Chiefs survive thriller

The Western Hockey League playoffs may not start for a month, but you won’t convince the sellout crowd of 10,530 at the Arena they saw anything less than a playoff game Saturday night.

Kyle Beach completed his hat trick by poking the puck across the goal line with 48.2 seconds left in overtime to lift the Spokane Chiefs to a wild 4-3 win over the Tri-City Americans.

That came after Tri-City’s Johnny Lazo tied the game with 3 seconds left in regulation, which came after time was put back on the clock twice in the final minute and an icing call that outraged the Chiefs’ bench.

“We’re a confident bunch,” Beach said. “We felt we kind of got ourselves in trouble there. We thought there was possibly a missed call on the icing. But anytime you give up a goal with 3 seconds left, it’s a heartbreaker.

“But the guys were confident, they were happy. We came out on that first shift and had a glorious opportunity. Obviously, it was an unbelievable save by (Drew) Owsley. If anything, that brought our spirits down more than them scoring in the last few seconds. But we got our chance and finished them off. It’s a great feeling.”

There was playoff intensity from the start, although the play was more free-wheeling than a playoff game as the Chiefs took a 2-1 lead. Both teams tightened things up in the second period, swapping power-play goals. And things were really buttoned up in the third, until the frantic ending.

The Americans (39-15-1-2, 81 points) were buzzing Chiefs goalie James Reid, who finished with 43 saves, and that was before pulling Owsley for the final minute.

There was an icing call on the Chiefs with just less than 40 seconds left, but with the crowd going crazy the clock stopped a little late, so referee Derek Herman put a half-second back on the ice. Spokane (34-20-3-1, 72 points) got the puck out of its end as the clock dipped to less than 10 seconds but icing was called, forcing a faceoff to Reid’s right with 8 seconds – soon changed to 10 – left.

Neal Prokop won the draw and the Americans fired a shot at the net that Reid had, but after a scrum it clearly trickled across the line.

“Any time a defenseman pinches on the wall, the icing is supposed to be waved off,” Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said. “I have no problem putting time on the clock. If that’s the right time, that’s the right time. Those 2 seconds cost us a goal, too. … I don’t have a problem with them checking time, but I am a little bewildered over the icing call.”

Several Chiefs said they thought it was a slow whistle that allowed the puck to get across the line, but they regrouped.

“It was kind of draining,” Spokane forward Mitch Wahl said. “We didn’t expect that goal. We thought it might be changed. It was a long scrum. But we sucked it up.”

It was Wahl who basically got the winner during 4-on-4 overtime play, taking the puck down the left side and cutting into the crease against Owsley, who had 33 saves in relief of Alexander Pechurskiy.

“It’s just sitting there waiting,” Beach, who has a nine-game point streak, said of his 40th goal. “Wally insists it was in and I don’t disagree with him, but I wasn’t going to take a chance.”

Tri-City coach Jim Hiller was disappointed, but not unhappy his team couldn’t capitalize on the late goal.

“It was entertaining,” he said. “I think that’s what people come pay their money to watch. It was 20 young guys on both sides going at it with everything they had.”

Sauter was equally pleased.

“I thought we played extremely well,” he said. “I thought our power play was good. I thought our penalty killing was fair enough. I thought our guys play hard for the most part, and I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction as far as consistency and intensity each and every shift.”

Tyler Johnson got the Chiefs off to a quick start, firing a wrist shot from the left circle to the far upper corner for his career-high 27th goal just 48 seconds into the game.

After that the Americans took over, firing shot after shot at Reid, who was helped twice by the post. Mason Wilgosh’s shot from the right circle sent the puck off Reid’s glove and dribbled into the net at 5:23.

Beach got the next two goals to give the Chiefs a 3-1 lead. The Americans got that back with a power-play goal at 14:14 when Sergei Drozd, crossing in front of the net, took Brooks Macek’s pass from the left point and whipped the puck past Reid.