Chiefs look to keep pedal to metal

The Spokane Chiefs played in overdrive over the weekend, so now it’s time to see if they can keep their feet on the pedal.

The Chiefs, who have a 2-0 lead in their Western Hockey League best-of-7 playoff series after two commanding victories over the Everett Silvertips, continue their Western Conference quarterfinal tonight in Everett.

The series began with games last Friday and Saturday in Spokane and the Silvertips will have home ice for Wednesday, Friday and – if necessary – Saturday.

“We know how hard it is to play them in their building, so we didn’t want to look back and say, ‘What if,’ ” said Chiefs captain Chris Bruton. “We wanted to take care of the home front and I think the way we’ve established ourselves so far has just been great.

“This is exactly what we wanted.”

The Chiefs were impressive in their 5-2 playoff opener – going 3 for 3 on the power play in the opening period. But the Silvertips gave them a lot of leeway in the first game.

It was Saturday’s game, which Spokane won 4-1, that made a bold statement. The Chiefs’ defense smothered the Tips, outshooting them 45-19, which included limiting Everett to three shots in the opening period.

“As long as you get a lot of opportunities and shots like we do, we feel like the (goals) will come eventually with our depth up front,” said Bruton. “I think defensively we were even more sound (on Saturday). We really were trying to limit their opportunities and I thought we accomplished that.”

Now the trick is to keep the momentum they picked up over the weekend and keep cruising on the road, something the Chiefs didn’t have much trouble with during the regular season, when they won a league-high and franchise-record 24 games away from home.

“I think it’s humble hockey,” said Bruton. “We’ve said that all year. We can’t get too high or too low. We’ve got a game plan set forth and we want to carry that out, and going into their arena it will be the same thing – we’ll have to establish ourselves early and stay disciplined.”

The Silvertips are in a tough position. Tonight they are facing a near must-win situation and would have to take four of five games to knock off the Chiefs.

“We’ll have a tough task ahead of us in their building, but we’re up for that challenge,” said Chiefs coach Bill Peters. “We’re not worried about going on the road. We’re worried about just maintaining our level of play.

“As long as we look after ourselves, we’ll be fine.”

Ice chips

Chiefs forward Seth Compton (right leg), who blocked a hard shot in the second period on Saturday and was limping after the game, will be in the lineup tonight. He practiced Tuesday and is feeling good, Peters said. … Goalie Dustin Tokarski will make his third straight start. Tokarski is 2-0 in the playoffs and has posted a 1.50 goals-against average. … Second-line center Ondrej Roman leads the Chiefs in scoring, with four points (two goals, two assists) in two games. Drayson Bowman is second with three points. … Beginning tonight and for the remainder of the playoffs, the Chiefs’ radio broadcast will be aired on 1510-AM instead of 790-AM, with the pregame show beginning a half-hour before the start of each game.