Hard at home

The home struggles continue for the Spokane Chiefs.

The Kootenay Ice ignored an Arena crowd of 9,265 and beat the Chiefs 4-3 for the third time this season.

“I don’t really have an answer for that,” Chiefs forward Tyler Johnson said. “Maybe guys are too comfortable playing at home. Home crowd, you expect to win, maybe you get too comfortable and something happens. We just have to come out the same as we do on the road and have better games here.”

Spokane (29-19-3-1, 62 points) fell to 13-11-1 at home with time running out on the Western Hockey League season to improve playoff position.

It was a disjointed game with referee Nathan Weiler calling 21 minor penalties that resulted in 17 power plays. Only two goals were scored with the teams skating 5-on-5, both by the Ice (32-16-2-2, 68), and one of those came after a penalty expired.

“Being at home we do the same things wrong that we do on the road, too,” Spokane captain Jared Cowen said. “Maybe they just come out more at home. Something has to change, guys have to realize what’s wrong and fix it.”

The Ice broke through at 17:10 of the first period on a 4-on-4. Kevin King got the goal on his second whack at a rebound off Joey Leach’s shot from the point.

Then in the final four minutes the Ice received 10 minutes worth of penalties. The Chiefs got a disputed goal – while Kootenay was getting a delayed penalty – when Kyle Beach got his foot involved during a 5-on-3. That tied the game at the 19:14 and the 5-on-3 remained. During the closing seconds of the period Brayden McNabb earned four minutes for a high stick that cut Johnson’s lip.

The 5-on-3 carried 30 seconds into the second period, when McNabb’s penalty started, stretching the two-man advantage to 1:14 with a power play of 2:46 following.

The Chiefs cashed in. Mitch Wahl’s goal at 30 seconds coincided with the end of the 5-on-3, so there was a long discussion to determine if the Chiefs had a 4-minute power play for McNabb’s penalty or 46 seconds of a 5-on-3, which was the verdict.

The Chiefs didn’t cash in the continued 5-on-3 or McNabb’s 4 minutes.

“After we scored our second goal to go ahead 2-1, we really didn’t make much of our 45-second 5-on-3, that was probably the biggest swing,” Spokane coach Hardy Sauter said. “I think it was poor execution, for lack of a better description.”

Late in the second period the Ice had a 5-on-3 and McNabb scored from the top of the left circle just as the first penalty ran out. After another review, Kootenay got an additional 90 seconds of power play.

The Chiefs took care of that but shortly after Steele Boomer scored for Kootenay during a scramble in front of the net, making it 3-2 for the ice at 18:21, the first 5-on-5 goal of the game.

Joey Leach connected at 7:34 of the third period when he was just throwing the puck at the Spokane goal. Beach got a short-handed goal at 17:04, dumping the puck into a wide-open net after Ice goalie Todd Mathews collided with a teammate in the corner.

“I don’t think we came out very prepared to play,” Johnson said. “They’re a very good team and we didn’t play our best. We waited until the third period to get going and it was just too late.”