Now one-goal games are going against Chiefs
The Spokane Chiefs have lost four consecutive games, including the last two by scores of 2-1 and 3-2. Before the skid, the Chiefs posted five consecutive wins, four times with 2-1 decisions. Read story
The Chiefs played their 17th one-goal game on Saturday night, meaning that 61 percent of their games have been decided by a single goal.
More troubling to the Chiefs is their season-long strain to generate goals. Spokane has scored six goals in its last four games and has been held to two goals or less in eight of its last nine games.
"We weren’t sharp around their net," Chiefs coach Don Nachbaur said after Saturday's setback. "We have a lot of guys right now who are gripping their sticks, but the bottom line is we’re not getting a lot of contribution from the other guys toward the middle of the pack or the bottom of the ladder."
The Chiefs have just six players who have scored more than five goals in 28 games. One of them, Jackson Playfair, started his season at Tri-City, where he had four of his six goals.
The Chiefs could have backed down after falling behind 2-0 to Kootenay less than 4 minutes into Saturday's game, but Nachbaur liked how they responded.
"I have no issues with our effort," he said. "We had a poor start and ... our guys could have shut it down. We came back and battled for the rest of the way. … But I still go back to our chances. We had enough chances to make a game of it and we didn’t get it done."
Ice captain Sam Reinhart took note of the Chiefs' effort.
"Their work ethic is pretty substantial and they do a good job of limiting time and space, so it’s always a battle going against them," Reinhart said. … "There’s no quit over there. We know that. They work tremendously hard and we were prepared for that."
