Chiefs aim for three
The Spokane Chiefs have a goal.
As obvious as it sounds, the Chiefs are looking for three wins in three nights this weekend beginning tonight when they play hosts for their seventh meeting of the season with the Seattle Thunderbirds.
But with 18 games remaining in the Western Hockey League regular season and an extremely tight conference and division race, six points within the U.S. Division would give the Chiefs a big boost down the stretch.
Spokane will play the Thunderbirds (27-18-5-2) twice this weekend – today at the Arena and Sunday in Seattle – and host the Tri-City Americans in an always-important division matchup Saturday night.
“That’s going to be huge,” said Chiefs captain Chris Bruton.
Spokane has a two-point lead in the Western Conference and division standings over the Americans (39-12-1-2), who play Portland tonight (9-45-1-1).
“It’s a dream matchup – you always want the high-pressure games and we’re ready for that,” said Bruton. “We’re a mature group and we enjoy playing in those high-profile games.
“We’ll be ready for it and it will be an exciting match.”
In the meantime, the Chiefs aren’t overlooking tonight’s opponent – a team they are 6-0 against this season. They got a good start on the week in Wednesday’s 4-1 victory over the Everett Silvertips to kick off their stretch of six straight games within the division.
“We’ll have three in three and we don’t have to travel until the end, so the schedule is good – it’s in our favor,” said Chiefs coach Bill Peters, who picked up his 100th career victory on Wednesday. “They are a good team though – they’ve shown that.
“We’ve got to worry about ourselves and play our game to make sure we come out with the two points (today) and then again on Sunday.”
Ice chips
Chiefs goalies Dustin Tokarski and Kevin Armstrong rank second and third, respectively, in the league. Tokarski is 23-5-0-2 with a 1.98 goals-against average and Armstrong (2.01 GAA) is 16-5-1-2. … Leading scorer Drayson Bowman’s 33 goals are second in the league. With 63 total points, Bowman is ninth in the league in scoring. His seven game-winning goals tie him for second in the league, one ahead of Bruton, who is tied for third with six game-winners. … Playmaker Mitch Wahl‘s 42 assists are sixth in the league. … Bruton is tied for first in the league in plus-minus with a plus-33. Wahl is second (plus-32) and Bowman is tied for third (plus-31) with teammate Jared Spurgeon and Kelowna’s Jamie Benn. Also impressive are defensemen Justin Falk (plus-27) and Jared Cowen (plus-26) and import forward Ondrej Roman (plus-25). … In their 14th week inside the Canadian Hockey League Top 10 rankings, the Chiefs moved up, topping the list for the first time this season. The Chiefs have earned the top nod in the WHL for 11 of the past 12 weeks. The Eastern Conference-leading Calgary Hitmen moved up to second, and Tri-City is fifth.