SPOKANE, Wash. — The first month of the season had gone about as well as you could ask if you were the Spokane Chiefs. Spokane was 8-2 after the season's first ten games and was at the top of the Western Hockey League's U.S. Division and Western Conference.
The second month saw the club level back under .500 as the team lost 7 of their next 11 contests. With just 11 games left before the holiday break, the Chiefs were in 3rd in the division and were seeing division-leading Everett and second-place Tri-City open up their leads over Spokane.
When the week began, the Chiefs were 7 points behind the Silvertips and just one back of second-place Tri-City. By the time Spokane took the ice on Friday, the leads had grown to 9 for Everett and to 5 for Tri-City.
The club was hoping to get back to their winning ways of October as they embarked on a difficult two-game road trip this past weekend. First up would be division-leading Everett, in a game where the Chiefs needed a win to get themselves back into the U.S. race. Everett had won 4 in a row, including a 4-0 shutout win over Lethbridge at home on Wednesday.
After getting Coco Armstrong back in the Chiefs' previous game, a 3-0 shutout victory over Red Deer, Spokane also added forward Asanali Sarkenov back to the lineup after he missed the previous weekend's 2-game homestand.
Spokane was still without defenseman Nathan Mayes, who remained back in Spokane as the team headed out on the challenging two-game road trip. Everett is always a tough place to play but the Chiefs had won 2 of 3 in the Silvertips building last season while dropping all 3 at the Spokane Arena.
A quick start is always helpful to knocking off a team that had won 8 of 9 on their home ice, but the Silvertips would come out in the first and outshoot the Chiefs 14-6 and take a 1-0 lead on a power play goal midway through the period.
Chiefs goalie Dawson Cowan, who was honored as the league's goalie of the week after his shutout victory over Red Deer the previous Saturday, kept Spokane in the game with 13 saves, including 3 one-on-one point-blank stops to keep the Chiefs within striking distance.
Spokane would turn the game around in the second frame as the Chiefs outshot the Silvertips 17-10. The Chiefs would even the game as Owen Schoettler scored his third of the season off an Armstrong assist, Armstrong's first point of the year, to bring Spokane even at 1-1 midway through the second. The Chiefs would convert their second power play of the period when Shea Van Olm scored on a rebound at 18:26 to put Spokane up 2-1 after two.
The third would see the Silvertips get their second goal of the night from defenseman Tarin Smith 4.5 minutes into the period to tie the game up at 2-2.
The Chiefs would respond late in the period as Mathis Preston hit an open Van Olm net front at 13:04 for Van Olm's second of the night and team-leading 20th of the season to put Spokane up 3-2. Everett would pull their goalie in the final two minutes and it appeared Spokane had a chance to put it away in the final minute but Berkly Catton's shot went wide of the empty net and Everett would get the puck back in the Chiefs zone in the final minute.
The Silvertips would tie the game as a Chiefs defenseman collided with Cowan trying to field the puck and Everett scored with 30 seconds left to tie the game at 3-3 and send the contest to overtime.
Spokane controlled the overtime, outshooting Everett 5-2 in the extra 5 minutes. Rasmus Ekstrom had a net-front chance in the final seconds but Everett's goalie Alex Garrett made the game-saving stop to send the two teams to a shootout for the first time this season.
Neither team scored in the first round, but the Chiefs Berkly Catton would score in round 2 to give Spokane a 1-0 lead heading into the third and final round. Everett's leading scorer Carter Bear would go in round 3 but Cowan would come up with his third straight save on his way to a season-high 36 save performance in a 4-3 shootout victory.
The loss was just Everett's second in 10 home games this season and kept Spokane 8 points back of the division-leading Silvertips.
Tri-City also won Friday as they drew within 3 points of Everett and remained 5 points ahead of the Chiefs for second place. The task would not get any easier the next night as the Chiefs headed North to face former Chiefs coaches Manny Viveiros and Adam Maglio and the Vancouver Giants on Saturday.
Vancouver had dropped 5 in a row, including an 8-3 drubbing at Kelowna the night before in the first game of a 3 games in 3 nights weekend. Spokane knew the Giants would be very anxious to turn things around on their home ice.
Backup goalie Carter Esler got the start in net and the Chiefs would get out to a quick start for the rookie netminder as leading goal scorer Shea Van Olm would poke the puck inside the left goal post on a Spokane power play 2.5 minutes into the game to give the Chiefs an early 1-0 lead.
Vancouver would score on their first shot of the game 5 minutes into the game to tie the game at 1-1. It would turn out to be the only shot to get past Esler as he would turn away the next 30 Giants attempts on goal. Spokane would regain the lead for good late in the first when Van Olm found Mathis Preston for his first goal since October 15th as the Chiefs carried a 2-1 lead to the second.
In the second, Spokane would dominate the period as they would put up 17 shots on the Vancouver net. The Chiefs would get a 5 on 3 power play chance in the opening 2 minutes of the frame and they would convert as Rasmus Ekstrom scored his 10th of the season at 2:14 to put Spokane up 3-1.
Captain Berkly Catton then netted his 10th of the year late in the second to give the Chiefs a 4-1 advantage going into the third. Sam Oremba would score his 2nd goal in 3 games just under 4 minutes into the third to cap off a 5-1 Spokane victory as the Chiefs swept the two-game road trip as they garnered their 15th win of the season.
The Chiefs are halfway to last season's win total and they still have two games left in November. Spokane is still 8 points back of first place Everett and 5 behind second place Tri-City as they go into the last week of November.
The team now heads home for a 3-game home stand as they will host Kamloops on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. and Portland on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. and again on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. I'll have the call on 103.5 FM the Game and 1510 AM KGA with the pre-game shows at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Let's hope the Chiefs keep things rolling and we hope to see you at the rink!
