The Spokane Chiefs' weekend began promisingly and ended with a thud. Read story

Through 45 minutes of Friday night's home game against the Calgary Hitmen, the Spokane Chiefs held a 3-1 lead and appeared to be on the way to an upset of the Western Hockey League's hottest team.

Instead, the Hitmen outscored Spokane 3-0 for the final 15 minutes for a 4-3 victory.

The Chiefs added another 60 minutes of zeros on Saturday night during a 5-0 setback against the visiting Kootenay Ice.

Spokane wasn't shut out during the first 43 games of the season. In the 15 games since, the Chiefs have been blanked six times.

"... We've struggled with (scoring goals) all year long," Chiefs head coach Don Nachbaur said.

"We have to, at this time of year, get a lot stronger mentally because it's a (quick) pace out there," he continued. "It's a way higher pace than in November."

Spokane outshot the Ice 29-24, but Kootenay substituted quantity for quality.

"I think with quality shots, we probably had more chances than them," said Ice 19-year-old center Luke Philp, who accounted for two goals and one assist.

It's not as if the Ice have been the hardest team on which to score. Entering Saturday, only five teams in the 22-team WHL had allowed more goals (214) than Kootenay.

The Chiefs had a successful attendance weekend, drawing a combined 17,336 for the two games.

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