Chiefs dominate Silvertips

In late August, head coach Hardy Sauter said he wanted his Chiefs to be the same defensive stalwarts that helped lead Spokane to a Memorial Cup championship last season.

He did want one thing to change this season, though. Prior to the season Sauter said he wanted his team to open the floodgates on offense while maintaining their identity on defense, and it seems they’ve been able to do so.

“In a lot of ways, yeah (we’re doing that),” Sauter said following the Chiefs’5-1 victory over the Everett Silvertips on Saturday night at the Arena in which five Chiefs scored in their third straight Western Hockey League win.

“Sometimes it’s a real fine line between trying to score goals and giving a little too much up, but I think our guys are doing a real good job in balancing that – especially at home,” Sauter said.

For the most part it wasn’t Spokane’s (6-1-0-2) usual suspects who landed on the scoresheet.

After Everett’s Shane Harper scored in the first period, despite Spokane’s 22-7 shot advantage, Dustin Donaghy knotted the score in the second period when he scored from the top of the right circle off a smart pass from Stefan Ulmer.

Ryan Letts, the second-year veteran who scored his first two goals in a Chiefs’ sweater on Friday night against Portland, potted the winning goal later in the period on a power play, shortly followed by rookie David Conrad’s first career WHL goal.

Drayson Bowman and Mike Betz scored the Chiefs’ fourth and fifth goals, respectively, to round out the scoring. It was the second time in a week the Chiefs have scored five goals against the Silvertips (3-4-1-0) at home.

“I’m real happy with how we’ve played at home,” Sauter said. “We kind of – I think right now anyway – have found a formula that works against Everett, and we’re just going to keep doing it until they prove us wrong.”

Chiefs goalie Dustin Tokarski stopped 19 of 20 shots, while Everett’s Shayne Barrie turned aside 43 shots.

“We played well tonight,” Bowman said. “We put a lot of shots on net – you put 50 shots on net, you’re going to win games.”

The Chiefs return to the Arena ice Wednesday to take on the Portland Winter Hawks.

Ice chips

There was a moment of silence prior to the puck drop in honor of Nancy Ryan, mother of former Chiefs forward and Shadle Park graduate Derek Ryan. Nancy died Friday of either an apparent heart attack or aneurysm. She was 53. Derek is currently playing for the defending national champion University of Alberta Golden Bears. … Chiefs forward Mitch Wahl served the final game of a three-game suspension he received for a roughing penalty last Friday against Everett. Overage forward Justin McCrae was also scratched from the lineup because of an indefinite knee injury, which will be reevaluated on Monday.