SPOKANE, Wash. — It was a welcome back Chiefs weekend as the team returned home to the Spokane Arena after splitting a 2-game road trip through the B.C. Division last week.
The Chiefs lost at Kamloops but then won in overtime at Kelowna as the club sat in third place in the U.S. Division, 3 points back of Tri City and 7 back of Everett entering the two game home stand against two teams from the Central Division.
The Chiefs also welcomed back forward Mathis Preston and goaltender Carter Esler from the Under 17 Hockey challenge.
Preston led his Canada White team to a gold medal, defeating Esler's Canada Red team in the final. Forward Coco Armstrong returned off the injured list, after missing the last 6 weeks with a broken wrist. Forward Asanali Sarkenov hurt his leg in practice this week and is now on the shelf on a day to day basis while defenseman Nathan Mayes is also battling through an injury and is day to day.
As the lineup continues to change due to the movement of injuries and tournaments, the team is still trying to find consistency in its game over a full 60 minutes.
It was especially evident in the Chiefs game with Kelowna as the team jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second, saw the gap narrow to 4-3, went back up 5-3 midway through the third; only to surrender 2 goals in the last half of the final period before finally winning in overtime.
Spokane hoped to find their full 60 minutes as they took on a Calgary team that had split the first 4 games of their U.S. Division swing.
The Hitmen were coming off a 3-1 win in Portland Wednesday and had lost their two games to Tri City and Everett by just a goal each on their trip. The Chiefs had lost their last two games to Calgary over the past 2 seasons, getting outscored by a 13-6 margin, including a 7-4 loss in Calgary last season. Spokane went with Carter Esler in Friday's contest, hoping he would continue his good play from the Under 17 challenge.
Calgary was playing their 5th game in 8 days but they came out with a quick goal 47 seconds into the contest to take a 1-0 lead. The Chiefs would answer back as Chase Harrington scored his 5th of the season on a nice feed from Cohen Harris at 6:22 to make it a 1-1 game.
Calgary would counter just 38 seconds later to re-take the lead at 2-1 and would then would score a power play goal late in the period to take a 3-1 advantage into the second period. The Hitmen would come back out in the second and score at 14:37 to take command at 4-1 but Owen Martin would score his 5th of the year on a rebound at 16:32 to get the Chiefs within 4-2. Calgary would come right back just over a minute later, scoring off a Chiefs turnover to take a 5-2 lead into the third.
The Chiefs would be completely stifled offensively in the third as they would manage just 3 shots on goal. The Hitmen would put up two more goals in the period as they picked up their third straight win over Spokane with a decisive 7-2 victory.
Spokane fell to 0-2 vs. the Central Division and have now dropped 6 of 10 since getting out to an 8-2 start. Fortunately for the Chiefs, they didn't lose any ground to 2nd place Tri City, who lost at Prince Albert or to first place Everett, who was idle.
The team didn't get any time to mope about the result as they got ready to face a Red Deer squad that had lost in a shootout the night before in Portland. The Rebels had dropped all 5 games on their U.S. Division trip and were anxious to salvage the final game of the swing against the Chiefs. Spokane would send Dawson Cowan back in net for Saturday's game in front of a sellout crowd of over 10,300. The last time Cowan faced the Rebels, he turned aside 45 shots in a 1-0 shootout loss in 2022.
The two clubs would play a tight checking first period as the game was scoreless after the opening 20 minutes.
The Chiefs would get 1 power play chance in the second period and would cash in as Rasmus Ekstrom scored his 9th of the season at 5:19 of the frame to give Spokane a 1-0 lead. The Chiefs would hold that lead into the third as Cowan turned aside 19 shots through two periods. Red Deer would come out and outshoot Spokane 16-9 in the third, but Spokane would get a huge insurance goal at 7:45 of the period when Shea Van Olm scored his team leading 18th of the year to make it a 2-0 game.
Sam Oremba would seal the contest with his first goal as a Chief with an unassisted empty netter in the last minute and a half to give Spokane and Cowan their second shutout win of the season with a 3-0 victory. Cowan would end the night with 35 saves and the Chiefs would get their first win against the Central Division to improve their record to 13-9 on the season.
With Tri City's loss at Saskatoon, Spokane is now just one point back of Tri for second place in the U.S. Division with 24 points on the year. The Chiefs remained 7 points behind division leading Everett as Spokane will head out on the road for their next two games.
The first will be in Everett against the Silvertips in the two teams first meeting of the season on Friday at 7:05 p.m. Spokane will then head to Vancouver for the first time this year as they take on the Giants Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
Hopefully the club will get more players back off the injured list as they can use the depth going forward in the final month of the first half of the season. 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. Friday and Saturday. Let's hope the Chiefs play on the road like they did against Red Deer and we hope to see you on the radio!
