Into the fire against Kitchener
KITCHENER, Ontario – With a collective effort almost 5 minutes into overtime, the Spokane Chiefs were able to check the top priority off their Memorial Cup list of things to do.
“It’s a big thing to get the first win,” said forward Mitch Wahl, who finished with a goal and an assist in the Chiefs’ 5-4 round-robin victory over the Belleville Bulls on Saturday night. “We had the lead and then we dropped it, but we came back and got the win, so we’ll take that and move on and hopefully be better next game.”
They’ll need to be.
The Chiefs (1-0) face the tournament host Kitchener Rangers (1-0) today in a battle of the two remaining unbeaten teams. After Week 9, the Rangers spent all but one week as the top-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League poll, which is voted on by NHL scouts. The one week they were dethroned – Week 19 – Spokane topped the poll.
“Every game in the Memorial Cup is huge,” said Chiefs defenseman Trevor Glass. “We got to watch Kitchener a little bit on TV … they’re definitely a good team on the power play, they’ve got some top guys up front, and we’re going to have to come out flying.”
Other than an aggressive first period, the Chiefs struggled against the Bulls. They mishandled the puck, made an unusually high number of turnovers and allowed four goals into their net for the first time since a 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Giants on April 4 in the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.
“We’ve got to do a better job with the puck,” Chiefs coach Bill Peters stated.
He couldn’t be more right. A performance like Saturday’s simply won’t cut it against Peter DeBoer’s Rangers, who won the Ontario Hockey League championship in a seven-game series with Belleville.
“I know if they beat this Belleville Bulls team they’re real good,” said Peters. “I watched them play on (Friday) … I really liked the (top line of Justin) Azevedo with (Matt) Halischuk and (Nick) Spaling – I thought they were dominant and generated a lot of offense for Kitchener, so we’re going to have to find a way to control those guys.”
The Rangers weren’t their best in their first game of the tournament, either, giving up two three-goal leads before they won. Peters said he expected both his Chiefs and the Rangers will perform better than in their first games.
In two tournament games – which began with Kitchener’s 6-5 overtime win over the Gatineau Olympiques on Friday – three three-goal leads have been compromised.
“I definitely haven’t seen this before,” said Glass, who played in last year’s Memorial Cup with the Medicine Hat Tigers. “It’s unbelievable that two teams have come back on three-goal leads. That’s definitely something we have to learn from and we can’t let that happen against the Rangers, because they will take full advantage of it.
“I guess the lesson is you have to be prepared for anything.”