Stickland, Ice hand Chiefs opening loss

CRANBROOK, British Columbia – They should be called the Kootenay Killjoys.

The Spokane Chiefs – the only team in the entire 60-team Canadian Hockey League that ended last postseason on a winning note, earning the storied Memorial Cup in the process – became the first team in the 43rd Western Hockey League season to start on a losing note on Thursday night, falling 4-2 to the Kootenay Ice at the Cranbrook Rec Plex.

Michael Stickland single-handedly took care of goal scoring for the Ice, adding an empty-net goal with 30 seconds left in the game to go with his natural hat trick that he completed when he scored his third goal of the night on a power play 1 minute and 14 seconds into the third period.

It was Kootenay’s, and Stickland’s, second goal on the power play – which they were given eight opportunities to score on.

“We just took too many penalties tonight, plain and simple,” Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said. “I was very happy for the most part with our penalty kill, but with the guys we have that we use to kill penalties, it’s just too much work for the group we have available right now.”

Which, taking that fact into consideration – that the Chiefs roster is depleted because of five veterans still at NHL camps and one stuck overseas because his IIHF transfer agreement hasn’t been signed – Spokane played a decent game.

The Chiefs killed two early 5-on-3 Ice power plays and three total in the scoreless first period.

“We started off real well,” Sauter said. “Even with the 5-on-3s, I thought we played a good opening period.”

But eventually the Ice wore down the Chiefs.

They got on the board first when Steele Boomer took possession of the puck when Mike Reddington failed to clear a pass at the Chiefs’ defensive blue line and found Stickland in the low slot, where Stickland went top shelf on Spokane goalie Dustin Tokarski 4:24 into the middle period. Tokarski, who returned from NHL camp with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday just in time to catch the team bus up to Cranbrook, finished with 36 saves.

Spokane went down a man 2 minutes later when Ryan Letts took a hooking penalty and the Ice capitalized when Boomer hooked up with Stickland again for Stickland’s second goal at 7:42.

The Chiefs were down, but they weren’t out.

Rookie Blake Gal, who accompanied Spokane to the Memorial Cup last season in Kitchener, Ontario, threw a puck at the net from the right point and it bounced off Kootenay defenseman Eric Frere and past goalie Thomas Heemskerk to pull Spokane within one goal a minute after Stickland scored for the second time.

Mitch Wahl, who returned to Spokane from Calgary Flames’ camp on Wednesday, knotted the score at 12:54 when he one-timed a Levko Koper pass from the top of the right circle. Koper’s pass took a lucky bounce through the slot and to the left side of Heemskerk, where Wahl finished on his chance on an empty net.

But Stickland’s stick – and Spokane’s lack of discipline – proved to be too much for the defending champs.

“Obviously, we have to reduce the number of penalties taken and then find a way to produce some offense,” Sauter said. “The group we have should have played more disciplined.

“There’s probably at least one piece of our penalty kill that’s not working if the same guy scores that many goals. So, we’ll watch the video, make some adjustments, and get ready for Portland.”

Ice chips

The Chiefs travel to Portland to take on the Winter Hawks on Saturday night and return on Sept. 27 for their home opener against Tri-City. … While Tokarski and Wahl are back with the Chiefs, five veterans are still off at NHL camp: F Drayson Bowman and F Justin McCrae (Carolina Hurricanes), D Justin Falk (Minnesota Wild), F Tyler Johnson (Phoenix Coyotes) and D Jared Spurgeon (New York Islanders). Import F Ondrej Roman, a Dallas Stars prospect, is still home in the Czech Republic awaiting his IIHF transfer agreement.