but Spokane had rebounded with a 4-3 victory at the end of January. The Cougars came into the weekend with a 2 point lead over Portland for the top spot in the West so they were eager to build their lead for home ice through the West playoffs. Spokane needed to get at least one of the two games over the weekend to keep their 6 point advantage.
Friday's game would start with the Cougars second ranked power play scoring on their first chance midway through the first period as Prince George took a 1-0 lead. Spokane would answer right away as Prince George native Chase Harrington scored his 2nd goal in 3 games at 11:04 to tie the game at 1-1. Ty Cheveldayoff would score the Chiefs league leading 17th short handed goal of the year 58 seconds later and Spokane had their first lead of the contest at 2-1. Saige Weinstein would cap off a 3 goal first with his 9th of the season at 18:24 to give Spokane a 3-1 advantage after one. Weinstein's goal was assisted by Berkly Catton, who extended his points scoring streak to 12 straight games.
In the second, Connor Roulette would extend his points scoring streak to 12 in a row as he set up Shea Van Olm's 19th goal of the year at 9:29 of the period to bring Spokane a 4-1 lead after two periods. In the third though the Cougars would score 3 goals in less than 6 minutes midway through the frame to tie the game at 4-4 and force overtime. Prince George outshot the Chiefs 12-6 in the period and had limited Spokane to just one power play while going 2-5 on the man advantage. In the OT though, it was the Chiefs who would score on their only shot of the period as Brayden Crampton scored his 7th of the year at 1:11 of overtime to give Spokane a huge 5-4 victory.
It was the second straight game the Chiefs had won in Prince George in overtime over the last 2 years. The victory also enabled the Chiefs to at least gain a split of the season series with the Cougars and more importantly, allowed Spokane to build an 8 point lead over Tri City for the 8th and final playoff spot in the West with 10 games remaining in the season. The Chiefs remained 3 points back of 7th place Kelowna and 5 behind 6th place Vancouver heading into the final game of the campaign between Spokane and Prince George on Saturday.
Getting a two game sweep on the road is extremely difficult, especially against the top team in the conference. After having only one power play chance the night before, Spokane got one just 2:45 into the game. Ty Cheveldayoff scored a goal in his second straight game with a rebound net front at 3:11 to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead. Berkly Catton and Connor Roulette got assists to extend their points scoring streaks to 13 straight games. Prince George would tie the game just over 2.5 minutes later but Shea Van Olm would get a goal for the second straight night late in the first to give the Chiefs a 2-1 advantage heading into the second period. Neither team would score in the second as goalie Cooper Michaluk turned away all 11 Cougar shots in the period to keep the Chiefs up by one heading to the third.
Prince George would score a power play goal just under 7 minutes into the final period to even the contest at 2-2. It was just the beginning of offensive fireworks in the third. Catton would score his 44th of the season with just over 7 minutes left in the game to put Spokane up 3-2. The Chiefs would get a power play chance with just over 3 minutes remaining and Catton would capitalize with his second of the period and 45th of the season to give Spokane a seemingly safe 4-2 lead with just 2:06 left. Roulette picked up his third and fourth assists of the game as he now has a career high 52 for the year. Just when it looked like the club would come out of PG with 4 points, the roof caved in. The Cougars scored with an extra skater on with 1:03 left to cut the lead to 4-3. Spokane would then take a penalty in the final minute and Prince George would pull the goalie again for a 6 on 4 advantage. The Cougars would score again with just 30 seconds left to tie the game at 4-4 and the two teams would head to overtime for the second straight night.
In the overtime, Spokane had a 3 on 1 break but fail to score and the Cougars came back on a 2 on 1 and scored 2:03 into OT to take a come from behind 5-4 victory. The Chiefs did get a point for going to overtime and managed to come out of the weekend with 3 out of a possible 4 points. The team got some help too as Tri City lost back to back home games to Victoria and Kelowna to allow Spokane to build their lead to 9 points over the Americans with just 9 games left in the season. Spokane is just 4 points back of both Kelowna and Vancouver, who are now tied for 6th and 7th in the conference. The Chiefs don't face either of those two teams the rest of the season. The teams remaining schedule has Seattle 3 times, Tri City and Wenatchee 2 times each and Portland and Victoria once.
The team has 5 of their remaining 9 games at home and will not leave the state of Washington the rest of the regular season. After the 13 hour bus ride home from Prince George into Sunday, the Chiefs are right back on the ice Tuesday for a 3 games in 5 nights stretch in the first full week of March. Spokane will host the 5th place club in the West, Victoria, for the final time this season Tuesday at 7:05 pm. The Chiefs then take on Seattle in a home and home Friday and Saturday with the team visiting the Thunderbirds Friday at 7:05 pm before returning to the Spokane Arena to host Saturday at 6:05 pm. I'll have the call on 103.5 FM the Game and 1510 AM KGA for all three games with the pre-game shows Tuesday and Friday at 6:30 pm and at 5:30 pm Saturday. Two or three wins would really put the Chiefs in the driver's seat for the playoffs so we hope to see you at the rink!
