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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Struggling T-Birds surprise Chiefs

Every now and then, you have to draw a line in the sand.

Er, ice.

Apparently, that time came for the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday night.

Losers of their last four games and 10 of 12 in a road-heavy start to the Western Hockey League season, the T-Birds had little going for them in their first trip to the Arena – except maybe a mission.

Not merely content to outplay the home team, they undressed the Spokane Chiefs a little, too – surging back from a two-goal deficit in the game’s last 15 minutes for a 3-2 victory that left an already subdued crowd announced at 5,069 thoroughly stunned.

The fans weren’t the only ones dumbfounded.

“What happened to us in the third period can never, ever happen,” defenseman Jared Cowen said, “and I promise it’ll never happen again here at home, that’s for sure.”

What happened was the Chiefs’ first loss at home and the first in regulation since their season opener more than a month ago, accompanied by the insult of being knocked out of first place in the U.S. Division, thanks to Tri-City’s 1-0 shutout of Everett.

For the T-Birds, however, the reward was greater than two points in the standings.

“We needed this,” said left winger Greg Scott, the key figure on a short-handed goal 8 minutes into the third period that knotted the score and changed the game’s tenor. “We just really drew a line here.”

The T-Birds outplayed the listless Chiefs from the beginning – continually beating them to loose pucks, finishing checks and forcing Spokane goaltender Dustin Tokarski to be at his best. He was, until the game’s later stages. In the meantime, the Chiefs set what had to be a season high for turnovers in their zone.

Still, all Seattle got out of it was a scoreless tie after one period and a 1-0 deficit after two. The Chiefs, outshot by Seattle 9-1 to start the middle period, found a little rhythm later on – and got a goal to go with it. Cowen made a nifty move on a rush down the right boards and fired a blast off the stick of T-Birds goalie Jacob DeSerres that Tyler Johnson popped into the net 1:22 before the final break.

What looked like the crusher came just 71 seconds into the third period, when Levko Koper beat Seattle’s Sena Acolatse down the ice and put a perfect pass on the stick of Ryan Letts for a 2-0 Spokane lead – which proved absolutely worthless.

So what happened?

“Some guys let their guys go,” Koper said. “We weren’t hard enough on the puck and lost a couple of battles and they ended up in our net.”

It started when no one bothered to check Seattle’s Prab Rai in the slot and he backhanded one past Tokarski with 15:16 to play. A few minutes later, Rai was sent off for a trip, put when the puck got by the Spokane defense at the blue line Scott outhustled everyone down the left boards and put a shot off Tokarski’s pads that teammate Lindsay Nielsen cashed in – the first short-handed goal Spokane had allowed this season.

The winner came with 5:43 left and all but mirrored the first T-Birds goal. This time it was Jeremy Boyer winning the hustle award and Brenden Silvester converting the pass for his first goal of the season.