Broncos snap Chiefs’ win streak
All good things come to an end.
Unfortunately for the Spokane Chiefs it wasn’t their 0-fer in coming from behind to win when trailing after two periods or the Swift Current Bronco’s perfection in keeping opponents from coming from behind in the third period.
Instead it was Spokane’s six-game Western Hockey League winning streak, thanks to a third-period, short-handed goal by Taylor Vause that lifted Swift Current to a 2-1 victory before 7,469 fans in the Arena Saturday night.
It’s not that the Chiefs didn’t have every opportunity to keep their string going but they whiffed on several outstanding chances and Broncos’ goaltender Mark Friesen snuffed out many more among Spokane’s 43 shots.
“The first period was tough, we just took too many penalties, plain and simple,” Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said. “But I thought the second and third we did some real good things. We created some chances. Ultimately it was a combination of their goalie making some good saves and us hitting him in the belly.”
Spokane killed four penalties in the first period, including two in the first five minutes, and escaped with only a 1-0 deficit. The Broncos goal came when Stepan Novotny notched his 19th at 12:31 after a turnover in the Spokane end. Although the shots were 13-12 for the Chiefs, Swift Current had more quality scoring chances.
The Chiefs had more opportunities in the second period, out-shooting the Broncos 16-12 and it continued into the third when Spokane had a 15-6 shot advantage.
But with the Chiefs on an early power play, Swift Current broke out with a 2-on-1. Vause fed Michael Stickland for a close-range shot that James Reid stopped, only to have Vause poke the rebound into a wide-open net.
Less than a minute later the Chiefs finally broke through with defenseman Brenden Kitchton’s power-play goal that brought down 4,651 stuffed toys on Teddy Bear Toss night.
“It doesn’t really matter (getting the teddy bear goal) but it’s special getting all those bears down for the kids,” Kitchton said.
He also expected his teammates would continue the onslaught.
“I didn’t have a doubt, with those guys … they had shots all night,” he said. “I thought they were going to bury it but they just ran into a hot goalie.”
Swift Current (17-15-2, 36 points), which is now 12-0 when leading after two periods, was playing for the first time in four nights, though it’s the first of five games in eight days on a swing through the U.S. Division.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs (20-9-2, 42 points) arrived home at 5:30 a.m. after a 7-1 win in Chilliwack and fell to 0-7 when trailing after two periods.
“Maybe the first 10 minutes we had a little jet leg but really I thought the difference was they had chances and put them in and we had chances and didn’t put them in,” Sauter said.