Cowen signs, Chiefs win
A double-dose of news from the Spokane Chiefs today. Before the Chiefs ended Everett's 14-game winning streak with a solid 2-1 win, story below, captain Jared Cowen signed with the Ottawa Senators.
By Dave Trimmer
davet@spokesman.com; (509) 927-2154
All good things come to an end, and so do bad things.
That was the case at the Arena Wednesday night when the Spokane Chiefs ended Everett’s 14-game winning streak with a solid 2-1 win.
“The streak didn’t mean anything for me,” Silvertips coach Craig Hartsburg said. “We take one game at a time and tonight’s game was obviously our worst game in a long time. We weren’t sharp, we didn’t skate, didn’t work. We’ve had some success because we worked and tonight we didn’t work at all.”
It was only the second win at home in eight games for the Chiefs (30-19-3-1, 64 points), dating back to the second week of December but their hard work was rewarded on the winning power-play goal midway through the third period.
“You have to get those greasy goals once in a while to be a winning team,” said Johnson, who scored the first goal 7 minutes in, a tap-in off a two-on-one with Levko Koper. “If you get the puck around the net, they’re bound to go in once in a while.
“We got a lucky break there, the hockey gods were watching for us. About time. If you work hard you’re going to get those chances and that’s what we did.”
Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter agreed the goal was lucky, but the result of hard work.
“There’s no doubt,” he said. “The three years I’ve been here we work for every break we get. We know that. When we’re working, everybody’s committed to playing the game right, we get bounces. If we have any number of guys … cheating or not playing exactly right, we don’t get the results.”
The Chiefs controlled the play from the start, although they only got out of the first period with a 1-1 tie and both teams had 10 shots.
The Silvertips (33-17-2-1, 69 points) tied it at 12:50 when Kellan Tochkin, at point-blank range, flipped a quick shot top shelf over James Reid after Scott MacDonald stole the puck in the corner.
Still, it was a better start than the Chiefs had been getting.
“We had a good long talk with our team on Monday,” Johnson said. “We tried to figure some things out. I thought it motivated a bunch of guys, helped a lot. I’m going to credit that to that. Other than that we played our game. It’s a good start.”
“Just keep working, don’t panic,” Sauter said of the message between periods. “We felt we had a pretty good second period and continue to play within the system, defense first. We were still getting our chances so there was no reason to press the envelope.”
The Chiefs ended up with a 33-20 shots advantage and limited
“Our job is to play defense first and we showed today we can,”
“I thought we did a real good job, coverage in our zone, back checking,” Sauter said. “We were real responsible in our own zone. That’s why we got the result we did.”
There were some tense moments at the end, when Jared Cowen picked up a tripping penalty with 78 seconds to play, but the Silvertips never came close to tying the game.
“We didn’t have a power play until the last minute, that shows us right there how we played because we didn’t make them draw any penalties,” Hartsburg said. “It was a tight game, a one-goal hockey game but I just didn’t think we played very well at all.”
Cowen, the ninth pick of the first round in last June’s NHL Draft, signed an entry level contract, the Ottawa Senators announced Wednesday.
“He’s a big kid that we think has a big future in the (NHL),” Senators’ general manager Bryan Murray said on the team’s website. “We certainly liked his training camp this year and with the progress he’s made over the season, Jared has a real chance in camp next year to be an NHL player.
“We’re hoping this signing gives him that opportunity and the incentive now to do what he has to do for the balance of his junior career and have a huge summer. … It’s a real important signing for us.”